Chapter 170.1: “…kissing expresses love better”
Xie Chongyi’s flushed eyes enlarged in Wu Heng’s field of vision. Having learned from the last time—when Xue Qi interrupted them midway—this time, the moment their lips touched, Xie Chongyi’s tongue slipped into Wu Heng’s mouth.
Pressed back against the headboard in a forceful position, Wu Heng had to tilt his head up to breathe smoothly, which only made it easier for the person above him to take what he wanted.
With a sharp zzt sound, the lamp behind Xie Chongyi suddenly went out. Yet both of their eyes still shone brightly.
Wu Heng’s eyelashes trembled a few times in the dimness.
His mouth was open, and it was hard for him to endure, because Xie Chongyi was not a gentle person in this regard. The word gentle had never had much to do with him in the first place, and right now the difference was even greater.
But that didn’t mean Xie Chongyi didn’t consider Wu Heng’s feelings. On the contrary, he cared deeply about Wu Heng’s reactions and the feedback he received from him. Even when moving his fingers inward, he would thoughtfully ask—was this okay, was that spot alright.
Yet any sensation, even a pleasant one, when pushed to the extreme can drive both mind and body to the edge of collapse.
Even as he moved inside him, he held Wu Heng’s face in his hands and said with focused sincerity, “Actually, I like kissing you more.”
Wu Heng looked at Xie Chongyi through tear-blurred eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but another thrust left his mind blank.
“Copulation is something humans and many animals do,” Xie Chongyi said, pecking at Wu Heng’s lips repeatedly, speaking in the brief pauses between kisses. “But only humans kiss. So I think kissing expresses love better.”
Instinctive tears slid from the corners of Wu Heng’s eyes. His voice was hoarse yet calm.
“…Then stop.”
“No.”
Wu Heng could clearly feel the concealed throbbing. He wanted to curl up, but his shoulders were pinned down so firmly that he couldn’t break free. One hand hooked around Xie Chongyi’s neck, his chin resting against the other’s shoulder as he tried to shift upward and backward, trying to leave even a sliver of space—so that he wouldn’t be held quite so tightly.
“Don’t make those little moves,” Xie Chongyi said, switching to pin Wu Heng’s hip bone firmly in place as he pushed in again. With his other arm he held Wu Heng’s trembling body. Bright drops of sweat fell from his chin, sliding along Wu Heng’s temple and down into the hollow of his gleaming collarbone.
Lowering his head, Xie Chongyi accurately found the spot between the messy strands of hair and bit down on the other man’s collarbone.
“Gege,” the boy said with deliberately respectful politeness in his tone—but aside from the tone, both his words and actions were entirely invading Wu Heng, “actually, every time you’re being f*cked, you smell really good.”
Wu Heng couldn’t be bothered to respond. As long as he felt good, that was enough. There was no point arguing verbally during something like this.
Not a single sound from the room leaked outside. A spatial ability user wouldn’t allow any passing creature to glimpse even the slightest hint of what was happening between them.
X and Shukui were sleeping in the corridor. The floor was hard and cold, and after lying there for quite a while without any sign that the room’s occupants intended to let them inside to sleep, the dog and bird ran together into the nearest room.
On a large bed lay three people, a big dog, and a big bird.
Dou Lu tugged at the blanket. “Old Fork, could you stop lying on top of the quilt? How much does Wu Heng feed you every day? You weren’t even a tenth this heavy when we first met!”
“And Shukui, what are you staring at? You should also watch your diet. Be careful or you’ll turn from a slim dog into a fat dog—then you’ll be ugly as hell.”
Sharing the bed with her were Ruan Silian and Yang Ao’s older sister, Yang Yu, who was still awake.
Especially after the two mutated animals crept into the room, she began trembling even more—mutated animals, even when tamed by ability users, didn’t lose any of their ferocity. She was terrified they might suddenly pounce and start tearing into someone.
“Are they your pets?” Yang Yu’s voice sounded in the darkness.
“You could barely call them that. When they come begging us for food, they’re everyone’s pets. When they don’t need us, they only recognize Wu Heng,” Dou Lu mocked. The two creatures at the foot of the bed pretended not to hear.
Ruan Silian said with a smile, “Don’t be afraid. A’Heng raised the parrot from the start, and the dog was entrusted to him by someone before they died. They’re both very well-behaved.”
“Wu Heng…” Yang Yu unconsciously murmured the name. “I used to hear Yang Ao mention him all the time. Yang Ao said they were desk mates for years. Later he even told me that a few days before the zombies broke out in the city, Wu Heng told him the apocalypse was about to arrive—but he didn’t believe it.”
Dou Lu sat bolt upright in shock. “Wu Heng noticed it that early?!”
“Yeah.”
Ruan Silian pulled her back down to lie down again.
“At the time, zombies had already begun appearing all over the country. They just weren’t concentrated yet. The people who realized early weren’t necessarily the ones who discovered them first—it’s just that they had foresight.”
“Not to mention discovering zombies—even if a zombie bit you, you probably wouldn’t immediately think the apocalypse has arrived.”
“Ruan Silian! Are you saying I’m stupid?!”
“I’m the same as you.”
“Have you all always been together?” After the laughter beside her died down, Yang Yu asked again.
“Not the whole time. We were separated for a while in the middle and only reunited not long ago,” Dou Lu said.
Yang Yu was silent for a moment before saying softly, “I really envy you.”
“Ah, there’s nothing to envy,” Dou Lu replied. “We’ve faced plenty of danger along the way too. If it weren’t for a few really capable people among us, our group would’ve died eighteen hundred times already!”
“Capable people? Is Wu Heng powerful?” The strongest ability user Yang Yu knew was Ning Bizhen, and that level of strength was already terrifying to her.
Before all this, she never would have believed that humans could possess the kinds of bizarre supernatural abilities that only appeared in movies.
Dou Lu got pinched under the blanket by Ruan Silian, so her answer came out vague. “Anyway… beating me wouldn’t be a problem for him.”
“What about Xie Chongyi?”
“Our class monitor could beat me too.”
“Xue Shen?”
“He could beat me as well.”
“Shen Ping’an…”
“Sis, stop asking,” Dou Lu said, growing more and more embarrassed. “I can only trade a few rounds with Lin Mengzhi and Xue Qi.”
Ruan Silian smiled and reminded her, “There’s also X and Shukui.”
“Not necessarily.” Wu Heng was not only generous with food—he never let them lack energy cores either, especially X. X had been with Wu Heng from the very beginning. It just didn’t like working, not that it couldn’t. Dou Lu really didn’t have the confidence that she could beat X in a fight.
“Lulu, what exactly did you do in Jingzhou?”
“I…”
The two girls started bickering again. Yang Yu didn’t join the conversation this time, but the eyes that had been dulled by exhaustion and fear gradually lit up again, regaining their warmth and liveliness.
—
At three in the morning, a man walked downstairs barefoot without making a sound. He showed not the slightest fear of the outside and simply pulled the door open.
The sudden light shone directly onto Mao Fengying’s face. “Mr. Shen!”
“Come in quickly.” Shen Miao stepped aside to make room.
Mao Fengying’s legs were as weak as two lumps of mud. Gasping like a bellows, she staggered toward the doorway while the insect behind her chased relentlessly, like it was pursuing a toy.
She almost failed to lift her foot onto the step. Fortunately, Shen Miao stepped out and reached out to pull the mother and son, successfully getting her into the house.
Before Shen Miao could help the two who had collapsed onto the floor, he turned his head—and found himself face-to-face at zero distance with the gu insect radiating a cold, bloodthirsty aura.
Several of the insect’s long legs jabbed restlessly at the ground, while its tail lashed violently from side to side.
But in the end, it turned around, leaped over the line of insect-men, and disappeared into the night.
Shen Miao closed the door and turned back. He went to the next room, brought a clean towel and a basin of hot water, and set them in front of the mother and son. “Wipe yourselves down.”
Mao Fengying was only an ordinary human. Carrying a boy whose body was larger than her own—even walking normally would have been difficult for long. Yet she had dragged Shen Ping’an around the yard, fleeing for several hours.
Now that she had collapsed, she couldn’t move at all and could only focus on catching her breath.
Shen Miao sighed softly, rolled up his sleeves, crouched down, soaked the towel, wrung it out, and personally began wiping her face.
Looking up from below at the man’s snow-pale face—and the purplish bruises around his collar from being strangled—Mao Fengying’s cracked lips trembled.
“He’ll punish you.”
Shen Miao stood up, fetched some water, and helped Mao Fengying take a sip. He smiled gently.
“It won’t kill me.”
After drinking some water, strength finally began to return to Mao Fengying’s limbs. She struggled to sit up.
“You should go rest. I can handle it myself.”
Taking the towel, she crawled over to Shen Ping’an first. The dagger was still lodged in the boy’s body. The green blood had changed from its original bright color to something darker, and from thin to thick and viscous.
She had no idea how to deal with a wound like that.
“He doesn’t seem to belong to the human race. If you pull the dagger out, the wound might heal on its own,” Shen Miao reminded her from the side.
“Not human?” Mao Fengying’s hair was in disarray. “Not human? Then… what kind of ability is that?”
Shen Miao shook his head, indicating that he didn’t know either.
Kneeling beside Shen Ping’an, Mao Fengying tossed the towel into the basin and wiped her hands on her pants. She kept swallowing nervously as her trembling hands reached toward the section of the knife handle still protruding from the body.
But the moment her fingers grasped the very top of the handle, a look of horror spread across her face.
Why did a mere knife feel like a living thing?
In Shen Miao’s eyes, the knife handle transformed into a vine, lazily flicking toward Mao Fengying.
Mao Fengying was instantly sent flying. Her body slammed heavily against the floor-to-ceiling window, and she collapsed onto the ground with a groan of pain, unable to get up for a long while.
With that kind of commotion—
Ning Bizhen should be awake by now.
Shen Miao lowered his gaze again toward the person on the floor. At some point, the other had already awakened. He pressed a hand over his injured spot, and the dagger had vanished without a trace.
Footsteps approached. Shen Miao took a few steps aside and looked upward with a smile.
“Xiao Ning, did I wake you?”
Ning Bizhen clearly hadn’t slept well. There was not a hint of pleasure on his face as he stared gloomily at the man standing downstairs.
“Why are you smiling so shamelessly?” he asked coldly.
Shen Miao gestured for Shen Ping’an to take Mao Fengying and leave the area, while he himself went to meet Ning Bizhen.
“Xiao Ning, that boy gave me a plant seedling tonight. Come help me plant it in the yard.”
Ning Bizhen watched Shen Miao as he gradually walked up from downstairs toward him. Without a word, he simply stretched out his hand and shoved the man down from the upper floor.
Thud—thud—thud!
Shen Ping’an was helping Mao Fengying along. Hearing the commotion, he turned his head. Shen Miao had curled up near the entrance door, his face twisted in pain.
Ning Bizhen then walked down the stairs.
The moment Mao Fengying glimpsed his legs, a sudden surge of strength filled her. She dragged Shen Ping’an and quickly slipped into the nearest room.
The pain in Shen Miao’s body faded quickly. Bracing himself on the ground, he was helped up by Ning Bizhen.
“Miao Miao, now I can go plant the flowers with you.”
Shen Ping’an heard the sound of the door outside being pulled open. The two of them must have gone out. As the house fell quiet, he finally relaxed as well, leaning against the door panel and tilting his head back to breathe deeply.
“Let me see where the knife stabbed you,” Mao Fengying suddenly said, beginning to tug at his clothes.
Shen Ping’an easily brushed her hands away. His posture didn’t change, and he didn’t say a word to her.
After resting for a moment, the boy slowly slid down along the door until he was sitting on the floor. Lowering his head, he unfastened his clothing.
The wound was already gone.
But from the place where the wound had been, vines had grown out from inside his body. Like green veins bulging beneath the skin, they spread across his chest in twisting strands. Something inside them seemed to flow like blood, leaving slender, soft vine tips draped over his shoulder.
Seeing this scene, Mao Fengying covered her mouth tightly to stop herself from screaming.
Shen Ping’an ignored her terror. He continued examining his body. On the surface, the gu insect hadn’t caused any visible changes, but from the reaction of the plant that did not belong to him, it was clear that the gu insect had already occupied his body. Even the main body of the poppy plant could only graft itself onto him, unable to truly merge with him.
But this was already enough.
A faint, satisfied smile actually appeared at the corner of Shen Ping’an’s mouth.