ITOTIABSAM | Interstellar Orcs | 118
Pressing the button on the coffee machine, Gu Cong smiled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "What's this? Is the company now concerned about employees' love lives too? That's quite the benefit."
"This is important to me," realizing that the other party was beating around the bush regarding Xie Ye's kidnapping, Anna became more assertive. "The date."
Gu Cong wasn't foolish.
In the industry, Anna's personality and methods were known to be decisive and efficient. A strange premonition arose in his mind. He set down the coffee and mentioned a date.
—Sure enough, it was the day the boss was kidnapped.
Although Xie Tianhua had already taken care of the surveillance around the apartment in advance, Anna still spent a lot of money hiring professionals to trace any clues.
Unfortunately, after the boss was taken to the warehouse, there was no sign of the perpetrator in the footage. Half an hour later, only Xie Tianhua emerged, his face covered in blood, looking frustrated. It seemed he had completely failed and even got scratched by the boss.
However, how Xie Ye escaped and where he went, there was no trace at all in the nearby surveillance. It was as if he evaporated into thin air, completely disappearing from the capital star.
"So he really was with you," Anna breathed a slight sigh of relief, her tone softened. "Xie Tianhua gave him a drug, a new one that hasn't been recorded yet. Did you take him to the hospital for examination?"
The common language used by the Federation now was mostly derived from the Chinese language of Ancient Blue Star, making it impossible to distinguish between "he" and "it" solely based on syllables.
His brain raced, and Gu Cong nodded. "Yes, I've taken him."
"That's good," with the most worrying issue resolved, Anna felt a heavy weight lift off her chest. Understanding the nuances of interpersonal relationships well, she didn't inquire about how he managed to erase the surveillance. Instead, she asked, "How many times has his Sleeping Beauty Syndrome occurred? Have you disclosed this to anyone?"
Sleeping Beauty Syndrome?
It sounded completely unrelated to cats, no matter how he thought about it. Moreover, Anna's attitude...
His brain automatically deduced the most reasonable answer, but Gu Cong's heart still struggled in agony. "He has green eyes."
"He wears colored contact lenses, so what?" Misunderstanding the other's meaning, Anna paused. "Alright, I admit, I know about this too. He does trust you."
"I apologize for my suspicion and questioning earlier, but at this critical moment, I have to be more cautious. After all, I have never heard your name from him."
That's right.
Of course, he hadn't heard it. They had only met two weeks ago.
The words "colored contact lenses" shattered all of Gu Cong's hopes. Who could have imagined that the CEO of Ark Technology, dignified and noble, had a cute, petite silver-white cat form?
And that he would roll around on the carpet and tug at his pants for food.
"This is the first time I've seen Xie Ye's Sleeping Beauty Syndrome episode," Gu Cong replied calmly, steering the conversation. "He slept for three days."
Anna murmured in response, "These months, it tends to happen more frequently."
"Waiting for him to wake up is the best course of action," she said as if it were routine. "It can last as short as two days or as long as a week."
"Oh, by the way, what did Xie Tianhua inject him with? Any side effects? The transactions on the black market are too covert, lacking online records. My people haven't found specific information yet."
"I'm not sure about the name," Gu Cong recalled his encounter with the silver-white cat, cautiously speculating, "But that drug turned Xie Ye into a form lacking human scent."
Thud.
Anna slammed her fist on the bar.
After confirming that Gu Cong was an "ally," she didn't continue to block the door with her body. Instead, she grabbed a cup from the sterilization cabinet, filled it with cold water, and drank it in one gulp. "This scumbag!"
During her college days, Anna's alternate identity hadn't completely severed ties with the Xie family, so she had some knowledge of the unpleasant things Xie Tianhua had done. She was Xie Ye's junior in the same profession, and she had followed him for years, witnessing Ark Technology's rise in the competitive world of capital and becoming the company it was today.
They were not just superior and subordinate but also friends.
"Sorry for losing my composure," she took a deep breath and regained her composure. "About the video from a few days ago... has he already turned back into a human?"
Gu Cong replied, "Almost."
There were just a few lingering side effects, such as the cat ears and tail.
He felt that the Xie Ye described in the news reports probably wouldn't want his subordinates to know about this. Without elaborating further, he brushed it off.
"It's the first time I've seen him needing care during a Sleeping Beauty Syndrome episode," Anna glanced at the smartwatch on her wrist and stood up. "It's good that he's staying with you. At least Xie Tianhua won't suspect anything."
"I need to go to a meeting first. If the boss wakes up, make sure he contacts me."
God knows how nervous she was replacing Xie Ye at the last minute to sign the contract with the federal government. She appeared calm and composed on the surface, but her heart was practically pounding out of her throat.
Years of hard work, fortunately, didn't go to waste.
Gu Cong, left in the pantry, pondered...
Well?
If Xie Ye woke up, the first thing he would do was probably fire him.
"Oh, by the way," as the door opened and closed, Anna suddenly remembered something and turned back, carefully examining the man whose handsome features rivaled those of a star. Curious, she asked, "One last question, personal, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."
"Are you really the boss's boyfriend?"
The lie that had been casually used as a stopgap measure should have been denied immediately. However, at that moment, instead of a denial, images of the young man with jade eyes and lips stained red under the moonlight flashed in Gu Cong's mind.
"I see." Anna's radar of sixth sense beeped, sensing something unusual. She nodded, revealing a sweet smile with dimples that contrasted sharply with her usual impression, "The company doesn't explicitly prohibit office relationships. I'll help keep it a secret for you."
Unlike video calls, face-to-face communication captures more details and emotions.
Even though she still couldn't imagine what Xie Ye would be like in a romantic relationship.
Just two seconds late, Gu Cong missed the best opportunity to offer an explanation. Now that things had come to this point, he could only figure out a solution later.
Deliberately waiting an extra two minutes in the pantry, Gu Cong finally returned to his workstation with a cup of coffee. Logging into the StarNet, he typed into the search bar:
【Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.】
A plethora of related encyclopedic articles, news reports, and medical recommendations flooded his vision.
Even in the vast and expanding interstellar federation, this was still an extremely rare condition. Characterized by periodic episodes of excessive sleep and pathological hunger, due to the rarity of clinical cases and the involvement of abnormal changes in the brain's nervous system, there was currently no cure found.
The afternoon's work was relatively leisurely, so Gu Cong brought out the same focus he had when writing his graduation thesis. He delved into the related materials, flipping through them repeatedly, gradually understanding the peculiarities exhibited by the young man in recent days, reminiscent of a child.
Normally, Gu Cong was always the first person to leave the team when it approached five in the evening. However, today, he hesitated a bit, sitting at his desk without moving. Even his colleagues couldn't resist asking:
"Gu Ge, haven't you finished fixing the bugs?"
"Um," he mumbled vaguely. Gu Cong couldn't shake the feeling of uncertainty about the possibility of his obedient little cat at home waking up and turning into the new boss. It was a feeling he couldn't quite articulate.
Even though he knew it was originally Xie Ye.
Avoidance couldn't solve the problem. Moreover, if Xie Ye hadn't woken up yet, coming home too late would definitely make him scared and hungry.
After sitting quietly in the empty office for five minutes, Gu Cong got up.
Half an hour later, he pushed open the door of his apartment, carrying his dinner.
The foyer's warm sensor light automatically turned on, casting light on the shadow wrapped in a thin blanket, curled up slightly on the living room sofa. Gu Cong felt a sense of relief in his heart, and he moved even more quietly.
The takeout was packed in a thermal box, ready to eat without reheating. Approaching the sofa, Gu Cong used his hand to cover the young man's eyes and remotely turned on the living room lights. He called out, "Snowball?"
"Snowball"
Xie Ye, pretending to be dead serious, remained silent.
【But based on your usual behavior, you'll definitely wake up now,】 1101 corrected cautiously, 【And you'll even rub against their hand.】
【Acting has to be convincing, Host. Gu Cong is very clever.】
Xie Ye: He knows, of course he knows.
He hadn't lost his memory; the images in his mind were crystal clear.
Having traversed various worlds and played various roles, regardless of the setting, for Xie Ye, it was all second nature.
His nose lightly brushed against the edge of the man's hand, as if he were extremely drowsy, slowly opening his eyes.
As the episode passed, Xie Ye's need for food significantly decreased, but he still cooperated by moving his nose, actions, and expressions exactly as before.
However, Gu Cong was someone who didn't play by the rules, especially when it came to Xie Ye; he was always more perceptive than others.
Unable to pinpoint exactly what was wrong, Gu Cong just felt that the other's true emotions weren't as they appeared on the surface.
Tentatively, Gu Cong said, "Xie Ye?"
The eyelashes that were brushing against his palm stopped moving.
Rarely using the system's permissions to monitor Gu Cong, Xie Ye was unaware of his conversation with Anna in the afternoon. However, his mind worked quickly, and in an instant, he guessed what was going on.
Warm darkness enveloped him, shielding him from the sudden light. After a few silent seconds, Xie Ye responded softly, "Hmm."
His tone was calm, but Gu Cong noticed that the pair of snowy white cat ears on the young man's head drooped slightly, and his tail wasn't in a naturally relaxed state.
Was he nervous?
"I didn't mean any harm," Gu Cong repeated the same words he had said when they first met, releasing his hand sincerely. "I really thought you were a cat demon until..."
"Until Anna talked to you alone." The young man on the sofa sat up.
Though it was the same face, at that moment, those emerald eyes seemed like gems—beautiful yet cold, suppressing the charm of his features by three points.
In an instant, he subtly resembled the photos in the news reports.
But despite seeing the wrinkled shirt and pants that served as makeshift pajamas on the young man's body, Gu Cong couldn't feel any fear.
"Let's change into some clothes first." Wanting to avoid suspicion and worried that the young man might fall asleep in the bathroom, Gu Cong had only dampened a towel these past few days and briefly wiped him down.
After waking up, he could take a shower. Enduring the discomfort, Xie Ye refrained from rummaging through Gu Cong's wardrobe.
Now that the disguise was stripped away and it was brought up by Gu Cong himself, Xie Ye's lips curled slightly. He was about to respond when he heard Gu Cong add, "Mr. Xie."
Author's Note:
Xie Ye: Not pleased.
Gu Cong: ? (Polite)
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