Chapter 47
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Suddenly being hugged, Yomi quickly raised the flashlight to look at him.
Nothing was hurting somewhere, right?
The other man said nothing and only held him tighter.
Yomi became even more worried and reached out to feel around carefully. Only Anxius’s ears were exposed on his head, so Yomi touched one—and the moment he did, he nearly jumped. Why was it so hot?!
“Do you have a fever? I’m going to get Yesi!” Yomi said seriously.
But the moment he got up, Anxius grabbed him. “It’s not a fever. This is normal temperature. Don’t go…”
“Normal temperature?” Yomi suspiciously kept touching him. Somehow, the more he touched, the hotter it seemed. He did not dare keep going. “It really isn’t a fever?”
After two seconds of silence, the other man said, “After human-form surgery, body temperature runs a little high. It’s nothing serious.”
“Then do you need medicine right now?”
“No.”
Yomi looked at Anxius’s wristband again. It was a medical wristband specifically for monitoring his condition, and there really were no abnormal alerts on it. Only then did Yomi’s tense little body relax again. He asked, “Y-you suddenly woke up… Do you know we’re on Junk Star now?”
Anxius gave a low hum. He pulled away the pillow between them, then reached out to feel Yomi’s bedding. The spot that had been warm before was already cool now. Seeing the way Yomi had curled his neck back from the cold, Anxius directly lifted his blanket and pulled him inside.
Yomi let out a startled sound.
“It’s warm in here,” Anxius said.
It really was warm, but Yomi hesitated. “If I move around in my sleep, I might bump into your injuries…”
“I won’t,” Anxius shook his head. “These bandages function like plaster. My body doesn’t actually have as many external wounds as you think. Even if you touch me, it’s fine.”
Yomi blinked in surprise. “Huh? Weren’t you literally carved into human form?”
“…No.” The man seemed to laugh.
So he had been overthinking it. Yomi finally relaxed. Sitting up, he took off the thick padded coat he had on outside, and his round little shape instantly became much slimmer. A little embarrassed, he slipped into Anxius’s blanket and was immediately overwhelmed by the happiness of all that cozy warmth inside.
Anxius really did run hot. Even an electric blanket might not have worked this well. Still, Yomi felt he had to be cautious, so nestled beside him, he said, “If I bump you in my sleep and it hurts, tell me right away. I’ll go back to my own bedding.”
The other man seemed not to hear him. He only held Yomi’s hand tightly, his deep gaze falling on the swirl of hair at the top of Yomi’s head. In this human body of his now, he could finally hold Yomi completely in his arms.
But Anxius did no such thing. He tucked in the blanket on Yomi’s side, waited until he was asleep, then leaned down and carefully pressed close to that slightly cool little face through the bandages.
His lips moved faintly, brushing against Yomi’s cheek. But with so many bandages in the way, it was inconvenient, so he failed to actually steal a kiss.
A moment later, Anxius, wrapped all over in bandages, pressed against Yomi’s cheek and sniffed at him like a wild dog.
Half-asleep, Yomi gradually became aware of the warm breath on his face. Alert in an instant, he wriggled backward. In only a few seconds, he changed from sleeping lengthwise to sleeping crosswise, putting his face as far from Anxius as possible.
“…”
The person inside the bandages froze, seeming to think he had frightened him, and awkwardly leaned closer again. But the very next second, what appeared in front of his eyes was a pair of little bare feet.
Yomi was sleeping soundly, dreaming a beautiful dream. He dreamed that he was warming himself by a fire. First his cheeks got all warm, then his body too—but the soles of his feet were still a little cold. So he quickly stretched his feet out and set them against that ball of warmth.
Hehe, so warm.
Anxius stared at the little feet in front of him. “…”
Lowering his gaze, he looked at Yomi’s posture, which seemed to say, Don’t forget my little feet too, and gently gathered both feet into his arms. Once they were completely warmed through, he pulled Yomi back into his embrace altogether.
When Yomi woke the next morning, he was full of energy. He had slept so well last night. A warm blanket really did make all the difference!
Anxius waking up made Yesi extremely excited. Now that he was awake, it meant the surgery had been a success. As long as he rested and recovered properly for a while, he would be able to live like a normal person in the future.
After learning that the crown prince was alright too, Karl peacefully ate two huge bowls of porridge. His whole face seemed full of motivation, as if he could march back and reclaim Snar Star tomorrow.
Life still had to go on. Yesi prepared to make a trip into town, partly to buy everyone new local communicator accounts, and partly to purchase necessary medicine and living supplies. After all, there was far too little stuff at the farm. But such a trip would definitely take until evening, and Linda was worried, so she decided to go with him.
The couple had lived on Junk Star for many years and were much more familiar with the local situation.
Once Yesi and Linda left, the people remaining behind were, aside from the two patients, all members of the Mimi Stinky Tofu team. They were all young and energetic to begin with, and after resting for two days, they were all getting a bit restless.
There was no meat in the house right now, and since they had only just arrived, none of them dared go hunting so soon. After discussing it, they decided to go fish by the little river near the farm instead and try to improve their meals a little.
There were ready-made fishing rods at the farm. After lunch, the group started preparing bait.
The five of them divided the work like this: before dark, each person would take turns looking after the patients for one hour. That way, everyone could fish, and the patients would not get bored from staring at the same person all the time.
Everyone: But if it’s Yomi staying behind, no one would get bored at all, right!
Yomi was scheduled first. He began by taking care of the two patients—running into Karl’s room now and then to tuck in the blanket, then into Anxius’s room to check the temperature of his ears. Before long he was back holding a cup and asking Karl whether he wanted water, then back over to Anxius’s side to curl up against him and nap for twenty minutes. When he got up, he heard Karl calling him, and only then learned that Karl wanted him to eat some of his nutritional supplements. Yomi felt a bit embarrassed, but he really was greedy for them too. Some of Karl’s supplements were sweet, almost like snacks. Yomi only ate half of the portion Karl gave him, then brought the rest to Anxius and asked whether he wanted to try some.
Anxius naturally did not eat any. Instead, when he saw Yomi getting thirsty, he gave him some of his own supplement drink.
Hearing that it was good for strengthening bones, Yomi tried a small sip. Ah, not bad at all… In just that one short hour, he had kept himself very busy indeed.
Once the time was up, Arlo came to take over Yomi’s shift. After giving a few instructions, Yomi went off to fish, rubbing his full belly.
Arlo was not close with those two, and he knew they probably did not want awkward conversation with him any more than he wanted it himself. So he simply sat on the sofa between their rooms and told them to call him if they needed anything. The result was that he spent the whole hour just sitting there in a daze: good heavens, these two patients were both so low-maintenance, how on earth had Yomi managed to find so many things to do?
By the river near the farm, Yomi went fishing together with Lynn and the others.
Throughout the afternoon, the people around him changed shifts again and again, but they ended up catching quite a lot of fish.
Lynn, Meikai, Harvey, and Arlo each caught one or two fish. Some of them were even very fat. Only Yomi caught nothing. Instead, he reeled in a large piece of trash—a plastic canister.
It was the kind of big snack can sold at supermarkets. Feeling dejected, Yomi squatted by the water and washed the can. But as he scrubbed, he discovered the words One More Free printed on it as a winning mark.
The boys who had still been trying hard to figure out how to comfort him saw that and instantly broke into loud celebration. “You can even win a prize while fishing! Yomi, you’re so lucky!”
Yomi laughed too. Although he had no idea whether the can really could be exchanged for a free tub of snacks at the town shop, his mood immediately brightened. He felt as though the god of luck had personally favored him.
By the time they headed back at dusk, Yesi and Linda had just returned as well. Linda was walking in front. She saw that several of the boys were each carrying fish threaded on branches, while only Yomi was holding the cleaned plastic can, with one tiny fish swimming inside it.
Linda looked pleasantly surprised. “Did you catch that? It’s still alive.”
Yomi smiled. “Mm. I caught this can, and Lynn said we probably won’t be going back into town anytime soon, so it shouldn’t just sit empty during that time. So we caught a little fish and kept it in there.”
As if afraid Linda would laugh, Arlo hurriedly shot his mother a look.
Linda held it in. But the moment she turned back around, she and her husband both broke into smiles.
…For some reason, it suddenly felt like they were raising a whole group of children.
Since a trip into town was not easy, Yesi and Linda had brought back a great many things: food, medicine, and daily necessities.
After distributing everyone’s new local accounts, Yesi went off to sort the medicine.
Today’s haul had been quite good, so Linda decided to make a proper feast. She went to prepare the meat they had bought, planning to steam braised pork, stir-fry a few dishes, and let everyone have a really satisfying meal.
The Mimi group was not idle either. As the former owner of Mimi Stinky Tofu, Yomi led his “employees” in using some of the newly bought eggs to make a whole pot of tea eggs, enough to keep eating tomorrow. They also marinated and hung up the fish they could not finish eating today. Wearing his little apron, Yomi looked extremely serious, every bit like a great chef. Under Chef Mimi’s brigade, the entire team obediently lined up and followed his orders.
The final dinner was incredibly rich: braised pork, side dishes, fish soup, and all kinds of homemade skewers fried together by the Mimi chef team.
The two patients were helped over too by Yesi. For now they could only eat light foods, especially Anxius, who mostly just drank fish soup. He did not have much appetite, and after eating, he kept sneaking glances at Yomi from the corner of his eye.
The boys at the table all ate like they had been starving for days, and Yomi was no exception. In an environment that was already far from ideal, suddenly being able to eat such a lavish meal left both body and soul unspeakably satisfied. His appetite rose with it too—he felt like he could eat ten more bowls!
Ten bowls was, of course, impossible. Yomi was small and did not eat much; after one bowl, he was already stuffed.
After the meal, Yomi started thinking about what to do with the fish inside the plastic can. He wanted to keep it in his room, but when Yesi heard that, he shook his head. “That can is too small. At night, the water will freeze.”
At that, Yomi frowned deeply. He felt that made perfect sense. He immediately called Lynn and the others, and together they went outside to release the little fish back into the river. On the way back, Arlo’s playful side took over. Excited, he scooped up a snowball and threw it at them. Very quickly, the whole group was running along the road, hurling snowballs at one another until they came back inside covered in snow.
It was cold, and there was no other entertainment. After laughing and chatting for a while, they all eventually gave in to sleepiness and returned to their rooms.
Yomi, however, went to the washroom and carefully scrubbed the plastic can he had fished up. He had just realized that the can was exactly the right size to use as a foot-soaking bucket!
Now that it was cold, how wonderful would it be to soak his feet? But all the basins and buckets here were too big—once filled with water, they were inconvenient to move around. This large plastic can, on the other hand, was perfect.
After cleaning it thoroughly, he used it that very night. Sitting on a little stool, he swished his feet back and forth in the hot water. Then, noticing the gaze from the bed, he kindly invited, “Anxius, do you want to soak your feet too?”
Anxius looked at the plastic bucket, then at Yomi’s feet. For one moment he was genuinely tempted. But even though his human form was smaller now, he was still 1.9 meters tall, and his hands and feet were a full size larger than Yomi’s… In order not to squash Yomi’s precious foot-soaking bucket, Anxius softly shook his head, his eyes gentle.
And so life at the country farm on Junk Star truly began.
Now that he had no job, Yomi found something for himself to do every day. For example, repairing the farm.
Repairing such a huge farm and all those buildings was very difficult for him, but Yomi possessed the will of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains. He believed that as long as he did a little every day, enough time would surely produce astonishing changes.
For instance, like right now—picking up a large nail from one of the ruined buildings and putting it into a storage box.
Anxius and Karl recovered well. During the daytime, they gradually started sleeping less and were already able to get out of bed using things to brace themselves.
When the sun was out, Karl would sit in the farmyard and bask in it. Anxius, however, disliked appearing outside in a weak state, so he rarely went out. But he could not sit idle either. Every day, using a backup communicator, he played downloaded videos about sewing and knitting, learning how to knit towels and sweaters… and judging from the size, it was obvious that only the very smallest person in the household would be able to wear them!
When the weather was nice, Anxius would open the window and, while learning to knit sweaters, secretly watch Yomi patrolling the farm.
Yes—Yomi was patrolling. As the farm’s nominal owner, Yomi took his sense of responsibility very seriously. He absolutely could not allow things from outside to invade.
Unfortunately, there were several mouse holes in the walls around the farm. After repeated inspection, Yomi carried over stones and stuffed them into the holes with great effort.
Arlo came running over and squatted excitedly beside him. “Mimi, what are you playing with?”
Yomi shook his head solemnly. “I’m not playing. There’s a hole here, and I’m blocking it.”
Arlo leaned forward for a look and really did discover an inconspicuous mouse hole down there. He gave an oh, while privately deciding that so this really was a game involving mouse holes… He wanted to play too!
After plugging the mouse hole, Yomi wiped his sweat and got up, heading for his next target. But after only a few steps, he was lured away by the smell of barbecue drifting from where Meikai and the others were.
Lately Meikai had been craving food badly, so he had built a little outdoor grill out of stones and was barbecuing the fish they usually caught, along with some sausages bought by Yesi and Linda.
The plump sausages sizzled and dripped oil as they roasted. Meikai quickly handed one over to the eager-eyed Yomi.
Eating the skewer, Yomi wandered around. He ate barbecue especially slowly, so slowly that it was hard for Meikai to keep feeding him more even if he wanted to. Sometimes Meikai honestly suspected he had not handed Yomi a skewer at all, but a lollipop. Otherwise, why would he eat so slowly?!
Still, eating slowly was good. It made it easier to feel full and less likely to gain weight. Yomi really was a health expert!
Nibbling his skewer as he strolled about, Yomi ended up outside Anxius’s window. Since he and Anxius had become familiar with each other now, Yomi had developed a mischievous side too. Suddenly, he wanted to tease him a little.
Yomi quietly carried over a small stool and stood on it. But the instant he popped up, he found the person inside already staring right at him.
“…” Yomi awkwardly took a bite of sausage, his eyes darting around, then pointed toward the barbecue. “Do you want some grilled skewers?”
Yesi had already said Anxius no longer had to be so strict with his diet. Eating something oily once in a while was fine now.
Anxius glanced at the sausage in Yomi’s mouth, and his lips moved slightly. “Yes.”
It was rare for Anxius to have such an appetite, so Yomi immediately jumped down from the stool, ran to Meikai for another skewer, then held it up and ran into Anxius’s room.
Anxius had already gotten out of bed. Bracing himself against the wall, he leaned down, took away the sausage from Yomi’s hand—the one with only one bite left—and ate it in a single mouthful.
Yomi did not even have time to stop him. His eyes widened. “Not that one…”
“I can only eat one bite.” Anxius gave himself a perfectly reasonable excuse. Taking out a tissue, he wiped Yomi’s mouth first, then his own. “It’s time for your nap.”
Yomi immediately started eating the new skewer. “Let me finish this first…”
Once he had dealt with the skewer, he ran off to wash his hands, took off his thick winter coat, and in one motion dived into the blanket full of warmth.
After lying there for a while, he started to feel drowsy, but then his mouth became dry. After all, he had just eaten something salty without drinking any water. But Yomi did not want to leave the bed, and instead lazily licked his lips.
If he got up, he would have to put on clothes again. More importantly, his head already felt heavy, his eyelids droopy, and even his bones seemed limp. He had absolutely no desire to move.
Sigh… if only he could drink water without getting out of bed…
As Yomi lazed in bed, mouth slightly open, feeling the scorching body heat pressed right up against him, an unspeakably embarrassing thought suddenly sprang into his mind. Yomi was deeply ashamed. He felt he was becoming lazier and more decadent by the day…
A few seconds later, Anxius suddenly heard a muffled little voice from inside the blanket: “Anxius… do you have any water over there? The kind that’s a little sweet… the bone-strengthening water. Could you let me have just one little sip more?”
