Chapter 48

The string stretched to its limit snapped with a pa.

In that instant, all of Zhu Yu’s guilt and panic plunged into the abyss.

She had thought that after signing to cancel the divorce, what existed between them would no longer be merely a cold contractual relationship. They would also be wives recognized by law and vows.

She could openly call Bai Shuzhou her wife. She could rightfully stand by her as family, without trembling in fear that she would be driven away. Everything was clearly moving in a better direction.

Marriage should have been devout, nearly sacred.

But what they had signed was only a light, fluttering piece of paper.

Nothing had happened. Nothing had changed. The entire universe was silent.

Bai Shuzhou’s cool voice was far too matter-of-fact, far too calm. That casual attitude was like a basin of ice water poured over the sincerity Zhu Yu held up in both hands, snuffing it out with painful white smoke.

Bai Shuzhou used an agreement to build a relationship safe enough for her, only valuing the result. Zhu Yu, however, stubbornly wanted to search and experience along the journey, to feel joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness tremble in her chest.

Even pain. Even hurt…

They were still such vivid, burning emotions that you gave me.

Looking down at those pale blue eyes beneath her, Zhu Yu felt for the first time that the sky could be so vast and lonely.

A nearly destructive impulse suddenly rose in her. She wanted to stir this pool of frozen still water, shatter Bai Shuzhou’s calm mask, and force out the truest self beneath it. She wanted to touch that heart she never showed to anyone and confirm whether it also beat for her.

Not only an agreement.

Do not always be calm.

Zhu Yu’s fingers abruptly tightened, forcefully clasping Bai Shuzhou’s slender wrist and pressing it into the pillow. Silver-white hair scattered messily like snow, trembling slightly with the woman’s suppressed breathing. Like ice and snow beginning to melt, crystalline beads of sweat seeped out.

The lines of the black military trousers were cold and hard, pressing forward with undeniable force, forcing the pure-white bedsheets into winding curves.

Sensing danger, emerald-green vines instinctively wrapped around Zhu Yu’s tense forearm, but in the end, they could not resist an Alpha’s powerful physique.

Zhu Yu’s bloodstained lips pressed down heavily, biting until Bai Shuzhou let out a pained muffled sound. The woman’s pale eyes quickly flushed with a thin red of arousal, and the soft skin around her wrist was pinched into a distinct ring of red. Against her cold, fair skin, it was even more obvious than that little swaying red mole.

Even like this… is it all right?

Sister, answer me.

“Mm…!”

Bai Shuzhou’s restrained wrist trembled slightly. An Omega’s skin was especially sensitive. Before this, she had never been treated so roughly, and every inch of sensation was infinitely magnified.

Yet within this aggressive suppression, the young woman was still releasing warm mental power without reservation. The warm current of the healing ability flowed gently, the subtle sting and numbness intertwining into an indescribable pleasure.

She was even obediently suppressing her pheromones. The warm woody fragrance hid deep under her skin, like a spring without color or scent, allowing the rose fragrance to invade recklessly.

Bai Shuzhou’s unfocused gaze gradually sharpened.

The young woman’s kissing skills were inexperienced, yet forceful. Her improvement was astonishingly fast, almost stealing Bai Shuzhou’s breath.

Their little fingers tangled, arms embracing. Zhu Yu buried her burning face into the hollow of Bai Shuzhou’s neck. Scalding tears rolled down, burning Bai Shuzhou into a full-body tremble. The tears slid over her cool collarbone, as though falling into a slightly cold lake.

“Sister, Sister…”

The young woman’s low murmurs sounded like sobs, one after another, striking the silent air.

Her beautiful collarbone held Zhu Yu’s tears.

Bai Shuzhou was briefly dazed.

—Zhu Yu seemed to be unconsciously learning from her.

It was a very familiar way of kissing.

When Zhu Yu did not know what to do, she tried to recreate Bai Shuzhou’s teaching, probing again and again from the angle of the kiss. Her sharp little canine teeth pressed against Bai Shuzhou’s lips, yet she could not bear to truly bite. She only fiercely smeared the seeping bead of blood onto the corner of Bai Shuzhou’s mouth.

Their breaths intertwined, damp and warm, filled with the sweet, clean taste of iron.

A slender collarbone could not hold many tears. They slid down drop by drop, disappearing into Bai Shuzhou’s collar and wetting her disheveled hair.

In a daze, Bai Shuzhou suddenly remembered an afternoon many years ago.

In order to better control the experimental subjects, the Academy did not teach them knowledge. If not for Bai Shuzhou’s arrival, those children would not even have been allowed time to rest or go outside.

The first lesson they received was always obedience, endurance, honesty—all for the sake of experimental results.

Honesty and kindness were nothing more than tools of domestication. The only difference between them and lab mice or experimental dogs was that children domesticated from a young age were more obedient and easier to communicate with. A few words of praise were enough to make them obediently follow researchers away.

They were vessels carrying the will of those above them. They did not need to possess selves.

Dressed in identical white clothes, wearing the same hollow expressions, even when they were allowed to walk in the courtyard, they would absolutely never take even half a step outside the area designated by the researchers.

Only that child would hide in the crowd and secretly watch Bai Shuzhou, quietly imitating her every movement.

Any abnormality in an experimental subject would be reported. They carried potential danger.

Melno was the first to discover that child. Frowning, she called her over and questioned why she was doing this.

“Because… pretty. I like…”

The child scratched her head in great embarrassment.

In that barren, pale world, Bai Shuzhou was like an elf descending from a fairy tale. Her eyes were clearer than spring water, her falling silver hair softer than moonlight. Every movement carried a pleasant fragrance.

The child tilted her face up and looked at Bai Shuzhou with sparkling eyes for a long time before finally gathering the courage to ask, “Sister, what are you reading?”

Bai Shuzhou was reading. It was not one of those children’s picture books brought by kind researchers, but a thick, hardcover classic. In the child’s eyes, it looked like a stone, and the dense words were ants crawling out from its cracks.

Before the book sat a cup of hand-ground coffee, the white porcelain rim reflecting a crystalline pale blue. Beside it, in a blue-and-white porcelain dish, were freshly baked brown biscuits and a little tower of snow-white sugar cubes.

The little girl stood on tiptoe, staring eagerly at the plate of sugar cubes. She tilted her head and asked softly, “Sister, what’s this? Is it tasty?”

That look was exactly like a roadside puppy begging for food.

Bai Shuzhou fell silent for an instant, then pushed the entire plate of biscuits toward her.

The girl took a small bite. She had never eaten anything so delicious before, and her dark eyes nearly filled with tears. Then she secretly glanced toward the piled sugar cubes.

White, glittering, with clear edges. So pretty…

Just as pretty as the Sister before her.

She instinctively licked her lips. Her icy Her Highness the princess finally could not bear it anymore and lifted her onto the chair, raising her chin slightly.

“Eat.”

The little girl cheered and picked up a sugar cube, immediately putting it into her mouth.

So sweet…!

Taking in sugar might affect experimental results. They were not allowed to eat such things.

Besides, that was not how sugar cubes were meant to be eaten. It was too crude. Melno’s expression shifted, and she was just about to stop her when Bai Shuzhou, who had been propping up her chin, reached out and stopped her. She only asked softly, “Is it good?”

“Good!” It was the sweetest and most delicious thing she had ever eaten in her life!

“Sister, you eat too!” The child grabbed a sugar cube and offered it to Bai Shuzhou.

Bai Shuzhou lowered her eyes and looked at that not-so-clean hand, then refused faintly. “Sister won’t eat. They’re all for you.”

Unexpectedly, the little girl stared blankly at her. A strange light flashed in her eyes, and she suddenly began to cry. She plunged into Bai Shuzhou’s arms and refused to let go no matter what.

Her tears rolled into Bai Shuzhou’s collar, burning shockingly hot. No matter how Melno tried, she could not pull her away.

From then on, Bai Shuzhou’s solitary figure in the Academy had a little follower beside it.

Not only during rest time. Even during private lessons, the child would appear by her side.

She was like a little dog with an extremely sensitive nose, always having all kinds of ways to find Bai Shuzhou.

At first, Bai Shuzhou found her somewhat annoying. Later, she grew used to it, and occasionally even asked on her own, “Where is she?”

They should not have had this much contact, but because of Bai Shuzhou’s status, no one dared stop it.

A researcher with a high ponytail had once privately mentioned to Bai Shuzhou that allowing experimental subjects to develop the ability to think and come into contact with a broader world was a very cruel thing.

They were destined not to belong to the same world.

But Bai Shuzhou at that time did not listen much to advice.

……

Zhu Yu pressed her burning forehead against Bai Shuzhou’s shoulder. Threads of warm light took advantage of the woman’s dazed moment, quietly seeping deep into her hair, condensing into a drop of golden liquid that sank into the reddened skin Zhu Yu had rubbed against.

Zhu Yu was growing too quickly. From awkward imitation to kissing Bai Shuzhou until her whole body softened, it had taken only an instant. For a moment, Bai Shuzhou had failed to notice, and let that strand of warm mental power flow into her sea of consciousness, melting soundlessly and scattering into broken stars across the sky.

Pa—

In the darkness, Zhu Yu briefly glimpsed Bai Shuzhou’s thoughts. The back of that little girl flashed past.

Only for a breath.

Bai Shuzhou abruptly came back to herself. Her fingertips tightened, and she immediately seized back control without mercy.

“You…”

Her mental power was suddenly pushed out, bringing with it a sharp sting. Only then did Zhu Yu abruptly clear her head.

Who was that child…?

When Bai Shuzhou was kissing her, who was she thinking of?

Her knee pressed upward heavily. The young woman no longer held back and bit Bai Shuzhou’s lips, making their stinging blood mingle. The woman’s long, slender legs also trembled uncontrollably.

“At a time like this, you’re not allowed to think of someone else…!!”

The young woman, occupying the advantage in physical strength, let out an aggrieved whimper. Like a little beast whose territory had been invaded, she forcefully imprisoned the woman completely in her arms, kissing from her lips to the damp side of her neck, even deliberately moving downward and leaving a trail of kiss marks.

She had to occupy all of Bai Shuzhou’s attention, fill all her thoughts, dye her with her own scent…

She must have gone mad.

She could not mark her.

So Zhu Yu greedily devoured the sweet rose scent between Bai Shuzhou’s lips and teeth, almost crazily pouring warm light into her frail body, pressing down all of the woman’s rare loss of control, trembling, and soft sounds.

At some point, the bend of Bai Shuzhou’s knee was hooked, pressed against the young woman’s tense lower abdomen. Her cool voice was already hoarse beyond recognition as Bai Shuzhou frowned and called her name softly.

“Zhu Yu…”

“Slow down. Like this, you won’t be able to bear it.”

Even at this point, the woman still retained a trace of clarity. Her cool knuckles soothingly patted the young woman’s burning gland.

The young woman baring her teeth and claws fell into her eyes, looking terribly wronged, as if she were a child whose candy had been stolen.

In the next second, Zhu Yu fell into a gentle embrace.

The faint rose scent on Bai Shuzhou took the initiative to wrap around her, gentle and quiet, filled with a reassuring power. Miraculously, it smoothed out her frantic, despairing emotions.

Zhu Yu, having calmed down, lowered her head and pinched her own wrist hard, her nails digging into her skin. She did not want Bai Shuzhou to see her out-of-control, wretched appearance. Her voice was muffled.

“I’m sorry…”

What had she done?

How could she treat Bai Shuzhou like this!

Even if the woman did not show disgust or pain, she used the back of her hand to rub the places Zhu Yu had just kissed. Those pale blue eyes lifted slightly, separating from desire and revealing faint confusion.

She did not know why Zhu Yu was crying so pitifully, just as she had not understood back then why that child had suddenly cried so bitterly.

If one was clearly in the middle of happiness, why would one still shed tears?

Her jade-like fingertips wiped away the tears on the young woman’s ​unauthorized copy​face, then pinched her reddened nose.

“If you don’t like it, forget it. We’ll use another way.”

Zhu Yu froze slightly, then lifted her tear-blurred eyes and said loudly, “I do like it…!”

Bai Shuzhou panted softly and looked at her in puzzlement. “Then why are you crying?”

“…”

Because I’m jealous.

So embarrassing.

It could also be because of hormones, or the impact of a geomagnetic storm… No, she should not look for excuses like that.

After a moment of silence, Zhu Yu whispered, “I feel like you like that someone more.”

“How could that be?” Bai Shuzhou frowned. “Toward her, I feel… responsibility.”

“What responsibility?” Zhu Yu bit her lip and, borrowing the lingering tremor of her heart, stubbornly pressed on. “We are legal wives now. What’s yours is mine, and your responsibilities are my responsibilities!”

“And I didn’t even say who it was! You knew right away!”

“She seems quite special to you, very different. I’m just a little curious…” Zhu Yu took a deep breath.

Because she could not hear her own voice, Zhu Yu had no idea how sour her deliberately mature and carefree tone sounded.

She turned her face slightly away, her damp eyes seeming to say: Please, tell me. I care so much I’m about to explode!

Seeing Zhu Yu so stubborn, the smile at the corner of Bai Shuzhou’s lips gradually faded.

She did not want to mention that past to anyone, and she had never had the habit of explaining. Those dim memories should have died long ago with the sealed years.

But Zhu Yu’s eyes were too bright, clear and stubborn, like a mirror polished enough to reflect light. In a daze, they overlapped with the gaze of that child in her memories. A sharp pain suddenly gripped her heart.

She looked into those eyes.

“…It is only a debt.”

In that brief silence, only their intertwined breathing could be heard.

Her bloodstained lips paused. Bai Shuzhou spoke expressionlessly, almost self-tormentingly.

“What if I said I was the one who made her become like this?”