Chapter 330: Male Zerg Celebrity × Arms Dealer (17): Secretly, at Night, a Private Rendezvous

[So becoming a farm employee lets you enter the farm without a ticket? Where is this employee entrance? Give me one too!]

[I want one too! I want one too! As long as I can see Shamir, I can work for free! No—actually, I can even pay to work!]

[If you want to pay to work, get in line at the back. The queue is already a year long. Didn’t you know?]

As soon as that was said, the netizens who had already failed to get tickets broke down even harder.

[Damn you, Ravens! You actually used such a despicable method to get into the farm!]

[Exactly! Too despicable! He started laying the groundwork nine years in advance and became a shareholder in the farm! Then he even went to the Male Zerg to get in through the back door! Shameless!]

[Even after doing all that, he only ended up becoming a farm employee. No matter how you look at it, that’s a failure. A mighty arms tycoon has actually fallen all the way down to being a milkman. Hasn’t his status completely plummeted?]

[Plummeted my ass! (angry) Ravens is loving it! Is he some ordinary milkman? The milk he squeezes goes directly to the family’s Male Zerg son! Do you know how many opportunities for contact that indirectly creates?!

If you ask me, the Female Father and Female Older Brothers are still way too softhearted. They never should’ve given him another chance to come into contact with Shamir!]

[You’re already calling him Female Father? Is that Female Father yours to call?]

[Cough, don’t mind such little details. Isn’t that how he’s referred to in the book? (quietly)]

[That’s Shamir’s Female Father! Not yours!]

[Still, that is true. In An-shen’s books, aside from the two protagonists, the other Zergs are rarely directly called by their real names. Most are referred to by titles instead. For example, a certain “Marshal” who has made multiple cameo appearances.]

[Then, for convenience, we’ll just call him “Female Father”~ According to my guess, the reason Female Father allowed Ravens into the farm and let him get close to Shamir is because he could see that Shamir has feelings for Ravens. So for the sake of his own hatchling, he still gave Ravens one chance and sent him in front of Shamir, letting Shamir choose for himself.]

[If that’s really the case, why not just let him come in directly as a shareholder? Why make Ravens work as a farm employee?]

[Because they’re still dissatisfied with him, right? They also feel sorry for all the grievances their hatchling suffered, so they’re using this method to let Shamir “bully” him back.

This can also be considered a test. If Ravens can win Shamir over during this period, untie the knot in his heart, and make Shamir truly accept him, then he’ll have a chance to stay and take things further. Otherwise, he’ll leave the farm, and from then on they’ll have no further connection.]

Onlookers saw things clearly.

This was a test that any Zerg with eyes could recognize.

His Female Father and Female Older Brothers were using this method to place the right to choose into Shamir’s hands.

Shamir had served Ravens for ten years, so they would make Ravens work as Shamir’s farm employee for ten years and let Shamir vent his anger.

Of course, it might not actually last ten years.

It depended entirely on which of the two, Shamir or Ravens, reached his limit first.

If Shamir couldn’t stand having his former boss constantly wandering around in front of him and it seriously affected his mood, then this employment arrangement would naturally end early.

Likewise, if Ravens couldn’t tolerate this kind of farm life, he would also leave ahead of time.

The readers all wanted to know how long Ravens could last on the farm.

[One year. I bet one year. He’s an arms dealer, after all. He has his own businesses. There’s no way he can keep working as some low-level farm employee forever. One year is already the absolute limit.]

[I’m guessing ten years. Ravens at least has that much perseverance. The reason I’m choosing ten years is because Shamir’s family will be hard to get past. If he wants them to truly accept Ravens, he’ll have to put in at least as much time as Shamir served him back then. Only then will they feel that Shamir has gotten even and possibly loosen their stance.]

Zergs had already started opening betting pools on StarNet, with choices ranging anywhere from three days to ten years.

The most popular bets were one month and one year.

The public didn’t think Ravens would stay on the farm for very long.

It was like another vacation, another form of entertainment.

If Shamir never softened, Ravens would retreat sooner or later.

They were Zergs from different worlds.

Although their paths had once crossed, in the end they would return to their own separate tracks.

And then they could go pursue Shamir themselves~

Although they didn’t actually think they could successfully win Shamir over, they still felt that compared to Ravens, that lofty “financial backer” whose relationship with Shamir had been full of cold monetary transactions, their own sincere love born from the heart suited Shamir much better.

Unlike the other protagonists in An-shen’s books, who were all extremely mysterious and had very little information available about them, Shamir, as a celebrity, had genuinely appeared before the public.

Countless movies and videos of him circulated throughout Zerg society, making him feel much closer to their everyday lives.

Because of that, Shamir truly did have a huge number of Female Zerg friend-fans, admirers, and pursuers.

Their feelings toward Ravens were also more complicated.

They hoped Shamir could be happy, but at the same time, they felt that if Ravens left, that was fine too.

They would take his place.

......

[Ravens knew just how many Zergs liked Shamir and were watching him covetously.

The Zergs who had completely filled the farm’s reservations and booked out the hotel for nearly an entire year were among them.

And they were only a tiny fraction.

Only the part visible before his eyes.

There were even more Zergs secretly stirring in the shadows.

Therefore, he absolutely could not lose this job at the farm.

Fortunately, Shamir hadn’t blamed him for delivering the milk late on his very first day.

He had even gone with Ravens to the livestock shed with great interest to milk the beasts, occasionally looking at him with confusion and curiosity.

That gaze fell on Ravens’s body, making him heat up and inevitably grow nervous.

His muscles tensed until every line of them formed a perfect arc, drawing several more looks from Shamir.

Under the warmth of early spring, Ravens carried the milk bucket out of the livestock shed.

Following the farm’s requirements, he brought the freshly squeezed milk back to be heated and sterilized.

First, he poured out one bowl and kept it warm for Shamir to drink.

The rest was turned into other dairy products according to the recipes, to be served as snacks for Shamir.

He wasn’t skilled at doing these things and needed to follow the recipes step by step.

Fortunately, they were all simple foods with straightforward procedures.

As long as he followed the recipes strictly, he didn’t make any mistakes.

Shamir hovered around him, watching him work.

It was as if he were seeing a completely new Ravens, his eyes filled with disbelief and admiration.

“Mr. Ravens really does like farm life,” Shamir sighed.

He genuinely believed Ravens had come here to experience farm life.

Perhaps that game had made Mr. Ravens fall in love with farms and now he wanted to try it in reality.

Shamir guessed to himself.

Ravens silently glanced at him, his mood complicated by that familiar form of address.

Getting Shamir to change how he addressed him was not an easy thing.

Over ten years, that form of address had become a habit for Shamir.

If he wanted to erase that subconscious influence, it would take another, stronger form of address to replace it.

That kind of thing was usually easier after marriage.

“Female Lord” was a very powerful form of address.

But that was far too distant for him.

Ravens handed Shamir a cup of warm milk and skipped over the subject.

Did he like farm life?

Yes.

And no.

What he liked was Shamir.

He liked places where Shamir was.

If Shamir was the Male Zerg son of a farm, he was willing to stay by Shamir’s side and be an ordinary milkman on his farm.

If Shamir was the Male Zerg son of an island family, he would likewise be willing to accompany Shamir out to sea to fish, steering the fishing boat for him and casting the nets for him.

Just like when Shamir had first entered the entertainment industry, Ravens had become his investor, given him every resource he needed, and helped him stand at the dazzling pinnacle beneath the starlight.

He had simply used the wrong method in the end.

Perhaps even Ravens himself, at the very beginning, had never expected to become so deeply entangled with this Male Zerg.

He had thought he merely needed Psychic Soothing, so he chose a Male Zerg he found pleasing to the eye...

But feelings had never followed reason.

And his arrogance had nearly destroyed every possibility between them.

Fortunately, there was still a chance.

After ten years, although Shamir had never fallen in love with him, he surprisingly didn’t dislike him very much either.

He was even willing to keep allowing Ravens to appear before him, giving him the opportunity to approach him all over again under a different identity.

Ravens watched Shamir eat the food he had made, his gaze soft, and felt genuine satisfaction.

“Mr. Ravens, have you eaten?” Shamir asked, holding his cup.

“Mm. Don’t worry, I have breakfast. The standard breakfast for farm employees,” Ravens answered.

Shamir was surprised.

He hadn’t expected Ravens to go so far as to reproduce even these tiny details just for the sake of experiencing farm life.

“So, you’re also staying in the standard employee dormitory?” Shamir asked.

“Yes.”

Ravens shifted his gaze away somewhat unnaturally and said, “There are single rooms.”

A dormitory area meant Female Zergs gathered together, with terrible soundproofing.

There wasn’t actually much difference between a single room and a shared room.

After all, no Male Zerg would ever set foot there.

Trying to date or sleep with a Male Zerg was practically impossible.

Ravens guessed that Shamir’s family had arranged it that way deliberately.

It wasn’t only to make things difficult for him.

It was also to stop him from abducting Shamir.

At that thought, Ravens’s gaze became a little evasive.

Still, they were giving him far too much credit.

He didn’t think he had the ability to make Shamir go back to his room with him.

At least, before Shamir truly accepted him, Shamir would not become intimate with him again.

Shamir was a Zerg who separated work and personal life very clearly.

Ravens could feel that everything Shamir had done to him before had been “work.”

Even when he fucked Ravens until he was out of his mind with pleasure, to Shamir, that had still only been part of his job.

That inevitably made Ravens feel somewhat dejected.

He didn’t know how much of Shamir’s behavior during sex had been real and how much had been an act, just as Shamir didn’t understand him.

The contract had kept their true feelings outside the barrier.

Now that the barrier was gone, they had begun interacting all over again.

Although Ravens was older, in many ways he acted like a young fool who had never been in love and had never pursued a Male Zerg before.

Whenever he faced Shamir, he was always anxious and hesitant, worried that he wasn’t doing well enough.

Shamir had no idea what Ravens was thinking.

He simply marveled once again at Ravens’s dedication to recreating farm life.

......

Ravens seriously carried out his duties as a farm worker.

Every morning, he milked the Milk-Jar Beasts and fed them fodder, prepared beast milk and breakfast for Shamir, repaired the swing in the yard, loosened the soil around crops and pulled weeds.

In his spare time, he made nests for the Fluffball Beasts, incubated the dragon egg for a while, brought the bird home...

He often ran into Shamir.

Sometimes it was by coincidence.

Sometimes it seemed more like Shamir had specifically come to “accidentally” run into him.

Or perhaps he had simply come over out of curiosity to see what Ravens was doing.

“There are more and more tourists on the farm. I have to hide a little.”

Shamir complained to him with a mixture of pride and annoyance.

“The Fluffball Beasts run around everywhere. They’ve already adapted really well to the farm and can even drive the livestock back into their pens. Should I give them employee badges?”

Shamir rested his chin in his hand as he asked.

“The swing you made for me is really sturdy. It’s a little bigger than the one I had when I was young. I can lie on it to sunbathe and sleep.”

He thanked Ravens.

“Are you getting used to living in the employee dormitory?”

He seemed to have developed some thoughts of going to look at Ravens’s dorm room.

“Do you think this kind of life is too tiring or boring?”

Shamir stared at him intently as he asked.

And Ravens always answered every one of Shamir’s questions seriously, even when they were only casual questions asked out of boredom.

“The tourist area and the actual farming and residential areas are in two different directions, so you normally won’t run into them. The farm security team has increased patrols. They won’t let any Zerg disturb you.”

“The Fluffball Beasts... if you want, you can give them employee badges.”

That would count as officially becoming members of the farm, right?

Their positions would be more stable than his, a temporary employee who might be fired at any moment.

“As for the swing, I’m glad you like it.”

It was a pity he hadn’t seen Shamir sleeping on the swing beneath the sunlight.

He was sure it would have been adorable.

“The employee dormitory is very good. The room isn’t large, but the facilities are complete. It’s even better than what I lived in when I was in the military... though it isn’t very suitable for a Male Zerg. For a Male Zerg, the room is too small and there’s too little privacy.”

“This kind of life is very good. Very fulfilling.”

He could see Shamir every day.

Although it was under the strict watch of Shamir’s family, it still gave him something to look forward to.

Hearing Ravens say that the room wasn’t suitable for Male Zergs, Shamir didn’t really have any concept of what that meant.

He was still quite curious about where Ravens lived.

But that was the dormitory area for Female Zerg employees.

There was no way he could secretly sneak in to take a look.

First, it would be inappropriate.

Second, if his Female Father and Female Older Brothers found out, they would go insane.

Ravens said that life here was fulfilling.

It was obvious that he liked it here very much, which made Shamir happy too.

He didn’t know how long Ravens planned to experience farm life, or when he would leave.

But selfishly, Shamir hoped Ravens would stay a little longer.

And then a little longer still.

That feeling he had never been able to completely sever, the affection that belonged to him alone, remained tangled and unbroken here.

Beneath the farm’s blazing sun, it was as though the dying embers were being rekindled, flaring into an even hotter bonfire.

Shamir said to Ravens, “I used the flower nectar and berries you collected before to make some wine. It should be ready to drink now. Do you want to try it?”

This could definitely be called an invitation.

Ravens, standing across from Shamir, was still wearing the farm’s yellow-and-blue work clothes.

There was still dirt on his boots.

His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

He had just finished a full day of work, and his body carried the scents of sunlight, earth, and sweat.

Hearing that, he hesitated and said, “Your family won’t approve of you drinking with a Female Zerg farm employee.”

That really was a problem.

Shamir had a guilty conscience and was also afraid of being “caught” by his parents, so he had already made preparations.

Shamir quickly looked around, covered his face, and whispered, “My Female Father and Male Father go to sleep early. My brothers all have things to do today and aren’t here. We can do it secretly.”

Secretly.

At night.

A private rendezvous.

Ravens’s heart thudded heavily.

He couldn’t resist the temptation and agreed.

A Female Zerg’s willpower was very limited in front of a Male Zerg.

Any principle could make way for a Male Zerg.

Much less an invitation like this.

That night, Ravens avoided all the guards and the farm’s patrol robot Zergs and slipped into Shamir’s courtyard.

He was a Super-A-rank Female Zerg and extremely skilled.

As long as he wanted to, he could avoid every Zerg’s eyes and ears.

But this was the first time he had ever used his abilities for something like this.

Yet when he saw Shamir open the window and smile at him from within the warm glow of light, he suddenly felt that this was exactly what a Female Zerg’s abilities were meant to be used for.

If they couldn’t be used to pursue a Male Zerg, then the meaning of a Female Zerg possessing such great strength would be greatly diminished.

Ravens walked toward the window in a daze and came before Shamir.

Shamir’s head also grew hot at the sight of Ravens arriving beneath the moonlight.

He nearly forgot himself completely.

He even forgot that there was a door and almost let Ravens climb in through the window.

Fortunately, at the last moment, he remembered.

He stopped Ravens, who was already preparing to climb through the window, and opened the door for him instead.

Thinking about how he had almost simply let Ravens climb into his room through the window, Shamir’s face heated with embarrassment.

If Ravens had really come in through the window, the meaning would have changed.

It really would have seemed like a secret rendezvous.

The kind where, if they were caught, the Female Zerg’s legs would be broken.

But all they were doing was secretly drinking a beverage that adult Zergs were allowed to drink behind their parents’ backs.

Ravens came in through the side door.

Shamir had already prepared everything.

At a small table lit by candlelight, he poured him a nectar-and-fruit drink.

Ravens also took out some small pastries he had made from his spatial button.

They were still hot, exactly as if they had just come out of the oven, giving off a sweet and appetizing aroma.

They sat across from each other around the little wooden table in the dim room lit only by candlelight.

They ate pastries and drank honey wine, like two small animals sharing food inside a tree hollow during winter.

The atmosphere between them was even more intimate than that.

Without realizing it, Shamir sat a little closer to Ravens, until his shoulder was almost touching Ravens’s arm.

After all, they had ten years of experience as lovers.

They were extremely familiar with each other’s bodies and accustomed to more intimate physical contact.

They had long since become used to this kind of contact and felt no resistance toward it at all.

For one moment, Ravens nearly reached out on instinct and pulled Shamir into his arms.

But reason ultimately made him restrain himself.

He lowered his eyes and looked at Shamir, whose face showed the faint flush of drunkenness.

Without making a fuss, he took the wine cup from Shamir’s hand and stuffed a fruit that helped relieve drunkenness into it instead.

Shamir held the green-skinned fruit in his hands, looking slightly confused.

After a while, he raised his eyes and asked Ravens, “When are you leaving?”

He truly wasn’t very clear-headed.

Otherwise, he never would have asked when Ravens planned to leave the farm.

It was also the question he cared about most, which was why it slipped out unconsciously after he got drunk.

Ravens thought he was asking when he intended to leave this room.

He really should leave earlier.

But Shamir’s condition made him somewhat uneasy, so after thinking about it, he said, “I’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

As for what would happen if Shamir’s family discovered him...

Ravens decided to leave that problem to tomorrow’s Ravens.

The moment Shamir heard that Ravens was leaving tomorrow, he immediately became unhappy.

He pursed his lips and shoved at Ravens’s arm, trying to drive him away.

He failed to move Ravens at all.

Instead, the force made Shamir himself lose his balance.

It was rare for Ravens to see such a childish side of Shamir.

He froze for a moment.

Only when he saw Shamir’s body sway and begin falling to the side did he quickly reach out to catch him.

The Male Zerg’s soft, fragrant body fell into his arms.

Ravens was still somewhat unable to react.

Then he discovered that the Male Zerg in his arms was still pushing him.

The half-drunk Male Zerg had no sense of his own strength.

He grabbed the clothes over Ravens’s chest and shoved at him, his fingers digging tightly into the muscles underneath.

Ravens didn’t find it painful.

A Male Zerg’s strength couldn’t hurt a Female Zerg.

It simply felt a little too good, so much so that Ravens sucked in a sharp breath and hesitated, unsure whether he should pry the Male Zerg’s hands away.

“You leave,” the Male Zerg said to him.

There was dissatisfaction in his tone, along with a faint trace of hidden coquettishness and grievance.

Shamir was an actor.

Some of his gestures and emotions naturally carried traces of performance and were more exaggerated and outwardly expressed than those of ordinary Zergs.

When sober, he could control it.

After drinking, however, it became very obvious.

Ravens had watched many of Shamir’s films.

He wasn’t so incapable that he couldn’t distinguish what Shamir truly meant.

He said he wanted Ravens to leave.

But in reality, he didn’t want him to go.

Shamir wanted him to stay?

That uncertain realization made Ravens hold Shamir a little tighter.

“I’m not leaving,” Ravens told Shamir. “I’ll take care of you and wait until you wake up.”

Hearing Ravens say he would take care of him, Shamir looked a little pleased.

But he also didn’t quite believe him.

“Only a Female Lord would keep taking care of a Male Zerg forever.”

Ravens fell silent and didn’t answer.

He knew perfectly well that it was inappropriate for a Female Zerg with no acknowledged status to remain in a Male Zerg’s room in the middle of the night to care for him.

But Female Lord...

Marriage was still far too distant from them.

He wasn’t sure what kind of answer Shamir wanted.

Would he be his Female Lord?

Could he be his Female Lord?

Shamir didn’t insist on receiving an answer.

He fell asleep.

Leaning against Ravens’s chest, he slept sweetly.

Ravens supported Shamir as his body slowly slid downward, gathered him into his arms, looked around the room, then carried him toward the bed in the bedroom.

As he lowered the Male Zerg onto the bed, Shamir hooked his arms around Ravens’s neck.

Ravens sucked in a sharp breath.

It took enormous willpower not to fall down with the Male Zerg.

No.

At least not now.

What he wanted was for Shamir to accept him while fully awake and rational, to fall in love with him.

Not to take advantage of Shamir while he was drunk.

How would that be any different from exploiting someone when they were vulnerable?

If it were some other Female Zerg, he might simply go along with it.

Getting to spend one night with a Male Zerg wouldn’t be a loss.

Even if all he did was hold the Male Zerg while sleeping, Male Zergs were fragrant and sweet.

They were comfortable to hold.

But Ravens cherished Shamir far more seriously and solemnly.

He also valued the feelings between them much more, and had higher expectations and hopes for them.

Ravens stayed beside Shamir’s bed and quietly watched him.

Just like back then at the spaceport on Capital Star, when he had watched over the Male Zerg who had arrived alone on Capital Star and fallen asleep in the public lounge, then left just before he was about to wake.

Shamir hazily opened his eyes.

In the morning light, he smelled a familiar scent.

Pheromones like gunpowder and firearms...

Yet instead of making a Zerg feel threatened, they gave him a sense of safety, as if he were being protected.

There was already no other Zerg in the room.

The window was open, and sunlight and the morning breeze poured in together.

Under a Male Zerg’s powerful Psychic Force, every memory from last night returned in full.

Shamir instantly sat bolt upright in bed.

......]