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“A31, you say?” I rummaged through a messy cabinet of bottles to finally find the vial labelled ‘A31’ and passed it to Lixiang. “Here you go.”

“Thanks. As I’d expect of someone as highly intelligent as His Highness. Being able to accurately pinpoint the correct ingredients, without any heed for his own safety whatsoever as well. Such a perfect person… No – a Deity!”

“Lixiang… can you not do that… you’re making me embarrassed here…”

“Your Highness is too modest. But since Your Highness does not like it, then this one will be more careful in the future.” Lixiang answered while continuing to work on her little project. “By the way, this one seems to remember seeing Qiaoqiao running out of the room while crying. Did something happen, Your Highness?”

“Oh. Errr…” I smiled sheepishly. “You can say a lot happened…”

“Your Highness, a girl’s feelings are very delicate. If this matter with Qiaoqiao ends up dragging on, it won’t be good. Your Highness should go have a look, it’s Your Highness’s harem after all.”

“Cough… what do you mean harem…” I quietly eyed Floater from the corner of my eye and found, to my relief, that she did not even bat an eye.

Perhaps she didn’t hear our little exchange… Speaking of which, I recall Lixiang being pretty close with Qiaoqiao, seeing as Bitong is their common enemy… Well, enemy in a loose sense anyway…

Giving it a little thought, I found that Lixiang’s advice was reasonable, thus I quickly gave Floater an excuse before running after Qiaoqiao.

At the entrance of the lab, Qiaoqiao was still huddled up in Bitong’s arms, drying her eyes as Bitong comforted her. The storm seemed to be over from the looks of things.

However, the moment Qiaoqiao discovered my presence, she immediately went red in the cheeks as she glared at me. “Big brother, you meanie!”

“I…” Honestly speaking, being treated like an enemy by Qiaoqiao was like having a dagger through my heart.

Was I really that bad?

“Big brother bullied me! Qiaoqiao doesn’t like you anymore! Go away! Qiaoqiao doesn’t want you here!” As she started yelling, her tears started to flow again. This time, the crying was extra piercing.

Sigh… our little Qiaoqiao really has a way with words. That was like having a second dagger in my heart… Now I feel like crying as well… Crap, I think she’s really angry with me…

Bitong leaned and whispered into the girl’s ears, after which she looked away from me with a huff.

“Ke, come over here for a second.” Bitong said after whispering into Qiaoqiao.

I immediately ran over, not daring to waste a second more.

Qiaoqiao did not push me away, but she kept looking away as before. Was this what they meant by “see no evil?”

“Sis…” Just as I stopped before the two girls, Bitong nimbly stepped behind me, then gave me a gentle shove.

Normally, I did not have my guard up against the girls, so when she shoved me, my body just fell forward without resistance.

I stumbled a couple of steps forward, falling coincidentally onto Qiaoqiao…

Naturally, I wasn’t about to hurt the little girl, so I quickly spread my arms open in an impromptu hug…

“Ah… Big brother, what do you think you’re doing…” I was quickly assaulted by Qiaoqiao’s distinctive fragrance. Her delicate little body seized up for a second but quickly relaxed herself after recovering from the surprise. She closed her eyes gently and leaned on my chest, ears and cheeks blushing a little.

“Hmph. Don’t think Qiaoqiao has forgiven you so easily…”

Eh? So I don’t have to apologise for suddenly hugging her? And she’s not going to slap me for being lecherous? And how did this turn into a question of forgiveness? She seems to have forgiven me too.

Eh? Meh. At least she’s quietened down.

“Qiaoqiao, it’s not that I wanted to raise my voice at you… I just hope that you can be more accommodating of Floater.”

“Okay… Qiaoqiao will listen to big brother.”

That’s it? So all I had to do was give her a hug?

I gingerly asked, “And you promise you won’t throw a tantrum again?”

“Mhm.”

“Then…”

“If big brother keeps pushing his luck, Qiaoqiao will get angry…”

“…”

I guess she’s still the same old Qiaoqiao, almost thought I had it there.

By the time I was done placating Qiaoqiao, fifteen minutes had passed. When I returned to the lab, I stumbled upon a scene that I would have never thought possible had I not seen it with my own two eyes.

Bitong and Lixiang were currently in the midst of a discussion. The two weren’t quarrelling for once. In fact, they seemed to be hitting it off…

Is the world about to implode on itself? What happened to a leopard never changes its spots?

“Huh? When did big sister Bitong and big sister Lixiang get along so well?” Even Qiaoqiao was caught off-guard by the sudden development. “But if they are together now… what about Qiaoqiao?”

What is that supposed to mean?

Once I got close to the pair, I overheard a Bitong talking about a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo.

“Bio-exosuits are a lot harder than the flesh of their Primal beast sources, thanks to the metal infused into them. But they shouldn’t be stronger than our strongest alloy, the Hagridite alloy. Their strongest point would be that they can regenerate. Maybe… we can even add on a skeletal carapace of sorts, but the process might be complicated…”

“This one has considered that option before. For now, the practical solution would be to use this nutrient solution as a replacement. A carapace isn’t something we can complete in the short term. Our defenses are already good enough as is – we can put that matter aside for later.” Lixiang answered confidently. “Hmm. For a mortal, the girl knows a lot.”

“I am a hacker. I sometimes stumble across information normal people wouldn’t see.”

“Actually, this one has been researching this matter in her home for the past year. But for a variety of reasons, this one hasn’t started the experimentation phase yet. Who would have thought that this one would suddenly stumble upon such an opportunity.”

As we got closer to the petri dish-like vat, we discovered, to our astonishment, that the unfinished exosuit had undergone radical changes in our absence.

Fifteen minutes ago, the exosuit was still missing a leg and an arm. Right now, it seemed like that arm was there from the very beginning. However, its leg was still missing.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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