Chapter 50: Cooperation

The official announcement from Gold Medal was soon made. It proclaimed that the contract beasts were not for sale.

Xie Sen put his mind at ease, said goodbye to the contract beasts, and left the feeding area. At the entrance of Gold Medal, the four of them went their separate ways again, Bai Jiao went home alone, Long Teng went to his grandfather, and Xie Sen and Maine followed them.

Xie Sen and Maine returned to the apartment, where each of them went immediately to their bedroom to shower and change.

Xie Sen changed into a loose T-shirt and knee-length pants, and dried his hair. Then he went straight to the kitchen, where he made potato stew, cut up half a watermelon and put it on a plate.

The two of them ate a nice lunch together, and Maine washed the dishes very conscientiously.

Xie Sen was sitting on the sofa, ready to brush up on the news, but just as he entered the Starnet, Tuan Tuan flew in through the window with a “chirp.”

It landed directly on the coffee table, and pointed at Xie Sen with its short wings. One of its paws kept being raised and stomped on the table, while its mouth continued chirping and chirping. Its tone was very angry, but it was so young and its voice was so crisp, that Xie Sen didn’t feel any anger.

Xie Sen looked at it for a while before he realized that it was stomping its feet like a human being in anger.

“Haha!” he couldn’t hold back his laughter. After a moment’s thought, he believed he understood why it was angry. He got up, took a large piece of melon rind out of the fridge, and held it out flat on his hand. “Sorry, we had to go into the forest. I promise, next time we go out, we’ll tell you in advance.”

“Chirp!” Tuan Tuan stomped its paws again. Its eyes were glued to the melon rind, but it didn’t move.

Xie Sen thought to himself, the little thing was quite vindictive. He lightened his voice, “I forgot to tell you because you weren’t here when we left. It’s my fault. Next time I’ll tell you in advance.”

He wasn’t sure why Tuan Tuan attacked Star City with Maine in the book, but could only guess that because when it grew up with Maine, it was taught by Maine to hate humans. Now that Maine was different and it lived in a different environment, he wasn’t too worried.

He kept Tuan Tuan completely unrestricted, and Tuan Tuan didn’t need him to control it. It took care of its own food. He only had to give it a little snack.

“Chirp.” Tuan Tuan called out crisply. It seemed to understand that he had a good attitude towards admitting his mistake, and with a wave of its wings, it landed on the melon skin in his hand and lowered its head to eat.

Xie Sen put the melon rind on the coffee table. Tuan Tuan didn’t move even a bit. It stood firmly in its position on the melon rind the whole time as it was moved.

Maine came out of the kitchen, stood behind the sofa and put his hand on Xie Sen’s shoulder. He looked briefly at Tuan Tuan, then withdrew his gaze. “Taking a nap?”

Xie Sen nodded. “I’ll watch the news for a while.”

After the recovery of the red energy, he now went for twelve hours before losing control. This morning at five o’clock, if he wasn’t rested it would be very dangerous in the afternoon if there were temporary things. He clicked on the news. Maine was still standing behind him as he bent over to read it with him. The top few news items were almost entirely about the contract beasts.

One of them stood out, [The best league champion of all time! The most powerful league champion of all time! The ones who entered and left the forest danger zone unscathed and brought back a large number of high-class contract beasts. What exactly is their status?]

Xie Sen didn’t think anything of it at first, but when he saw this headline, he suddenly thought, What’s wrong with them?

He clicked in, and at the top were several pictures. One was of the four of them sitting on the flying machine when they went into the forest and passed through the checkpoint, while the rest were pictures of them coming back. Except for one picture of the four of them together, the rest of the pictures had contract beasts in them, and they were very conspicuous.

The photos were followed by exaggerated text that blew them up, followed by a big reveal of all four of their family histories.

[Four such powerful four people. Do you think they are just ordinary fresh graduates? No. After  an investigation, each of them has a great origin!]

[Maine, the Cox family’s illegitimate son, an A class giant lion beast master. It was publicly announced by the Cox family to have severed relations with him. Maine made a big splash, I do not know if he wants to prove his strength to make the Cox family take him back, but also do not know if the Cox family regrets making the decision to sever relations.]

When they saw this, Xie Sen heard Maine ‘tsk’ with heavy mockery.

[Bai Jiao, born in the Bai family of medicine, B class female contract beast master, three years of college, professional courses back-to-back. His strength cannot be underestimated. Because of being a female with a contract beast level that is too high, he’s rejected others. Now it seems that perhaps the strong simply do not care to play with ordinary people.]

[Long Teng, born to the business giant Long family, S class flying dragon beast master. Has always acted in a low-key manner. If not for the contract beasts affair that has become a big deal, I’m afraid his identity would not have been exposed. He has immense battle power, and is Star City University’s famous battle demon.]

[Xie Sen, the adopted son of the Xie family, and an orphan. His identity is the most inconspicuous, but according to multiple investigations, he is very unusual. He is a plant beast master, and has a strong affinity with beasts. According to speculation, this time, the incident of contract beasts may have a great deal to do with him.]

Xie Sen couldn’t help but sigh after he read that. “These news reporters are all detectives, right?”

Maine looked at him. “Do you not like these reports?”

Xie Sen shook his head. “Not really, but it’s impossible for such a big deal to go unreported. It’s just the thought of being recognized when you’re out or at work, that’s troublesome.”

He was used to being an ordinary person, and wasn’t used to being noticed. He felt uncomfortable just from thinking about the possibility of being recognized at any time.

Maine thought for a moment, and patted him on the shoulder. “Go rest first.”

Xie Sen nodded and got up. “I’m going to work tomorrow, but I’ll go to the Plant Research Institute this afternoon. What are your plans?”

It must be said that when he met Li You, it gave him a great shock. How the importance Li You placed on the plants was even higher than for his own life.

He felt that he should change his attitude towards plants. Although he always knew that Brandt Star plants were rare, he hadn’t really paid attention to that. According to Adam’s words, the different energies of the System corresponded to different colors of plants. Since the red energy had been recovered, the red plants in the System should be able to germinate.

He was going to personally take the pepper seeds to the Plant Research Institute so that the peppers could be produced in large quantities and increase the variety of vegetables for Brandt Star. At the same time, it would then be more convenient for him to eat peppers himself in the future.

If System’s plant wasn’t used to attack, but only to eat, the pepper was the most energy-consuming of the three types of plants he had activated so far.

A red chili pepper wasn’t big. If it was used for cooking, the spiciness definitely couldn’t be too high; at least a dozen to fry a plate. To spend more than a dozen energy for the equivalent of a plate of chili peppers…he simply couldn’t spare that when he knew the average he could get a day was only just more than twenty.

Maine made the decision straight away. “I’ll go with you.”

Xie Sen contacted President Ma on the way to the Plant Research Institute before he was stopped at the gate. There, he was both surprised and delighted. As soon as he got off the shuttle, Li You, dressed in a white uniform, greeted him with a smile on his dark face, “Welcome, welcome.”

Xie Sen sighed, “Is your Institute so busy? You came straight from the forest to work?”

Li You laughed. “I was in a hurry. The plant I picked is a tomato. It’s rich in vitamins. I wanted to study it early, and hopefully grow it successfully,” he explained as he led the two inside the Institute. “President Ma is in the research room. He originally wanted to pick you up himself.”

Xie Sen hurriedly said, “That’s very kind, but I’d be embarrassed if I caused you any trouble.”

“No,” Li You smiled. “President Ma is very excited. He said he had invited you several times, and you refused.”

Li You led them through the three buildings in the front of the Institute to a vast flat area made up of blocks of land, each with a room at the forefront.

As they walked, Li You pointed to the rooms and introduced them to him, “These are the research rooms, each piece of land has a different plant inside.” He pointed to the far right. “Over there are cabbage and potatoes, the most productive and stable growing vegetables.”

In a short time, they arrived at the door of a research room. Li You swiped his fingerprints, the door opened, then he stepped in and said, “President Ma is inside.”

Xie Sen followed Li You into the room, and saw that there were all kinds of instruments in the research room. There were also many transparent boxes on the walls. The bottoms of the boxes had earth, while the outsides had LED screens with various values. He could only understand temperature and humidity.

He guessed that these boxes were probably all cultivators. The environment inside each was different, so as to study the optimal culture method. Sure enough, Li You explained the purpose of the boxes to them, and he said the same.

They followed Li You into the inner room. Xie Sen saw a tall, thin man who was debugging the values of a cultivator. His face was calm, and his eyes were focused as he carefully adjusted the values before he turned his head to look at them.

His eyes fell directly on Xie Sen with a hot temperature. He took a few steps forward, and reached out his hand, as he said, “Welcome. You took the initiative to come to the Institute, so you must have something important to do?”

Xie Sen shook his hand, then took out a complete chili pepper and put it in his palm. “I’m here to deliver the chili seeds. I also want to talk to your Institute about cooperation.”

Ma Qun looked at the chili, and sighed, “We tried all kinds of methods last time, but we couldn’t get it to germinate and grow.”

Xie Sen said, “Now it can be planted.”

Ma Qun heard his tone of affirmation, and looked at the pepper. “What’s different?”

“It’s different,” Xie Sen said. He wasn’t able to explain exactly, so he just said vaguely, “I’m sure it can be grown, so how about we talk about working together?”

President Ma, “Yes.”

Xie Sen said directly, “I know the vegetables you grow will be sold in cooperation with rich supermarkets. I hope I can get a share of the peppers grown, and have some sent to me every month.”

Ma Qun pondered for a moment. “Your request is very reasonable, but it takes time to grow the peppers. If the planting goes well, the first few batches of finished products won’t be sold, but will be left to grow widely, so there is probably nothing to give back to you in the short term.” He paused, and proposed, “How about if the Institute gives you an incentive payment directly? That’s a common method we use. We give rewards to the discoverers of new species to promote the development of plant research.” He laughed, “Even if the cultivation eventually fails, the reward money won’t be withdrawn.”

Xie Sen shook his head. “I don’t want the reward money.”

The System redeemed plant was easy to grow, and the quality of the fruit was very good. He had grown chili peppers in the last world, and knew very well the growth cycle of chili peppers. From cultivation to fruiting was only two months or so. Next came the stage of alternating flowering and fruiting, then fruiting in large quantities which could last about two months or so.

The Institute’s professional equipment was equivalent to greenhouse cultivation. There was no seasonal limitation, so there was output all year round.

Ma Qun smiled. “You seem to be very confident.”

Xie Sen nodded. “Yes. I can only provide the seeds, the rest I can’t help with. As long as the profit is 10% of the share. After this, if there is another plant, it will also be the same. Can you accept?”

Ma Qun asked, “And how much is the gift?”

Xie Sen thought about it, and said, “At the beginning when the quantity is small, it’s free. After one year at the latest, it will be fixed at ten pounds per month.”

“Ten pounds?” Ma Qun was surprised to learn that peppers and potatoes were not the same as cabbages. They were very light, so ten pounds was quite a lot.

Xie Sen smiled. “Trust me. It won’t be hard.”

Ma Qun looked at him, and laughed. “You’re so sure, I’m wondering if you’ve grown them before. I have to say, I’m looking forward to it.”

Xie Sen also smiled. “President Ma, don’t forget that I am from the Plant Department, I know the growth cycle of peppers.”

Ma Qun pondered for a moment, and nodded. “Okay. I accept your proposal,” he said. “I’ll agree to your offer.” He drafted the contract. Xie Sen confirmed that it was correct, and then both parties entered their fingerprints.

Xie Sen gave the chili to Ma Qun, who took it with a cautious look.

Xie Sen looked at the remaining one hundred and thirty energy, and thought about it. After having retrieved the red energy, he currently had no urgent energy needs, so he simply exchanged another ten in one breath. Now the first batch of seeds was a lot.

He turned around and pretended to take them out of his backpack, then handed ten more peppers to Ma Qun.

Ma Qun took them in surprise, somewhat unable to contain his excitement. “I’ll go breed them right away.”

Xie Sen thought back to the time when he planted chili peppers. “The temperature for seed breeding shouldn’t be too low. 20 to 30 degrees C is about right.”

Ma Qun looked at him, and couldn’t resist inviting him again. “Come work in the Research Institute. You are a plant beast master, and have solid expertise. This is the best place for you.”

Xie Sen thought, Even if it is good, there is no way to collect energy. He shook his head. “Thank you, but I’m satisfied with my current job. I like it, and I don’t want to change jobs for now.”

Ma Qun sighed in disappointment. “Still, if you change your mind, you are always welcome at the Institute.”

“Okay.” Xie Sen smiled and left.

After he left, Ma Qun and Li You immediately went to the research lab next door, and started to cultivate chili seeds.

On the way back, Xie Sen thought about how the meat in the fridge was almost finished, so the two went to the supermarket to buy some more meat before returning to the apartment.

Maine got a message as he got back to the apartment. He looked at it, and said to Xie Sen, “I’m going back to my bedroom to take care of some things. Call me if you need anything.”

Xie Sen mumbled, put the meat in the fridge, sat down on the couch and rested for a while. He was bored with nothing to do just then. After he thought about it, he called out to Adam. When he heard Adam’s response, he asked directly, “Do you feel the rest of the energy?”

Adam sounded frustrated, “No, I can’t feel it. It’s probably not on Brandt Star. The energy I have now isn’t enough to sense the energy of the outer planets.”

Xie Sen reassured him, “It’s okay. It’s only uncontrollable after twelve hours now. It’s pretty safe.”

“No.” Adam got excited. “If your soul is unstable for a long time, you will have physical problems. You must find all the energy as soon as possible.”

Xie Sen wondered, “I’ve already recovered the red energy. Didn’t you say that my body would get better with each energy?”

“That’s true, but… There’s five kinds of energy. If they stay missing, then after a year, you will have a big problem. With one more kind of energy, you’ve extended the stability period by six months. You’ve been here for more than a month, so if you don’t recover the second kind of energy in a year and five months, after that your uncontrolled time will start to be unstable, and then, then…”

Adam’s voice was getting lower and lower, and didn’t finish his sentence, but Xie Sen already knew what he was going to say. He jumped up. “Why didn’t you say so before?”

“I was worried you would be scared. I thought I could just keep encouraging you to collect energy, and nothing would happen anyway. But now you’re just getting by. You’re not even actively collecting energy anymore. I thought if I kept it from you now, something might really happen.”

Xie Sen stood for a while, then sat down again. Indeed, he had been greatly relieved the moment he recovered the red energy. Sleeping once every twelve hours was too easy, so as long as he paid attention, it basically wouldn’t affect his life. So he hadn’t been assertive about recovering the rest of the energy.

He slumped on the couch. “So what now? You can’t feel the energy, so should we go to other planets one by one, and try?”

“No,” Adam said. “There are too many planets here to try one by one. Just strengthen the energy.” His voice was raised, and his tone was full of encouragement, as if the teacher of his senior class was encouraging his students. “A’Sen, go ahead and collect the energy. Activate the fourth plant, and I will be able to feel all the way to other planets. You’re the best. You can do it! You’re collecting energy so much faster now than before, your ability is beyond my imagination. You–”

“Okay,” Xie Sen spoke out to interrupt its rainbow farts. “I’ll work on it, don’t worry. I won’t slack off, so you take a good break.”

“Sen is awesome. I love Sen the most.” Adam praised again, before he went silent and slept to accumulate energy.

Xie Sen opened the System panel. Below the green hard-backed book’s fourth blank page was 132/400. That was to say, the activation of the fourth plant still needed 268 energy, so with his current speed of energy collection, he needed half a month to activate it.

He instantly put his mind at ease. After he activated the plant, Adam could sense the energy. Since he had more than a year’s time, he would absolutely be able to find and recover the next energy!

“Chirp!” He had just turned off the System when Tuan Tuan’s cheerful cry came from behind him. He turned back with a smile.

The next moment, his smile froze at the corner of his mouth. Tuan Tuan hovered very close to him as it waved its wings. Its round eyes blinked happily. It was very cute.

But! It was clutching a slender spotted snake in its paw, and the snake was still twisting and turning, so he almost touched it the moment he turned around.

“Ahhhh!!” Xie Sen instantly felt his scalp explode. He jumped up violently as he screamed uncontrollably, and ran away from the couch.

He was most afraid of this kind of snake, especially since this snake looked very poisonous. Goose bumps instantly rose up over his whole body.

“Chirp, chirp,” Tuan Tuan didn’t understand his reaction, and flew towards him, worried.

“Ahhhhh!” Xie Sen screamed. He saw Maine as he strode out of the bedroom in the aftermath. Without thought, he ran to Maine, grabbed Maine’s clothes and hid behind him.

“Come on. Get it out of here.”

“Chirp?” Tuan Tuan cocked its head.

Maine reached back, and grabbed Xie Sen’s wrist as he looked at Tuan Tuan with cold eyes. “Throw it out, and if you dare to bring this kind of thing in again, you don’t have to come back.”

Tuan Tuan blinked, and finally realized how Xie Sen was reacting. It wiggled its claws in confusion. What was there to be afraid of with such a thing? Sen was so timid.

It had wanted Sen to try something delicious, but it waved its wings in a lost manner, and took the snake with it as it flew out of the apartment.

“Well,” Maine squeezed Xie Sen’s hand. “So scared?”

Xie Sen’s whole body relaxed once he couldn’t see Tuan Tuan and the snake. He glanced at Maine’s calm expression. When he thought about his reaction just now, he couldn’t help blushing, he was so embarrassed.

“Ah, not really,” Xie Sen let go of his clothes, and laughed dryly. “Just turned my head, and saw it so unexpectedly that I was frightened.”

A smile flashed in Maine’s eyes. Xie Sen stiffly changed the subject, and glanced towards his bedroom. “What were you doing?”

Maine turned on his bracelet, and opened the virtual screen for him to see. Xie Sen read, “Three Trees Software Information Corporation, Incorporated: Maine…”

As he read this he suddenly realized, isn’t Three Trees the same as Maine?

He couldn’t help but feel his heart beating wildly, while his face got hotter and hotter.

Maine said, “I prepared the information a few days ago, and when I returned to the apartment the review had passed. I just went to do the identity authentication, so now the company has been successfully established.”

“Congratulations.” Xie Sen hesitated to ask what the company name was about.

Maine looked at him, then suddenly reached out and wrapped his hand around his waist. He traced his finger along Xie Sen’s right ear. “Why are you so red?”

Xie Sen’s body trembled slightly, and he covered his even redder ear as he pulled back in shock. However, Maine was holding him tightly so he couldn’t retreat.

Xie Sen grabbed Maine’s arm with his other hand, and lamented, How can this body’s sensitive point be the earlobe! And, it’s also a little too sensitive. Just a touch, and his legs were actually weak.

“You let go of me.” There was little strength in his tone.

Maine stared at him. His eyes were helpless and flustered, and his white skin was tinged with red, which made him want to bully him a little. Maine’s gaze gradually deepened. He slowly lowered his head, as his hands uncontrollably swept Xie Sen up against him. Their bodies were pressed together, and it was extraordinarily ambiguous.

Xie Sen felt the change in his body. His mind immediately recalled the scene on the way back to Gold Medal, and he instantly panicked. “I, I, I, I’ll go make dinner.”

“There’s no hurry,” Maine’s voice was husky. “It’s still early.”

He unconsciously rubbed against Xie Sen and frowned. His pretty face had a taut, but pleasant look. “A’Sen, I’m hard. You touch me.”

Xie Sen’s knees suddenly became even softer. When he saw that he wasn’t moving, Maine’s eyebrows wrinkled more tightly. He almost pressed against Xie Sen’s mouth and murmured, “You said you wouldn’t lie to me.”

Xie Sen’s lips immediately felt numb and itchy. He subconsciously licked them, and touched Maine’s lips at the same time.

Maine’s eyes darkened instantly, and he touched Xie Sen’s lips with his own, as his hands held Xie Sen even closer to his body, with no gap between them. Soon Maine wasn’t satisfied with mere touching, and nibbled Xie Sen’s lips without any rules, as if he were a delicious pastry.

“Hiss…” The corner of Xie Sen’s mouth hurt from his bite. He frowned and huffed, then raised his hand to whack Maine’s arm.

Maine let go slightly, and Xie Sen gasped. His body leaned against Maine with little strength.

Xie Sen felt extraordinarily ashamed of his reaction, but after he thought about it, he felt that there was only one explanation. His body was so bad because of his lack of energy!

Maine’s forehead was pressed against Xie Sen’s. Both of them were breathing extraordinarily hotly, as if they were trying to burn each other. Xie Sen raised his eyes, and crashed into a pair of deep, bottomless eyes that burned with fire. His heart trembled violently, and felt like it was burning.

Maine rubbed against him, anxious and uncomfortable. “A’Sen, you touch me. I feel so bad.”

His delicate face was tinged with love. It was so beautiful he didn’t look like a real person, Xie Sen felt uncontrollably compelled to reach out and touch the side of his face. His heartbeat was thumping as he lightly bit Maine’s cheek.

A light circle of teeth marks immediately appeared on the beautiful skin. Xie Sen thought to himself, really good bite, and then he licked it soothingly.

Maine’s hand around his waist was immensely strong. Xie Sen cried out in pain as he patted Maine’s hand. “Be gentle. I’m going to break.”

Maine loosened his grip, and looked at him fiercely. As if he wanted to swallow him in one gulp. “When you touch me, I can’t control it.”

Xie Sen muttered, “It’s not even a real touch!”

Maine moved his waist, and whispered in his ear, “You’re reacting too. Do you want me to touch you?”

Xie Sen gritted his teeth, and decided to give in. It was a consensual pleasure anyway. When he figured it, out he wasn’t shy anymore, and he grabbed Maine by the neck. “Go to my room.”