Chapter 61
Walking out of the corridor of Shen Lin’s private quarters, the first thing Shu Ci saw was Lu Wanqing’s lean, powerful back.
He didn’t know where Lu Wanqing had found the waiter’s uniform. Every inch of the shirt clung tightly to him. It was as if he found the black vest too restricting for movement, so he had taken it off, hooking it onto two fingers and letting it hang loosely at his side.
The valleys between his scapula and muscles rose and fell, as if a pair of shimmering wings were waiting to sprout from those deep shadows.
When he turned back against the light, his collar—missing its bowtie—was slightly open, giving a glimpse of the collarbone hidden beneath.
Shu Ci held his breath.
That face, which he never grew tired of looking at, seemed to have accumulated more time and unfathomable depth.
“Follow me.”
Leaving that small, cramped room, the Lu Wanqing who had held him while trembling and enduring pain had vanished.
He had entered work mode—serious and captivating.
If the Siren singing enchanting songs at sea had Lu Wanqing’s face, Shu Ci would definitely be the first to willingly crash onto the reefs and embrace destruction.
“Keep up.” His Siren glanced back, the corners of his eyes sweeping upward.
Shu Ci snapped out of it and hurried after him.
The safety device Lu Wanqing had installed on the ship was fully active. A thin, transparent barrier now wrapped the entire vessel, making it look like a model sitting in a collector’s display case.
There were many Omegas on board. Behind closed doors at night, quite a few were unscrupulously releasing their pheromones.
It was these sweet, decadent scents that were strongly attracting the mutant creatures.
Even though the barrier blended with the rise and fall of the ocean waves, Shu Ci could still feel the tremors of the creatures smashing violently against it.
Shu Ci stepped forward, leaned out, and instinctively swallowed.
There was no moon over the sea tonight. Heavy cloud layers pressed down, and the ocean rolled like black oil beneath the night sky, displaying nature’s majestic power.
Pitch-black mutant creatures leaped from the surface and crashed down, slamming into the barrier ahead again and again.
He quietly took two steps back, stopping a fist’s width away from Lu Wanqing, faintly feeling the warmth radiating from his arm.
“How long can this barrier hold?” Shu Ci asked.
Lu Wanqing looked grave. “Depends on their numbers. If there are many, no more than two hours.”
“Will the people on board notice?”
“Not if we keep the commotion down. The barrier filters out some of the vibration. But Alphas with higher abilities will more or less sense something.”
If Yu Xingxing had arrived in time, they would have had more professional equipment to mask their activities. But now, they had to rely on the inventory Lu Wanqing had brought over from his own patrol ship.
Shu Ci felt a headache coming on.
“Can we handle this before Gu Lanzhu and the others notice?”
“I’ll do my best.”
Lu Wanqing glanced sideways, lowering his voice. “Pardon the intrusion.”
Before Shu Ci could react, he was swept up into Lu Wanqing’s arms and they jumped into the sea.
“…?!”
His heart pounded like a countdown. There was no time to hesitate or react; as they fell, Shu Ci squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in Lu Wanqing’s chest.
The wind in his ears vanished within Lu Wanqing’s embrace.
“Open your eyes.”
Soon, he heard a vibration resonating through the chest against him. Looking up, he saw a disc of ice on the water beneath them. Lu Wanqing stood firmly on it, as if walking on solid ground.
Shu Ci jumped down, stepping solidly onto the surface.
“Is this… your pheromones?”
This shield-hard ice disc wasn’t just a mimicry requiring focus to sense—it was materialized pheromones!
Lu Wanqing gave him a dark look and nodded.
Seeing Shu Ci’s amazed expression, he knew the Omega didn’t understand what this meant.
The materialized substance was connected to his senses; his every movement on it affected him. Shu Ci stepping lightly on the ice was no different from stepping on his heart.
His suppressed rut period was being infinitely prolonged by this close contact.
Yet, he didn’t want Shu Ci to know how much influence he had over him.
“Try using the spatial awareness developed from your pheromones to determine the number and location of the mutants.”
Lu Wanqing suppressed his thoughts and began to command.
Shu Ci closed his eyes, calmly releasing a wisp of pheromones, turning it into a breeze to scout around the cruise ship.
Lu Wanqing suddenly looked at his nape.
Cold plum blossom scent.
It had changed.
While he was away, Shu Ci’s pheromones had changed again.
He quickly sent out a thread of his own, invisible and traceless, following the new scent.
Unlike the honeysuckle scent that had fought with him during his heat, this new plum blossom scent was indifferent to Lu Wanqing’s frequency.
It wandered forward aloofly. Even when Lu Wanqing intentionally wrapped around it, leaving a tiny gap, it showed no aggression toward him.
Standing proud in the freezing snow, it made Lu Wanqing feel a sense of distance.
At the same time, Shu Ci’s pheromones began their fatal attraction on the mutants.
Whirlpools formed beneath the surface, and black creatures leaped from the water, chasing that clear fragrance.
Lu Wanqing didn’t allow a single one to get fully close to Shu Ci’s pheromones.
During his time drifting at sea, he had spent a long period fighting silver-white mutants.
The silver variants seemed smarter and harder to kill than these black ones. Right now, these black mutants were like minions—easy to deal with.
Every inch they advanced, Lu Wanqing’s silent pheromones shackled them, dragging every craving creature to the blind spot beneath the ship’s side near them.
Shu Ci opened his eyes. Seeing the writhing mass of creatures, he gagged reflexively.
Lu Wanqing placed a palm on his back, smoothing it gently. “Want to practice?”
Shu Ci looked up. “Okay.”
As soon as he spoke, Lu Wanqing hoisted a bundle into the air, its twisted limbs struggling.
Shu Ci lashed out with his pheromones, the tip forming a razor-sharp blade that stabbed into the heart and brain within the pitch-black mass.
“Beautiful,” Lu Wanqing blurted out.
He could already identify their weaknesses? His eyes flickered.
Shu Ci’s strike was clean and decisive, looking less like something learned from reading text and more like something He Lian had taught him hand-over-hand.
“Again.”
The next second, Lu Wanqing threw two bundles.
Shu Ci focused, decisively splitting his pheromones into two strands, striking left and right.
Then four, then eight… gradually increasing.
Until every bound creature Lu Wanqing threw was gone, and a thick layer of black carcasses floated on the sea, Shu Ci wiped the sweat from his forehead and eye sockets, clicking his tongue. “That was a real workout.”
The scent he hadn’t retracted in time brushed past Lu Wanqing’s nose. Lu Wanqing’s heart beat faster, stimulated by this unconscious flirtation.
“Wait, there’s more!”
A sudden sense of crisis clouded his heart. Shu Ci abruptly retracted all his pheromones and looked at the sea nearby.
Lightning crashed down.
In the flash that whitened the world, they saw silver-white creatures surging in with the waves.
“Careful. The silver ones are harder to deal with.” Lu Wanqing took a step forward, his arm shielding Shu Ci slightly behind him.
Shu Ci suddenly remembered his dream and grabbed Lu Wanqing’s hand. “Were you attacked by silver ones on the boat in the disaster zone? I—I had a dream that day!”
A dream that he was in danger.
Lu Wanqing felt the warmth of his palm and heard his own voice, struggling to suppress emotion: “I heard someone calling me.”
Shu Ci’s eyes went wide.
He had actually shouted Lu Wanqing awake in his dream?!
But there was no time to dwell on it. The silver creatures surged like mountains toppling the sea, murderous intent rolling off them.
Lu Wanqing materialized an umbrella over Shu Ci’s head, then a barrier about fifty meters ahead.
“Their vital spot is small, about two-fifths down from the head. It’s best not to let them break this line.”
With that, Lu Wanqing attacked with full force and speed.
Shu Ci immediately followed.
The two began strangling the silver creatures in tacit coordination. Their pheromones seemed to develop a camaraderie of battle, their attack frequencies gradually aligning.
If the silver creatures weren’t cut at the vital spot, they would split and proliferate, generating two new independent creatures.
To prevent them from multiplying, the pair had to split their focus and ensure precise kills.
“My perception is still sharp. How about I act as bait? I’ll control them, sense their fatal points, and form a target with my pheromones. You attack the bullseye.”
Lu Wanqing paused for a moment. “Okay.”
Shu Ci shook himself alert. Mimicking Lu Wanqing, he bound the silver creatures tightly, sensing the beating hearts within the chaotic mass, and formed tiny bullseyes on their backs.
The next second, Lu Wanqing’s fierce attack pierced the creature’s heart and landed squarely on Shu Ci’s pheromone target.
This stable, accurate, and ruthless collision sent tremors from the crown of Shu Ci’s head to the tips of his toes.
And… an unspeakable, tingling numbness.
Lu Wanqing’s pheromones were colorless and odorless, hard to detect. He always restrained his Alpha wildness in front of Shu Ci. But in this moment, the hunter’s instinct was fully displayed.
This was an attack belonging to a powerful, top-tier Alpha, passing through the target to land precisely on his pheromones.
It was direct and forceful, enough to make one’s knees weak.
Given the grave and critical situation, Shu Ci hurriedly masked the fluster in his heart and continued placing targets one after another, welcoming Lu Wanqing’s soul-shaking consecutive kills.
Every collision stirred up a unique frequency between the two pheromones, stimulating them to the marrow.
If they could spare a moment to look into each other’s eyes, they would have seen the crimson desire barely contained within.
Lu Wanqing’s body, tormented by the rut, was already teetering. He slowly clenched his fists.
Yet he didn’t reduce his power by a fraction, releasing his unbearable restlessness through every violent attack.
It wasn’t until the last silver creature shattered in the air that his vision blurred, and he stumbled into the water.
All materialized objects vanished instantly.
Before Shu Ci could react, the ice disc beneath his feet and the umbrella overhead disappeared, and he plunged into the sea amidst the rain.
He nervously swam toward Lu Wanqing, who seemed to be losing consciousness, and supported his sinking body. “Lu Wanqing, Lu Wanqing!”
The patch Shen Lin gave him was in his shirt, but he couldn’t free his hands to get it.
While holding Lu Wanqing up, Shu Ci tried to materialize something to float on like Lu had, but the difficulty was too high. A shallow attempt drained too much of his strength.
“I’m fine,” Lu Wanqing whispered. “It’s just the rut. There are suppressants in my pocket. Help me… inject one.”
Shu Ci frowned. “No. Shen Lin said you can’t rely on drugs anymore.”
Lu Wanqing’s eyelashes trembled.
Then they couldn’t… His pupils constricted suddenly.
Shu Ci’s pheromones surged over him, enveloping him in an airtight embrace. The scent of plum blossoms overflowed, far more heart-stirring than the room full of flowers had been that day.
“How does it feel?”
“A little… painful.”
The 1% compatibility lay not in physical contact, but in the repulsion between pheromones.
“Should I… release less?”
Shu Ci withdrew slightly, but was suddenly pulled into a hug by Lu Wanqing.
“Don’t.” Lu Wanqing gritted his teeth, forcing the words out.
“Shu Ci, just let me hurt.”
Author’s Note:
Attempting to restrain Director Shu: Don’t worry, he’ll make you hurt back later 🙂
Recommended Reads
