The light grew blurry. Tear droplets the size of beans clung to the roots of his lashes, slowly moving to the corners of his eyes. Just as they were about to fall, they were gently kissed away, leaving only glistening traces behind.
Calloused fingertips brushed past his pale wrist and finally slipped between his fingers. His jet-black lashes suddenly fluttered—the wet, clustered strands looking especially pitiful.
After a long moment, Shi Yuxing opened his eyes and met those dark, ink-like pupils. Then he looked down. Though his voice trembled, he feigned boldness: “Not continuing?” The weight on him suddenly lifted. The one who had been restraining him—whether out of a sudden conscience or a retreat of animal instinct—said in a low, slightly hoarse voice, “I’m going to the bathroom,” and actually got off the bed without even looking at him.
The enclosed space was saturated with pheromones. Shi Yuxing felt dizzy from the smell and was even more stunned by those words.
Gu Lingzhou walked toward the bathroom, each step going against his true desires. He wanted it desperately, yet was afraid of hurting Shi Yuxing. He knew that alphas were at their most unhinged during rut, completely devoid of their usual reason and composure. Many alphas would get through it with their partners alongside suppressants.
But his body, having just received an injection of suppressant, was now even more restless and irritable—different from any feeling he’d had before. His blood surged like a fountain. Gu Lingzhou knew that couldn’t have been a suppressant for his rut. He bit his lip hard, tasting the bitter, rusty tang of blood. His rut had come much earlier than expected. Just a few days ago, he’d received a long-acting suppressant injection at the military base—it should have lasted three months. There was only one person in the Gu family who could do something like this openly.
Shi Yuxing trembled as he pushed himself up and saw his husband moving away with difficulty. “Gu Lingzhou.” That clear, beautiful voice tempted his nerves. In that moment, Gu Lingzhou froze in place.
“Heh.” He let out a quiet laugh. So there had been gland-stimulating agents sprayed in the air from the very beginning. No wonder Grandmother had left so quickly during the meal. Grandmother, you really are ruthless.
“Gu Lingzhou!” Shi Yuxing called out again when he saw him lift his foot once more.
Gu Lingzhou desperately wanted him to stop seducing him. A little kissing and licking in normal times was one thing, but when it came to the real thing—seeing Shi Yuxing’s tear-streaked, frightened face—even if he exploded from restraint, he’d still choose to lay down his weapons. His hand reached for the bathroom door handle. Just as he was about to press it down—
“Clatter, clatter, clatter”—urgent, rapid footsteps.
A chest equally scorching hot pressed against his back, clinging to him. Through his breath came a faint but fierce heartbeat—perhaps his own. Gu Lingzhou’s gaze dropped. Those fair, smooth arms wrapped around him, even tightening further when he looked at them, as if they had no regard for their own survival.
“Cold showers will make you sick. You’re already in rut.” Shi Yuxing’s voice was small—whether from shyness or genuine worry for his health. Gu Lingzhou pressed down on the handle and took a step forward. The arms around his abdomen tightened, and his heart clenched along with them. The alpha couldn’t believe it, thinking the person behind him was merely pitying him. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Do you know what you’re saying? Don’t mess around. You’ll get hurt.”
His words actually made Shi Yuxing angry instead. “What nonsense are you talking about? I’m a doctor. In this situation, only that will help. Cold water will just make you sick during your rut!”
Gu Lingzhou’s other hand reached up to Shi Yuxing’s wrist. Skin against skin, he let out a laugh. “Still, better not. You’ll regret it afterward.”
“No, I won’t!” Before he could finish, Shi Yuxing cut him off. “Gu Lingzhou, listen to me. I won’t regret this. I’m doing this willingly.”
His fingers traced the smooth, jade-like skin of Shi Yuxing’s forearm. Shi Yuxing shuddered noticeably but didn’t pull back.
“I’m an S-class alpha. It won’t fit.” The alpha murmured, as if reading the instructions before use. His tone seemed caring, but that upward lilt at the end was like a hook, waiting for a willing fish to bite.
Shi Yuxing took the bait—perhaps bewitched by the abdominal muscles beneath his hands. His mouth moved faster than his brain, blurting out: “I’m an omega even more powerful than S-class. There’s nothing I can’t handle.” As soon as he said it, he regretted it. How could he have said something so shameless? Crimson flooded his cheeks. Shi Yuxing buried his face in the thin, heated fabric. The muscles on Gu Lingzhou’s back were equally firm, and his heart pounded even harder.
The hand fell from the door handle. Then, with lightning speed, Gu Lingzhou turned around and, under Shi Yuxing’s stunned gaze, pressed him against the nearest wall.
The alpha was burning—just like his palm and his lips. The tall man bent down, wrapping one arm around Shi Yuxing’s waist, his breath and teeth filled with the scent of fir. Gu Lingzhou’s black-and-white eyes were wide open, unblinking. Shi Yuxing, pressed against the wall, kept his eyes tightly shut as he endured the assault, habitually extending the tip of his tongue for him to taste. Gu Lingzhou accepted this invitation to the feast, not missing a single corner of his mouth, heavy and urgent.
Shi Yuxing’s body began to flush pink. Gu Lingzhou’s dark eyes stared at his face up close, and with a hint of mischief, he began to straighten up.
At first, Shi Yuxing could barely keep up. But by the time Gu Lingzhou was fully upright, Shi Yuxing’s heels were completely off the ground. He stood on tiptoe, his limp body melting into Gu Lingzhou’s embrace. When Shi Yuxing realized he’d been played, he was already floating against Gu Lingzhou’s chest.
This guy’s kissing skills were getting better and better. Anyone would think he’d been watching tutorials.
He panted out hot breath. When Gu Lingzhou lowered his head to kiss his forehead, Shi Yuxing reached up and poked the alpha’s cheek. Gu Lingzhou smiled and said, “What’s wrong? Out of strength? Rest for a while—I’ll wait for you to recover.”
Shi Yuxing’s flushed face turned toward him, and even now he didn’t forget to tease: “When did you secretly practice your kissing skills? Did you find someone else behind my back?”
The fingers at his waist traced over his skin, sending ticklish sensations surging through his body, his legs nearly giving out. Warm breath grazed the tip of his ear. “I read online that when kissing, writing your lover’s name with your tongue makes them feel really good. I’ve been writing your name the whole time—does it feel good?” With that, his tongue touched his earlobe, taking the soft flesh into his mouth. Shi Yuxing’s “no” barely got its initial consonant out before it fell to the ground.
The omega’s throat released sweet, sticky syllables, half his weight pressing against Gu Lingzhou’s shoulder. His gaze followed the smooth, flesh-toned lines of his back down to the spot where Gu Lingzhou had smacked him to tears last time. Gu Lingzhou’s temples throbbed wildly, the taut triangular fabric growing even tighter.
Shi Yuxing rubbed against his cheek, like a little cat with a hint of coy anger: “Hubby, can you even do it?” The next moment, his body was lifted into the air—Gu Lingzhou holding him with one hand under his knee and the other supporting his lower back. His view suddenly rose higher, and Shi Yuxing frantically gripped his shirt, terrified of falling.
His fear was entirely unnecessary—even if Gu Lingzhou fell, he’d be his cushion. His back was back on the bedding, the coolness making him comfortable. He wriggled his belly twice.
He’d lost count of how many times Gu Lingzhou had exchanged saliva with him. Thick fingers slid into his mouth, gathering transparent moisture, then slid into another place. Those knuckle-defined fingers pressed shadows into Gu Lingzhou’s biceps. Gu Lingzhou coaxed him while kissing him, and soon, several bloody scratches appeared on his arm—he finally experienced the pain the omega was going through.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared… it’s just an injection.” Shi Yuxing covered his eyes with his arm, muttering to himself, even comforting himself: “An injection, an injection…”
But his upper teeth biting down on his lower lip and the faint glistening at the corners of his eyes made Gu Lingzhou both amused and heartbroken. As tight as his fingers was Gu Lingzhou’s nerves—his wife loved him so much.
Gu Lingzhou knew he liked his abs, so he guided one of Shi Yuxing’s hands to his stomach. “Baby, touch it.” Shi Yuxing shook his head, struggling to pull his hand back. “No… don’t want that—mmph.”
“Mm.” Baby’s so adorable. Gu Lingzhou kissed the corner of his mouth again, switching positions under Shi Yuxing’s panicked gaze. The tumor inside him was throbbing—he was terminally ill, and he could feel his life draining away.
His tear ducts produced more tears, blurring the dangling, swaying ring.
—
Xiao Zhou and Da Ling landed one after the other. Blue phosphorescent light filled the entire space, the air conditioning blasting so cold that it sent chills up from the soles of their feet. Da Ling took out his phone and photographed the evidence he’d forgotten to document last time. Due to poor lighting, some of the photos came out completely unclear.
“Give me your phone. It’s too dark here—use the flashlight.”
“Oh, okay.”
The densely packed gland bottles on the table were even more numerous than last time. The two counted—there were exactly one hundred and twenty-three. That meant over a hundred people might have lost their lives for some damn experiment. Da Ling cursed under his breath, started recording, and documented everything from beginning to end, even capturing that number in the footage. Only after uploading it to cloud storage did he feel at ease putting his phone away.
Xiao Zhou looked at the bodies inside the large cylindrical containers and frowned. “Come look at this. These are all males. And I observed a few where I could see the glands—they all have stitching marks here. Were they all dug out?”
Da Ling walked over and followed his gaze to observe. Indeed, as he said—several bodies had varying sizes of sutures at the back of their necks. But it didn’t look like they’d been removed. If Grandmother had really done it, she wouldn’t have sewn them back up afterward, because people without glands basically couldn’t survive. These bodies still had protrusions at the back of their necks—their glands appeared to still be there.
—”Since no one else is here, I’ll just say it—I’m currently researching gland transplantation.”
—”You remember my mentor Jiang Chusheng, right? He told me about his research on gland transplantation surgery.”
His black pupils suddenly darkened. A possibility occurred to him. “Gland implantation.”
“What?” Xiao Zhou saw him suddenly interject. “Gland implantation?”
Da Ling took out his phone and photographed the backs of several people’s necks, zooming in. “Look here—their glands are all still there, though I’m not sure if they’re their own glands. Earlier, Yuxing said that Teacher Jiang invited him to join research on gland transplantation.”
Hearing this, Xiao Zhou drew in a sharp breath, goosebumps erupting all over his body.
“So it’s that Jiang guy and Grandmother?”
“That’s my guess.”
Xiao Zhou surveyed the bone-chilling environment around him. “Fuck, that’s seriously fucked. So what do we do now? Go back and call the police? Or wait for their word?” Xiao Zhou took out his phone, about to message Shi Yuxing.
“You won’t be getting word from them.” A person stood in the shadows, a single monocle emitting an eerie glint. The butler’s smiling face suddenly appeared, his black-and-white suit reflecting an odd color under the blue light. “Young masters, I believe I warned you last time.”
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