Chapter 62
Held within the circle of Lu Wanqing’s arms, Shu Ci was bewildered.
He had never known how to comfort anyone to begin with, and now he felt like a desperate doctor trying random remedies. His pheromones darted around erratically, strand by strand—a tease here, a nudge there.
Lu Wanqing’s pheromones also detected a certain unfamiliarity born of the chaos.
The plum blossom scent was not as combative as the honeysuckle; it wouldn’t fight to the death. Its distant, clear fragrance was far colder and haughtier than its master’s own personality. Though intended as comfort, it lacked all technique, as if condescendingly bestowing a faint touch of pity and sympathy.
It was like an indifferent deity carelessly ruffling the head of a divine beast at his feet—casual, with a hint of perfunctoriness.
Especially upon hearing Lu Wanqing say “it hurts,” the plum blossom scent turned a few degrees colder and abruptly recoiled.
This visceral sensation from the pheromones was transmitted straight to Lu Wanqing’s subconscious. Panic set in, and he suddenly released several strands of domineering pheromones to tightly snare and imprison the scent Shu Ci was about to withdraw.
There was, surprisingly, a hint of “fatal entanglement” within it.
The soft skin at the nape of Shu Ci’s neck turned slightly red from the stimulation.
His heart skipped a couple of beats, uncontrolled.
A scorching, unbearable strangeness surged from the depths of his heart, and his mind flashed back to the days they were locked on the boat in the waters of Dragon Spine Island.
Back then, the two of them—restrained and distant—had reached a tacit agreement.
No marking, no harming. They used the exhaustion and overexertion from combat training to artificially combat their physiological states.
But the desires left unsatisfied then were now being churned up to return with a vengeance, much like the turbulent sea they were immersed in, hiding countless obscure and dark delusions beneath the surface.
“What did you say?” Shu Ci shrank back in a touch of fear.
He was afraid he might do something irrevocable on impulse, yet also worried he couldn’t support Lu Wanqing, leaving him to drown in the middle of the deep sea during his fragile rut.
Lu Wanqing didn’t speak. He closed his eyes and buried his head in the crook of Shu Ci’s neck. His large palm supported the other’s lean waist, focusing all his senses on the stirring pheromones, feeling the pain ignited by Shu Ci’s clumsy attempts at comfort.
It felt like a sharp knife was performing lingchi—death by a thousand cuts—starting from his throat.
It was a pain without blood, without visible wounds.
He let out a muffled groan. Rainwater mixed with the murky tears at the corners of his eyes, flowing down his cheek onto Shu Ci. An indescribable taste of blood rose in his throat.
Hearing this made Shu Ci nervous, and he hurriedly tried to retract his pheromones.
“Don’t… don’t stop.”
Lu Wanqing gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead, and pressed against Shu Ci’s neck as if thirsting for it.
He seemed like a desperate believer prostrating on the ground, bowing to heaven and earth, begging for pity from the god he had worshipped all his life.
Begging you, let me hurt.
Only this bone-piercing pain could force him to face this 1% delusional fantasy, could make him feel that he was truly alive.
Gu Lanzhu was not a good match, and Shen Lin was not the end goal, but was he? Someone as free-spirited and unrestrained as Shu Ci, who yearned for liberty, would eventually find a path that belonged to him alone, manipulated by no one.
With reddened eyes, Lu Wanqing looked up at the sky filled with dark clouds.
The boundless sea, the endless night—not a single beam of light shone for him.
Living through this life and the ones before, even though he possessed much, it felt as if he had nothing. If even Shu Ci were to leave, he would truly, truly have nothing left to savor but the pain etched into his marrow.
“The dream I had about you—it really happened, didn’t it?” Seeing out of the corner of his eye how severely Lu Wanqing was enduring the pain, Shu Ci moved his lips. “If I hadn’t recklessly called out to you, you might… might not have ended up here.”
Lu Wanqing would have had more time to react, instead of being affected by him and caught off guard by the attack.
Nor would he be suffering the torment of his rut alone on this isolated, helpless sea.
Lu Wanqing couldn’t open his mouth. His pheromones endured with him, bearing the overwhelming pain, as he simply shook his head desperately.
“Don’t shake your head. I know what you mean. You don’t want me to blame myself, because perhaps even without my interference, you might still have ended up here. The cruise ship contains the original plot; maybe we were destined to be forced onto this path eventually.”
Shu Ci took a deep breath and hoisted Lu Wanqing up a bit.
“I understand all that, I just can’t accept—”
He glanced at the ship, wrapped tightly in the defensive barrier.
“—I can’t accept that you’ve been dragged into such a wretched state because of me!”
The moment his voice fell, Shu Ci closed his eyes and released all his pheromones.
He hugged Lu Wanqing tightly with both hands.
The sound of splashing water, splash, rang out.
Lu Wanqing’s heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped, suspended in mid-air.
He opened his eyes and, through Shu Ci’s bright cyan gaze, felt the swirling airflow and vibrating energy behind him.
Plum blossom pheromones burst from his glands, condensing into a pair of wings behind Shu Ci, carrying the two of them out of the seawater and slowly ascending.
As the wings beat, the rich scent of plum blossoms dispersed into the air.
The clear fragrance blooming in the night seemed to scatter, turning the vast universe into a landscape of spring. [1]
“Lu Wanqing, in my eyes, you should indulge in this world, live freely, and enjoy all the beautiful things.”
Shu Ci whispered into his ear.
“You deserve to have the best.”
Water droplets fell one by one, leaving ripple after ripple on the surface of the sea.
Ripples also stirred within Lu Wanqing’s crimson-blue eyes.
More dazzling than the room full of fallen flowers in the cabin was Shu Ci spreading his god-like wings under the night sky.
Though there was no light or shadow, it felt as if a ray of heavenly light had fallen into his heart.
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