The next second, An Junlie dismissed the thought.

He owed the brat two hundred thousand, not the other way around; how could he possibly not want to see him? The brat had just come out of the Silver Sigil—he would certainly need money, so wasn't it natural for him to come demanding repayment? An Junlie turned to Little Bean Sprout and said, "Give me the brat's account number, and I'll transfer the money to her." If the brat didn't show up, as long as she withdrew the money, he would know where she was.

Little Bean Sprout blinked, confused.

Transfer money? Why did everyone want to give Zi Ye money? Black Beard did, Red Hair did, even An Junlie did.

It completely forgot that An Junlie still owed Zi Ye money.

An Junlie waited in vain for a reply and sighed.

As long as Little Bean Sprout was around, he still had time; no need to rush for now.

He stepped back into the bathroom, closed the door—completely soaked—and decided to take a proper shower.

To his utter disbelief, halfway through his shower, Little Bean Sprout suddenly deflated its body and squeezed in through the crack under the door.

An Junlie heard the noise, turned around, and his expression immediately became complex.

He had always treated Little Bean Sprout as a miniature person.

Now that it had barged in, he felt as if he had been exposed.

If Little Bean Sprout were a man, it wouldn't matter if they saw each other naked; men were men, just different in size.

But the other party wasn't even a man.

Never mind, it was just a mainframe.

A grown man shouldn't be shy about such things, he told himself internally.

The next second, Little Bean Sprout pointed its sprout at his crotch and shrieked, "Ahhh—why do you look different from Zi Ye!" An Junlie couldn't suppress the twitching at the corner of his eye. "Aren't we both men? What's the difference?" Little Bean Sprout suddenly went quiet.

An Junlie was a man, and Zi Ye was a woman; they certainly had to be different.

It had almost let the truth slip.

Phew, luckily An Junlie was a bit dense and probably wouldn't think too deeply about it.

Little Bean Sprout immediately brightened up again, bounced onto his head, and settled on his wet hair. "It's quite noticeable, your chest is much bigger than hers!" An Junlie shrugged it off. "I've been training my muscles since I was young; they're naturally larger." Usually, he dressed neatly, hiding any hint of his physique, but now, stripped naked, his muscles were fully revealed.

There wasn't a trace of excess fat on him; every movement showcased the definition of his musculature.

Little Bean Sprout poked tentatively with a sprout.

Not bad; the texture was excellent.

It couldn't help but recall the Monarch-type mecha, which had once used his body data as a template.

Perhaps it could make further adjustments? Little Bean Sprout shamelessly rescanned An Junlie’s entire body.

It didn't even spare the major internal organs.

After all, mechas and the human body were similar in some respects.

The mecha's engine, main axis, and major systems were like internal organs, distributed throughout the chest and abdominal cavities.

The cooperation and division of labor among these systems and components mirrored the human body’s various organs perfectly.

Little Bean Sprout stored the data, hopped up on his head, gave him a light thump, and then cheerfully slipped out the door.

An Junlie leaned against the doorframe, his face dark.

If Little Bean Sprout were human, he would absolutely strangle it! That little rascal needed a lesson in respecting others.

He was completely unaware that Little Bean Sprout had already seen every inch of him back at the Silver Sigil.

Poor man...

When An Junlie finished showering and dressed, Little Bean Sprout was flying wildly around his room, sprinkling water everywhere.

He was accustomed to Little Bean Sprout’s mischief and ignored it, drying his hair and sitting down to continue reading reports.

However, his mind kept returning to the brat, making him distracted.

He couldn't focus on a single word of the report sent by Lan Li.

Little Bean Sprout finally managed to dry its fuzz while airborne and asked languidly, "Alien, do you want to see the brat?" An Junlie had been waiting for it to bring it up.

Now, he played hard to get, nonchalantly saying, "It doesn't really matter." Little Bean Sprout seemed disappointed.

Hateful alien, utterly uncooperative.

An Junlie ignored it, sending Zi Ye's photo to all administrators in the Angelic Domain via the virtual screen, commanding, "If you see her, notify me immediately." Many members of the Angel Legion had seen "Meng Ya Ya" before.

Seeing the photo, they paused—wasn't this the girl they met on Siyatu? Then they noticed the photo explicitly marked as male, and everyone shrugged and got back to work.

Little Bean Sprout chuckled above his head, "Search all you like, search hard, hahaha." After all, she wouldn't be found.

As long as it was marked male, she was invisible.

Just as An Junlie was about to say something, an urgent communication signal blared in.

He accepted, and a face filled with utter panic immediately appeared on the screen. "Help! Something is chewing on the door of our communications room, and they're about to break in! Here are the coordinates, save us quickly.

Ah! No, they're coming in!" Besides the trembling voice, there were rustling friction sounds mixed with the howling impact against the door—it sounded genuinely terrifying.

An Junlie stared at what was behind the communicator, jumping up in shock. "I'll send people over right now!" "Heeeelp—" Before the plea finished, the person on the screen screamed and collapsed.

An animal climbed onto the communicator, baring its teeth at An Junlie—sharp teeth.

It emitted a hissing electrical sound from its mouth. "Such fragrant food, good! More food!" Little Bean Sprout was horrified.

It had fuzz too, so why were the Fluff Beasts so vicious? That defied logic! After the video cut off, an administrator's face appeared, heavy with gravity. "This is the communication we received five minutes ago.

At 5000km outside ZZ-9 Space Station, west side of the Angelic Domain, coordinates 1982, 577, 42802, we are under attack by Fluff Beasts.

We rushed over immediately but found the numbers overwhelming and requested backup." Fluff Beasts were small creatures, often kept as pets by noblewomen in the past.

They resembled rabbits but were extremely ferocious.

Logically, Fluff Beasts wouldn't proactively attack humans.

The ones in the video were clearly mutated; someone must have implanted something in them.

An Junlie frowned. "Understood.

Deploy one hundred mech warriors from each of the eight space stations, ZZ-1 through ZZ-8, for support.

Ensure the safety of the stations is the priority.

I am mobilizing immediately." After the call ended, he summoned an emergency meeting via the light screen, calling three biochemical experts to accompany him to ZZ-9 Space Station.

Little Bean Sprout chirped, "I'm going too!" and hopped onto An Junlie's shoulder.

As evening approached, Black Beard suddenly received an email from Red Hair: "I am safe.

Don't worry." Black Beard showed the email to Zi Ye, and they exchanged a look of shared relief, finally letting go of the heavy stone in their hearts.

Zi Ye considered tracing where the email originated but quickly decided against it.

As long as Red Hair was safe, that was enough; she didn't need to pry into other matters, as Red Hair would never mistreat herself.

Dinner was still just the two of them, but the atmosphere was much more cheerful than at noon.

Black Beard produced a bottle of wine, and he and Zi Ye drank together.

Black Beard asked with surprise, "Where is your little doll? Why aren't you bringing her along?" Mentioning Little Bean Sprout made Zi Ye a little glum. "I left in a hurry today and forgot to bring her," she said.

However, this made her worry—if Little Bean Sprout couldn't find her at the apartment, would it run out looking for her? Thinking this, Zi Ye hastily put down her cutlery, opened her personal communicator to locate it, and started composing an email.

It had the function to store messages, so as long as she sent it, it would receive it.

Before she could even send the message, the location information popped up: Location: Angelic Domain, Angelic Domain > Venus Galaxy > Tamo Constellation > angel7 Space Station, followed by precise coordinates.

Zi Ye’s fingertips trembled, and she nearly spat out a mouthful of blood.

Little Bean Sprout—it dared, it actually dared to run off to the Angelic Domain! Without a word, after all the worrying she’d done.

If she could reach it now, she would absolutely strangle that scoundrel! Black Beard saw her face flush crimson and her chest heave. "What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

Zi Ye took a long breath. "Nothing." She deleted the email and rewrote it: "Get back here immediately.

Scram back without stopping!" After writing it, she looked back at the star map, found the route, and wondered how Little Bean Sprout managed such a distance with so many warp jumps.

Did she have to go to the Angelic Domain to retrieve it? Zi Ye had always felt that the Angelic Domain was An Junlie's private territory, and she didn't want to set foot in it, fearing that knowing too much about him would only tether her down.

In truth, pretending not to recognize him during their last meeting had placed an enormous burden on her heart.

Now, she truly couldn't face him calmly.

Some people weren't those you didn't want to see, but those you couldn't see.

Seeing him again now, at this moment when she had finally managed to build an independent life, might shatter all her mental defenses.

She wrestled with the decision for a long time, deleting the words in the email one by one, until only one sentence remained: "I miss you." She clicked send.

Hoping Little Bean Sprout would remember the way back.

Black Beard glanced at her.

Seeing she was unresponsive, he finished his drink.

When he looked again, she was still frowning deeply, silent.

He couldn't help but turn gossipy. "Zi Ye, are you heartbroken?" Zi Ye snapped back to attention, turning her head to look at Black Beard, unsure whether to feel helpless or annoyed.

Black Beard moved next to her. "You're not fifteen anymore; it's time to start dating.

When I was your age, I'd already had two girlfriends." Zi Ye was silent for a long moment, then asked, "Have you ever contacted an alien?" Black Beard shook his head. "No.

Why, has he contacted you?" Zi Ye hesitated. "I don't want to meet him." Black Beard chuckled knowingly. "I understand.

Because he's the CEO of a major legion, and you're just a young girl with no background?"