Picked up by the Protagonist of a Tormented! MC Novel

Translator: Piper Panda

Editor: Kleep

TLC: Sen

Zeno had already mentally prepared himself as to how he would pretend to be calm if it was Xi Wei who had returned. It was not like Xi Wei knew what he had just been doing anyway.

However, the person outside the door this time was not Xi Wei.

Tang Yu smiled a little, “You don’t seem to welcome me very much.”

Zeno rushed to collect the disappointment showing on his face and then asked, “It's so late, do you need anything?”

Tang Yu revealed a sad expression, “You won’t call me cousin?”

Zeno was speechless for a moment. He whispered, “Mother was already expelled from the clan by you in the past.”

You did not even acknowledge your blood related sister and aunt, but now you want to come out and acknowledge some cousin from somewhere?

Although Zeno was a very laid-back person, that did not mean that he had no temper. The matter of Evelyn's death was inseparable from them. If it were not for the Shadow race's heartless discrimination, as a member of the royal family, how could she have met such a desolate end? At that time, Tang Yu ran over to play the family card. There was no free lunch in this world, and there was no goodwill without ulterior motives. Zeno was not stupid.

Tang Yu was on the verge of tears. If Zeno did not know that 'she' was actually a 'he', he might have been moved by him.

“Zeno, I know that the things we did in the past were not right. My father also regretted that after aunt died. At the time, we thought it was just a phase. None of us expected things to turn out this way.”

His words went through Zeno’s left ear and came out his right ear. He only to felt very tired and wanted to lie down and sleep. He was too lazy to deal with Tang Yu who had a man’s body and sister's heart.

So, he nodded out of habit to indicate that he understood.

Tang Yu's eyes lit up, "So, do you agree to go back to the Shadow race clan with me?"

“What?” Zeno’s sleepiness was scared away, “When did I say I wanted to go back to the clan?”

Tang Yu looked pitiful, “Didn't you forgive us? Father wants to see you.”

“I don’t want to go to the Shadow race clan.”

“Don’t you want to know the truth about Aunt’s death? Don’t want to know who hurt you?”

Tang Yu revealed his trump card, and Zeno hesitated. He really wanted to know about Evelyn's death that was so unclear, saying he had no willingness was false.

So, could he trust Tang Yu and the Shadow race?

It was a tough choice.

When Tang Yu saw the opening, he immediately hit while the iron was hot, “Zeno, presumably you don’t want the people who killed aunt to get away with it? Also, don't you really want to know who your biological father is?”

Zeno could not make up his mind, so he had to drag things out, “About this… I can’t make the decision on my own, I have to ask Xi Wei’s opinion.”

Tang Yu was stunned, “Why do you need that human's opinion?”

Zeno's expression was very serious, "He is my Baba now."

Tang Yu apparently did not take it seriously, and gave a long sigh, “He is still a child, how can he be your father?”

Zeno was dissatisfied, “In short, if he doesn’t agree, then I won’t go.”

“That’s alright, but just in case, what if this time during the sealing of the plague demon, he does not survive?”

Zeno glared at him, “Don't say that, it's bad luck. Xi Wei will come back alive, and will live longer than you!”

Tang Yu knew that he accidentally said his true thoughts and angered this little mixed blood so he tried to remedy it, “But this is really an extremely difficult task. Do you know who the plague demon is? Even my father would have to back down to some degree. The upper demons that were born during the first era aren't any weaker than the average member of the royal family.”

Internally Zeno believed in Xi Wei's protagonist halo. How could he fall on this level of the story? However, deep in his heart he was still a bit worried, after all the Sword of the Gods had not yet landed.

He looked at Tang Yu and probed, “Since it's so dangerous, why do you want to go? Moreover you also changed into Xi Wei to fool me.”

Tang Yu's face turned serious, “We are of the Shadow race. The plague demon can't do anything to us no matter how much it rampages. The reason I can was just so that it'd be easier to bring you back to the clan.”

Sure enough, the demon race does not beat around the bush.

When it came to this, Zeno's eyes suddenly a flashed, “Tang Yu, do you know about the Sword of the Gods?”

“If I tell you, will you follow me?”

Zeno ambiguously said, “Let's set that aside for after.”

Tang Yu did not continue pressing, but replied kindly, “I heard a bit about it from my father. The Sword of the Gods is just a general name. The world thinks that it is simply a sword. Actually it is not. In this world, there is a handful of gods that are supreme existences. They call weapons formed from the crystallization of energy from the gods, sacred vessels. So the Sword of the Gods is just a sword formed from the power of a god. There aren't many gods who use swords, so there's only so many God Swords that have made a name for themselves.”

Zeno asked, “Which ones are they?”

“The holy light sword made by the Goddess of Light, the holy judgement sword from the Goddess of Darkness, Chen Yuan sword from the god of war, and I'm not very clear about the rest.”

Zeno heard a familiar name in his words, hesitatingly confirming, “Chen Yuan… Sword?”

Tang Yu nodded yes.

Zeno restrained the excitement in his heart, silently reciting to himself not to panic and carefully confirmed, “Do you know the characteristics of the Chen Yuan Sword?”

Tang Yu looked down and thought about it. “It seems that the blade is dark and heavy. And because it is the sword of the God of War, it has a very murderous aura.”

The black and heavy attributes were exactly like the Chen Yuan Sword in Xi Wei's possession. As for the murderous aura, Zeno really had no clue.

“Then do you know the whereabouts of Chen Yuan Sword?”

There was a look of hope on Zeno's face.

Tang Yu could not help smiling, “As if you could get the Chen Yuan Sword. At the end of the last era, the God of War gave the Chen Yuan Sword to the unicorn clan. It is impossible to get the Chen Yuan Sword.”

Zeno blinked, filled with the feeling of a meat pie falling from the sky.

Chen Yuan Sword, kept by the unicorn clan. If anyone said that Xi Wei's Chen Yuan Sword from the Unicorn clan was not a sword of the gods, Zeno would not believe them.

It was truly an example of 'traveling far and wide looking for something, only to find it easily.'

However, he could not tell Tang Yu that, so Zeno made a frustrated expression, “Is there really no way to get it?”

Tang Yu shrugged, suggesting that he could not help.

Zeno pretended have lost hope, “That’s alright.”

He put on a face that said there was nothing more to say.

Tang Yu saw that his mood was down, so he thought about it for a moment. It seemed he was too hasty so he left thoughtfully.

The minute his foot was out the door, Zeno dropped his disappointed facade. He waited for a while, before quietly opening the door and making sure that Tang Yu was no longer there, then snuck to Xi Wei's door and knocked.

His knocking was actually very light, but the vigilant Xi Wei still heard it.

“Who?”

Zeno whispered, “It’s me.”

The door opened instantly, it seemed as if Xi Wei had been waiting for him.

Zeno creeped in like a thief and closed the door.

Xi Wei seemed to have just showered. He was only wearing one simple article of clothing and his face said, 'You better give me an explanation'.

Zeno could barely hide his excitement as he took a deep breath to find his voice, “I know where the Sword of the Gods is.”

Xi Wei's hair was still dripping. He squeezed his hair dry and went to the table to pour a glass of water before handing it to Zeno, "Slowly."

When Zeno looked back he saw a drop of water slowly falling right into the crevice created by Xi Wei's mermaid line that ran along his abdomen. He could not help but feel a little thirsty. Since he happened to be given water, he downed it all in one gulp.

Then he rushed to the bed, grabbed the Chen Yuan Sword and began to laugh foolishly, “Chen Yuan Sword is a Sword of the Gods. There is a way to seal the plague demon.”

Xi Wei's eyes showed a little surprise, but he still had a few doubts, "Where did you learn this?"

Zeno hesitated a bit, before explaining most of it. He only concealed he and Tang Yu's relationship, merely saying that Tang Yu was very knowledgeable.

Xi Wei frowned, “Are you sure she didn’t lie to you?”

Zeno frowned and thought, “He¹ shouldn’t know that the Chen Yuan Sword is in our hands, but he knew that Chen Yuan Sword was with in the unicorn family. It is very unlikely that he lied to me.”

Xi Wei nodded and took a towel from the shelf to wipe his hair. His lowered head posture was indescribably sexy. Zeno looked at him and felt a little thirsty again. He felt that he'd been sort of abnormal recently, and every time he saw Xi Wei, he felt strange.

Zeno's voice gradually lowered as he spoke to Xi Wei without a pause.

Originally, he was very sleepy. He had been occupied with this and that back and forth and had not been able to sleep. However, now that he laid in Xi Wei's bed while holding Chen Yuan his eyelids were unable to stay open. When Xi Wei finished drying his hair, he found that someone had already fallen asleep.

Yes, that time he really fell asleep.

Staring at his sleeping face for a while, Xi Wei tossed aside his towel with a blank expression and felt like he was leering at a blind man.

Since he fell asleep, then just let him sleep. The future was long, anyway.

Since there was a way to seal the demon, Xi Wei's tight nerves slightly relaxed.

He also had some free time to consider some other issues, such as the question of finding a partner that Suji had previously mentioned.

Someone he could accept,who would wholehearted think for his sake, and that he also liked. Thinking of it like that, there would not be a second person who could meet those criteria.

Xi Wei grew up in such an environment that the universal morality and values ​​were meaningless to him. What 'only a man and a woman is natural,', what 'he can't because Zeno was raised by him,' etc etc. Those principles were nonsense.

There were no three views in Xi Wei's worldly views.

Yet even if Xi Wei did not have three views, that did not mean he did not understand the three views of others. He was the kind of person who held other peoples' rules in contempt, yet knew them inside out.

Seeing that Zeno would not seem to accept it now, Xi Wei decided to cook the frog in warm water².

To say that Xi Wei's feelings for Zeno were special, it was very special, but it was not necessarily love. For Xi Wei, love, those four letters were just a joke.

He did not need love, he only needed that one person.

Author's note: Plainly speaking, Xi Wei doesn't actually fully understand his own feelings, it's more like he just feels possessive.

Hey guys it's been a while since I last saw you huh? A lot has happened in these 2 weeks, my new classes started and I got my first car. So I have been adjusting to the new schedule and exploring my new-found freedom. JK, been driving between schools, I take jap classes in one farther away and my other classes in one more near by because Jap isn't offered in any colleges nearby Orz. See you next time!

1. In chinese the characters for male and female are different but pronounced the same, so you can tell what gender they are talking about in writing, but with speaking there isn't any way of knowing unless the person uses a different, more feminine or masculine word. ↩
2. This is based on a story that basically goes like this; frogs are put in a pot of water, at first they don't want to get out because there is no reason to. Then the water starts getting warm, but it is still tolerable so no reason to panic. But the water continues rising in temperature until it is so hot the frog no longer has the ability/energy to jump out of the pot, thus it dies. You can probably understand where Xi Wei is going with his plans ;) ↩