"Happy birthday to me? The day I was born in the Weyland Laboratory was truly a day worth celebrating." The black-haired youth smiled as he looked at Huo Li.

"Should we celebrate how, exactly one year ago, a beautiful female researcher forgot to activate the lab’s isolation barrier and ended up being used as a living incubator by an alien? And how I—the little alien she carried—tore through her body to be born?"

"Xiao Yi!" Huo Li sounded a little anxious. "It doesn’t matter how you came into this world. Your birth is the greatest miracle I’ve ever witnessed! What I mean is, I’ve never met a single human—or rather, any intelligent being—like you..."

Huo Li struggled to put his thoughts into words. None of the phrases he knew seemed enough to capture what the youth made him feel. In the end, he could only say, "Someone like you… a heart so pure."

"Hahahaha!" The black-haired youth laughed so hard that he nearly teared up. "Most humans and Enhanced Parasites describe me as extremely dangerous or absolutely terrifying! These grand words truly suit my brilliance and might. But you? You came up with something so ridiculously sentimental."

But Huo Li didn’t laugh. "Xiao Yi, I am serious."

The youth’s laughter finally died down as he clutched his stomach. After a long moment, he turned to Huo Li and said, "Do you really understand me? Sure, you’ve read all my memories—but I was only three years old back then. How can I not be pure!"

Huo Li laughed, ruffling Xiao Yi’s hair. "Well, you’re only four years old today. Come on, let’s celebrate your birthday. No more talking about all that."

Huo Li handed the candles to Xiao Yi and watched as the youth carefully arranged them on the cake with the same level of focus one might use to build a castle. He placed them in a perfect square before lighting them one by one.

Satisfied, the youth admired the cake's centerpiece—a delicate, crisp little cabbage* sculpted from cream—before turning to Huo Li.

*T/N: It's actually '白菜,' which is Chinese cabbage or bok choy in English! Not cabbage! I love cabbage, but bok choy has a special place in my heart, and it would have been funnier (at least for me) if I knew it was bok choy when I first read that ark :'). Anyways, for consistency, I'll stick with cabbage XD

"This cake looks pretty nice! Good choice of design. If you had dared to carve a hundred tiny guardians on it like the people of Planet D, I might’ve smashed the whole thing into your face."

Huo Li, who had been agonizing over whether to go with a guardian or a cabbage just two hours ago, let out a relieved sigh.

"Make a wish, Xiao Yi," Huo Li spoke gently.

The black-haired youth obediently closed his eyes, his thoughts a mystery. He stayed like that for a full minute before finally opening them again, looking pleased. Then, he blew out the candles one by one in a clockwise order.

Turning to Huo Li, he stated with a grin. "I made a particularly evil wish."

Huo Li chuckled. "Oh? What is it?"

"How could I possibly reveal the evil side of my heart to anyone," the black-haired youth said. Then, in a quieter voice, he added, "But whether it comes true or not… that depends on you."

"Xiao Yi, how could someone like you possibly have an evil side?"

Huo Li assumed the youth was just joking. Back in the zombie world, when he had mistakenly taken Xiao Yi as an enemy and read his memories, he had clearly seen how, in the first three years of Xiao Yi’s existence, the only thing he had ever received from humans—and even the main system—was malice.

And yet, his mind had remained as pure and untainted as a motionless lake.

If not for his position as the strongest ability user among humans, Huo Li—despite his 3,000 years of life—would never have believed that an alien’s greatest wish was simply to buy a small house with a garden and spend his days sitting by the window, drinking a cup of coffee like an ordinary person.

No one else in the world would ever believe in Xiao Yi. No one but him.

For a moment, Huo Li felt a twinge of heartache for the four-year-old child in front of him.

Meanwhile, the black-haired youth watched as Huo Li carefully carved a neat circle around the cake’s centerpiece—the cream-sculpted cabbage—using a small plastic knife. He then scooped it up along with the cake beneath it and placed it onto his plate.

Taking the plate, Xiao Yi looked up and said, "Huo Li, have you ever considered that the four-year-old me is already a completely different person from who I was at three? Measuring me by the memories you read back then isn’t exactly accurate. For example, my greatest wish now has nothing to do with houses or coffee." People change, and so do Aliens.

But the moment he mentioned the wish again, Huo Li’s thoughts veered off in an unexpected direction.

Just earlier, Xiao Yi had said that whether his new wish would come true depended on him. Could it be that Xiao Yi was waiting for his... confession?

So, just as the black-haired youth scooped up a large bite of cake and put it into his mouth, Huo Li, nervous and uncertain, blurted out:

“Xiao Yi, are you willing to be my boyfriend?”

"Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Thus, the black-haired youth immediately choked on his mouthful of cake. But with quick thinking, he temporarily merged his trachea and esophagus, cleverly resolving the issue.

After swallowing the cake, he raised an eyebrow at Huo Li. "You do realize I’m only four years old, right? My birthday isn’t even over yet. ‘The strongest Ability User of the Salvation Alliance, confessing to a newbie on his fourth birthday’—don’t you think that’s a little…?"

"Xiao Yi, I’m serious."

This time, Huo Li didn’t joke along. Instead, he met the youth’s gaze head-on, his voice steady.

"Xiao Yi, ever since I met you in the zombie world, I have always liked you… but I never dared to say it. I know that even though you’re only four years old this year, your mind surpasses that of any human in the world.

For thousands of years, I’ve seen every stain on humanity, every bit of fear and hatred they’ve held toward my ability. I spent over 2,000 years as an SSS-ranked Savior in the Salvation Alliance, watching generation after generation of saviors live and die, yet not a single Ability User has ever harbored even the slightest bit of love for me. Xiao Yi, do you know why?"

The black-haired youth avoided his gaze, lowering his head. He stared silently at the piece of cake, standing foolishly like the missing yolk from a fried egg.

Huo Li continued, "They know what my ability is. No one can stand having the ugly side of their hearts exposed to their lover. Beauty—that’s what love is built upon. But my power forces me to see people as they truly are. In these three thousand years, every person I’ve met has felt either fear or resentment toward my ability. The only difference is whether they suppress it with reason and to what extent.

Until I met you."

Huo Li leaned forward and gently took hold of the youth’s wrist, but Xiao Yi still didn’t look up. Unconsciously, the youth's wrist began to shift—inky black threads emerged, twisting lazily around Huo Li’s fingers in loops, tightening, loosening, and tightening again as if killing time.

"Xiao Yi, do you know what I saw when I seized control of your mind? I actually sensed a faint trace of… anticipation. You’ve been misunderstood by humans for so long that, beyond your anger at being offended, a part of you even liked my ability."

"That’s because I was waiting for you to get slapped in the face!" the black-haired youth retorted, unable to hold back. "See? An alien really doesn’t want to destroy the world! And yet you idiots—always guarding against me, docking my points, exiling me from the Salvation Alliance’s base—always treating me like a threat!"

"Cough, cough," Huo Li cleared his throat awkwardly before regaining his composure. Then he looked at Xiao Yi seriously and said, "Xiao Yi, you have no idea how much it shook me when I saw what was in your heart. I know you’re still young. I’ll wait for you—for ten years, a hundred years, however long it takes for you to get used to my presence."

The black-haired youth narrowed his eyes. "I’m an alien. Do you trust me?"

Huo Li replied with quiet conviction, "Xiao Yi, I entrusted my life to you a long time ago. Back in the nuclear wasteland, when you turned me into some kind of small figurine—if you had truly wanted to kill me, I would have died a long time ago. After all, my ability can’t exist without my body. Without the main system’s recall function, I wouldn’t have survived more than a few seconds in the void."

'Can I really trust him?' The black-haired youth struggled internally.

"What exactly is the foundation of this trust between us?" Xiao Yi asked. "Is it because I don’t have an ability, while you can seize control of every part of my alien body at any time? Or is it because you can’t control my Black Thread manipulation, and all I need to do is destroy your brain to kill you instantly? Is that what our trust is built on?"

A flicker of pain and complexity crossed Huo Li’s gaze. His voice trembled slightly as he responded, "Xiao Yi, I… I trust you because I understand you. But isn’t it good that our weaknesses complement each other?"

Lies! All of it—lies!

The black-haired youth concealed all emotion from his face. "Yeah. I don’t have an ability, and you can’t manipulate my Black Thread. There’s nothing wrong with that."

Huo Li faintly sensed the shift in Xiao Yi’s emotions, but he had no idea why. Clinging to his last shred of hope, he asked softly,

"Xiao Yi, give me a chance, okay?”

Hearing the near-pleading tone in Huo Li’s voice, the black-haired youth’s heart trembled. He sighed inwardly but didn’t let a single trace of it show. Instead, he responded with an easygoing, teasing tone,

"A chance? Of course. If you go and destroy the Interstellar Federation right now, I’ll say yes."

Beneath his casual façade, he held his breath, silently waiting for Huo Li’s response.

But Huo Li, realizing Xiao Yi was deflecting with jokes again, grew more anxious and disappointed. "Xiao Yi, I’m serious."

“I'm serious, too.” the youth said with a smile.

Huo Li fell silent, and with a look of resignation, he stood up and walked toward the door. "Xiao Yi, I’m about to head to Planet G to prepare for the battle against 260,000 Enhanced Parasites. I don’t know if the Ability Users and the Interstellar Federation will win. If the moment comes, I may have no choice but to expose my ability under the watchful eyes of a million Interstellar Federation troops and the entire Star League.

When that happens, I won’t just become humanity’s greatest enemy—I’ll be rejected even by the Salvation Alliance’s hundreds of thousands of Ability Users. I may be forced to abandon the alliance and go on the run, completely alone. I just… I just wanted to know something before that...

Forget it. You’re still too young. We will always have another chance in the next hundred or even thousand years."

Huo Li sighed, then forced a light smile. "I'm sorry I messed up your birthday... Happy birthday, Xiao Yi."

Huo Li turned back and ruffled the youth’s hair with a smile.

Then, turned around on the spot and vanished into thin air.

The black-haired youth glanced at the wall clock—1:59 AM. He turned back and sat on the sofa. In the remaining sixty seconds before the hour changed, one bite at a time, he quietly finished the uniquely round piece of cake that Huo Li had given him.

The next moment, the scene around him changed, and the youth arrived at a pitch-black experiment planet where millions of Enhanced Parasitic Beasts were gathered.