Chapter 6: Gender

Maine silently finished the food on his plate in one bite, and looked up at Xie Sen with a complicated look in his eyes. The corner of his mouth lightly hooked up. “It’s delicious, thanks.”

“You’re too kind.” Xie Sen smiled with arched eyebrows, eyes dark and clear. While he looked at the energy value over Maine’s head, he said, “If you like, I can make it for you every day.”

Individual energy value was from one to ten, the lower the energy value, the easier it was to cheat. The degree of difficulty referred to the extreme value of obtaining energy, a value of ten was a small gratitude. The energy returned was more than the value of one or two people.

That’s why Xie Sen was so excited to see Maine, since a single breakfast was able to harvest two energy. Personal energy was refreshed every day, and tomorrow morning Maine’s energy would be back to 10.

Xie Sen looked at Maine expectantly, and kept doing little calculations in his heart. If he could get energy 2 every day for breakfast, he might be able to activate his first plant after five days!

Maine looked at him with surprise, and said with downcast eyes, “No.” Then he raised his eyes, and his gaze became stern. “What is your purpose?”

Xie Sen was surprised at the change in his temperament. In an instant, he completed the transformation from handsome prince, to questioning knight. Obviously the other man was the same age, still good-looking, but inexplicably made him feel extremely oppressed.

“I just want to be your friend,” Xie Sen raised his right hand as an oath. “Absolutely no bad intentions.”

Maine stared at him, Xie Sen stared at him with open eyes, his black and white eyes were heated. Maine’s aura gathered, he got up and said, “I don’t need a friend.” He looked at the time. “I’m going out for an exam in five minutes.”

Xie Sen once again heard him say that he didn’t need friends. He wanted to say something, but when he heard the last sentence, he instantly understood what he meant. He could only swallow his words and hurriedly said, “I’ll sort it out right away.”

He looked down and shoved the rest of the omelette into his mouth, reached out to clear his plate, and ran into Maine’s hand that was reaching for it.

Maine raised an eyebrow at him. “Taking advantage of me on purpose?”

“Cough, cough…” Xie Sen chewed the omelette in his mouth, choked on his words, quickly withdrew his hand and covered his mouth to cough.

“Drink some water.” Maine picked up the glass of water on the table and handed it to him.

Xie Sen took a few sips of water to slow down. His pale skin tinged with red, which was spreading to the side of his neck. He stared at Maine, but his eyes were wet and not intimidating. “Don’t joke around while I’m eating!”

Maine looked at him like this. His heart suddenly moved, and instead of answering his words, he said something irrelevant, “You’re definitely female.”

Xie Sen was stunned for a moment. Before he hadn’t realized that in this world males could be females too. Was this person talking about his mother?

He bounced up from his seat as if he had been electrocuted, “Nonsense, I’m a man. A solid man,” he said, and flexed his right arm in a muscle gesture. “Male. Male. Not a fake!”

Maine couldn’t stop smiling. He was already good looking, but now when he smiled, he seemed to have a rose background behind him. Xie Sen looked dumbfounded, although he was resentful of the other questioning his manhood, but still he couldn’t help but scream in his heart, he was too good looking!

This is simply foul!

Maine was wearing a short-sleeved black T-shirt. He smiled and lifted the short sleeve of his right hand upward to reveal his full right arm, then made a fist and bent it. He hooked his lips, and looked at Xie Sen with a smile in his eyes.

Xie Sen looked at his own flat biceps, then looked at the other’s bulge, at the strong and powerful but not exaggerated muscles, then silently put down his hand.

In order to hide his embarrassment, he bent down and stacked the plates together, and got up with them in his hands. Maine had already straightened his clothes, still looking at him with a smile.

Xie Sen was deflated. “This is just an individual difference of the same kind, I just lack exercise!”

This body had led an extremely stressed life, and was in a very poor state. Naturally, he had no good habits of fitness, and with an typically irregular diet, the body not being strong and healthy was normal.

He thought this then lightly hummed. “Wait for me to practice well. Then I won’t be worse than you…Not too much worse.”

His reaction was puzzling to Maine. “You hate being a female? Your contract beast hasn’t awakened, but with your height and looks, the odds are that it will be female.”

Xie Sen’s scalp tingled at the thought. “I’m definitely a male!”

Maine’s eyes slid past his cute face. “You’re so sure. You seem to have a sense of the contract beast, so you’ll probably awaken soon.”

Xie Sen had no sense, but didn’t want to dwell on the topic of ‘he might become a female.’ He nodded vaguely, and carried his plate to the kitchen. “I’ll take care of it soon.”

When Xie Sen came out of the kitchen, Maine had already changed his outfit. A black hooded T-shirt with the same color pants and shoes, all in black with his hat on his head. His whole body exuded an air of rejection, but it made his face even more handsome.

After they left the apartment, Maine said, “I’m going to school. Where are you going?”

Xie Sen thought about the work that was still pending. “I don’t have my exams until tomorrow, so you go ahead and I’ll walk around.”

Maine didn’t ask more questions, just said, “This place is rather remote. Do you want me to bring you to the center of town?”

Xie Sen opened the map to check and found that this place was not very far from the factory where he applied for a job yesterday. It still belonged to An Guang District, there were still many factories and stores around here.

“No, there are quite a lot of job opportunities here. I’ll take a stroll around.”

Maine nodded, and headed to the garage to drive the shuttle away.

Xie Sen followed the map. He walked, hitchhiked, and asked one place after another if they were hiring. He searched from the most remote units outwards and found a dozen or so. A few refused outright, a few others gave him an interview, but in the end the conditions didn’t fit and he wasn’t accepted.

Brandt Star’s diploma was the school’s assessment of students’ professionalism and practicality, which was strict and fair. It was equivalent to the first gate for employers.

It was too difficult to find a job here without a diploma.

Xie Sen casually ate a box lunch and walked helplessly down the street. He had walked almost the entire district in the morning and was now at the junction of An Guang District and Star City’s central Fairview District.

“Meow…”

Suddenly, a mournful cat cry came from over to the right. Xie Sen was startled and looked over there. A white blur accompanied by a worried cry, fell from the upper right window.

Immediately after that, the white blur ran like a phantom in his direction. It ran with a grumpy cat’s cry. Xie Sen subconsciously took a step towards the wall, and stood against it.

The white blur passed him, and he secretly sighed with relief. The next moment, the white blur was back to his feet, and kept lightly rubbing his trouser leg, as it tilted its head and called, “Meow…”

The sound was completely different from the previous cry, much softer.

Xie Sen stared at the little thing at his feet. Its left eye was golden and the right eye was blue. Its body was covered with long white fur, and it was so beautiful that he couldn’t help but marvel in his heart, what a beautiful long-haired Persian cat!

He squatted down, reached out and rubbed the cat’s head. The cat rubbed his palm, purred more softly, and with laziness.

“Are you the caretaker?” a voice that was gentle with surprise came from in front of him.

“Thank you so much. I was so worried it would be lost,” another slightly choked voice also came from in front.

Instantly, a small line of words appeared in front of Xie Sen’s eyes, Gratitude Energy 1, Total Value 3. He raised his eyes and saw a man in white, and a man in blue standing in front of him.