Chapter 60
The room was pitch black and silent. Shu Ci, held in Lu Wanqing’s arms, felt his mind in a chaotic mess.
The muscles in the arms holding him were taut. He could feel Lu Wanqing trembling, and his own hands subconsciously slipped around Lu Wanqing’s back, his palms resting gently on the back of the Alpha’s head.
He asked softly, “Are you feeling unwell somewhere? Have you lost weight?”
Shu Ci still remembered the feeling of Lu Wanqing hugging him at the base before leaving. The Alpha back then didn’t feel nearly as sharp to the touch as he did now.
Lu Wanqing froze for a moment.
In this moment, reason returned, and panic filled his heart.
He said he would give him independence and freedom, so what is he doing now?
However, the awakening of his subconscious could not overcome the physical longing. His stiff arms continued to imprison the person in his embrace tightly, refusing to let go.
He heard his own voice squeezed through gritted teeth: “Rut… period.”
This reason could explain all his offenses.
The only thing it couldn’t explain was the struggle and torment in his heart.
Shu Ci suddenly understood, and his stroking of Lu Wanqing’s head slowed down a bit.
“Is there anything I can do to help you? Ah, except for marking.”
Shen Ti always mentioned the dangers of marking between people with 1% compatibility. He didn’t dare take the risk at Lu Wanqing’s most vulnerable moment.
Lu Wanqing’s heart went cold.
Even though he had prepared himself to never mark Shu Ci back when he fully accepted the 1% compatibility, hearing him refuse it personally still felt like a knife cutting open a wound in his heart.
To his ears, these words were clearly a rejection.
He was willing to hug him, willing to accept his embrace, but unwilling to be marked by him.
Right, what Omega would risk their life to be marked? How could someone like him be worthy of anyone risking their life?
Lu Wanqing buried his face deep into the side of Shu Ci’s neck, the tip of his nose pressed against his collarbone, his voice hoarse: “Just… talk to me. That’s enough.”
Shu Ci let out an “Oh” and looked up at the pitch-black ceiling.
Thinking as he spoke, he asked, “The N.O. Group, is it yours?”
Lu Wanqing raised his eyes, a myriad of information flashing through his mind. He gave a low acknowledgment, and a drop of sweat slowly slid down from his temple.
Shu Ci’s breath tickled his ear: “I found out at Shichen Jewelry.”
Lu Wanqing: “You went to check the necklace?”
Shu Ci: “Yes. The material of my necklace is said to be a rare variety. Even they don’t know exactly what kind of mineral it is.”
Lu Wanqing said calmly, “It’s a new mineral secretly discovered by the military.”
Shu Ci gasped: “Wait, is this something I’m allowed to hear?!”
As he complained, his entire chest vibrated, pressing tightly against the Alpha’s broad chest, causing Lu Wanqing’s breathing to become disordered for a moment.
“Under normal circumstances, it would be a violation of discipline for me.” Lu Wanqing paused.
“But you might currently possess more intelligence than us. In this situation, I would suggest Marshal He include you directly as an informed party in the operation. How did you know the purple teak stone was special?”
“You call it purple teak stone?” Shu Ci blinked. “The operating company you recommended discovered a mineral deposit on Dragon Spine Island. I’ve already asked them to explore and see how it can be mined.”
Lu Wanqing closed his eyes. “No wonder your father had the raw material to make a necklace for you.”
Shu Ci pondered: “If the research institute needs it, they can go to Dragon Spine Island to mine. Shu Changze left some documents on the island; I’ll take a look when I get back. Since he believed a necklace made of purple teak stone could suppress my Disorder, there must be some connection.”
Lu Wanqing replied, “I’ll have them contact you.”
Shu Ci nodded. “But did you also discover it on Dragon Spine Island that time?”
“No, it was at the airport. Where abnormal pressure appeared, corrosive substances were left behind. After the research institute separated the corrosive substances, they discovered the purple teak stone.”
Cold sweat slowly trickled down his back.
Amidst his torment, Lu Wanqing explained clearly to Shu Ci the relationship between abnormal pressure, mutated creatures, and the new mineral, as well as the strange fluctuations he had recently detected on the seabed.
It was precisely during this narration that he suddenly connected all these strange phenomena into a line, with the mutated creatures at the core.
First, as a precursor to the arrival of mutated creatures, the abnormal atmospheric pressure and seabed fluctuations could be regarded as the same category.
Second, the arrival of mutated creatures that only attacked Omegas.
Finally, the production of natural new minerals—based on the airport experience, they were produced after the mutated creatures disappeared.
Dragon Spine Island had already formed a mineral deposit. Could it be that this creature had already appeared long ago when Shu Changze was still alive?
Did Shu Changze’s death have anything to do with the mutated creatures?
“I can kill the mutated creatures.”
Shu Ci became more awake the more he listened. “Marshal He gave me a training manual before, and I’ve been practicing consistently. I even helped them run tests related to mutated creatures. Just—using pheromones to deal with them.”
He wasn’t sure how much He Lian knew about him and Lu Wanqing capturing the mutated creature alive on the sea of Dragon Spine Island back then, so he just silently cooperated with their experiments without asking for details.
Lu Wanqing’s eyes lit up.
Cui You had also mentioned this to him during the rescue. Unexpectedly, He Lian had thought of this earlier than them and acted faster.
“Is the practice difficult?”
“Yes.” Shu Ci pouted, but quickly relaxed. “Practice makes perfect. I can feel my perception improving recently. I can even sense people on the other side of a wall and their locations.”
A look of surprise flashed in Lu Wanqing’s eyes, and the fingers encircling him moved slightly.
Shu Ci keenly caught this change. He turned his head slightly, the tip of his nose brushing past Lu Wanqing’s cheek, meeting his gaze. “Is there a problem?”
Lu Wanqing’s heart skipped a beat.
He lowered his eyes, his gaze landing on Shu Ci’s opening and closing lips. To hide the rolling of his throat, he forced himself to speak: “No. According to my teacher’s judgment, it’s a very powerful ability.”
Lu Wei once told him that the ultimate manifestation of pheromone ability was the manipulation of all chemical molecules in a space. His little-known materialization ability was one form of recombination and shaping within a material space.
He hadn’t expected Shu Ci to unknowingly comprehend another kind of spatial ability.
His pheromones communicated with every molecule in the space. Even if invisible visually, he could still perceive the unseen territory on the other side of the wall.
Shu Ci’s eyes widened at his concise summary. He opened his mouth: “I’m super amazing, right!”
Lu Wanqing: “Mn.”
Seeing a faint smile on his lips, Shu Ci tilted his head: “Do you feel much more comfortable now?”
Lu Wanqing lowered his eyes and didn’t speak.
He realized his tone just now was too sober. Afraid that this brief warmth would be taken away, he greedily held onto Shu Ci, hoping in his heart that he wouldn’t be so smart, wouldn’t notice. “No, still not very comfortable.”
“If you don’t mind me talking too much, I’ll tell you another thing.”
Shu Ci blinked and glanced to the side. “Though it might not be good to talk about Shen Lin right next to his room… Um, but it concerns me too, so it should be fine.”
Lu Wanqing squeezed his eyes shut.
The knife Shu Ci held against his neck was pushing in bit by bit, his heart twitching as if in spasm.
After muttering to himself, Shu Ci continued, “I know who my—oh no, who this body’s biological father is. His name is Song Zhiyuan. I should have had a sister named Song Shiyu. If there were no accidents, I think she and Shen Lin would have been a perfect match.”
As he spoke, recalling the sorrowful look Shen Lin tried so hard to hide, his voice unconsciously weakened, revealing a few threads of sadness.
It was strange. He had no feelings for Shu Changze or the elders and siblings of the Shu family who raised him, yet he felt emotionally drained by the past events Shen Lin recounted.
Is this the power of blood relations?
Shu Ci wanted to hear Lu Wanqing’s deep voice comfort him with a few words, but unexpectedly, he seemed frozen in place, motionless, not even responding.
“Did you hear what I said?” Shu Ci poked Lu Wanqing’s waist.
Soon, the Alpha loosened his embrace. The fingertips resting on his waist were grabbed, warmth transmitting continuously from the tips.
Lu Wanqing straightened up and looked at him steadily in the dark.
The eyes that were originally stagnant water seemed to welcome a spring current; the ice melted, and vitality surged outward continuously.
“I heard it.” It seemed like a long time before he found his voice.
The death sentence he had imposed on himself was personally erased by Shu Ci.
He gave him a chance for respite and freedom.
But because of this, Lu Wanqing walked even more dutifully into another prison, locking himself in shackles named love.
“He Lian was responsible for investigating the shipwreck incident back then.” Lu Wanqing’s throat rolled lightly as he spoke slowly. “Song Zhiyuan’s steps were too big and too fast, making Gu Yan feel a crisis. He and Chen Gui engineered that accident together, with the purpose of ensuring that the status of Alphas at the peak of power would not be shaken.”
They only knew Song Zhiyuan was on the ship, but didn’t know that the son and daughter Song Zhiyuan had hidden were also on board.
Shu Ci was a little surprised to hear him know the inside story so well. “He Lian knew the inside story too? But he didn’t overturn the case.”
Lu Wanqing shook his head. “There were very few clues. He investigated secretly in violation of requirements, and at that time, he couldn’t contend with the Gu and Chen families.”
Shu Ci murmured, “Why did the Gu family… Can’t they just die!”
For the sake of one Song Zhiyuan, they made everyone on the ship be buried with him.
Lu Wanqing glanced at him. “There are some questions I haven’t been able to figure out, but you gave me the answer.”
Shu Ci was stunned. “What?”
Lu Wanqing: “I don’t know what the book you read was like. If this is the world inside the book and the Gu family are the protagonists, then to serve the protagonists’ interests, everything becomes reasonable.”
Lu Wanqing’s slightly weary voice awakened Shu Ci.
He remembered Wen Yuan’s film history class, remembered the scholars’ discussions on creation he had read—
Every fictional world is an independent universe, and the creator must set rules belonging to it for this world. No matter how absurd, no matter how ridiculous, once the rules are determined, cause and effect cannot be changed.
Since Gu Lanzhu was the crown prince of a business empire, all rules were born around him.
The Gu family likewise.
Shu Ci’s eyes trembled, looking at the silent Lu Wanqing in the faint light.
He, He Lian, and Shen Lin—every one of them, climbing upward, carried the suffering left by so-called fate, to break the rules, for a kinder and more orderly world.
It dragged me in, and actually vainly attempts to make me walk along the established plot trajectory too?
Shu Ci suddenly laughed out loud.
But his soul was born with an engraved rebellion that could not compromise.
He broke through time and space to come here, definitely not to be fooled by destiny!
Clang—
Suddenly a faint sound, a extremely subtle sway of the ship’s hull, made both of them straighten up simultaneously.
For the people on the ship, this was just a small bump caused by waves, even harder to detect in deep sleep. But Lu Wanqing knew that the defense device he placed had activated.
Shu Ci said solemnly, “The sound came from below.”
“I know. It’s right at the defense point I set up. It’s likely a mutated creature. It must be dealt with before the people on the ship wake up.”
Lu Wanqing got up and walked out.
He opened the door, turned to look at Shu Ci, and raised his chin slightly. “What do you say? Want to go test your training results?”
Shu Ci’s eyes lit up. “Okay! Close the door; I’ll change clothes, very quick.”
As soon as the voice fell, Lu Wanqing suddenly felt the door handle become scalding hot.
He immediately closed the door and walked out to the corridor to wait for him.
Shu Ci quickly changed into neat clothes, put on his shoes, and walked out.
Just as he opened the door, he saw Shen Lin standing at his door in pajamas.
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Running out in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, you guys play pretty wild.”
“???”
He braced himself and said, “It’s not what you imagine. I’ll explain to you tomorrow when we have time to eat together.”
“No more joking.” Shen Lin nodded and stuffed a tube of ointment into his hand. “He has already agreed to join my camp. Watch him for me; don’t let him risk his life too much.”
“He just came out of his rut. I don’t know how long it lasted; he’s been holding on purely by suppressants and willpower. Didn’t you see his arm is full of needle holes?”
Shu Ci shook his head. It was pitch black; he hadn’t seen anything.
So Lu Wanqing deliberately didn’t turn on the lights?
Shen Lin patted his shoulder. “I think he’s reached his limit. If he holds on like this any longer, he’ll collapse.”
Shu Ci: “What can I do?”
Shen Lin looked at him like he was looking at a fool. “Haven’t you taken physiology class? Haven’t you learned how to use pheromones to soothe him?”
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