SDT 63

Chapter 63 The Mark

“Take off your raincoat.”

Yu Xiaowen found the other’s raincoat terribly cumbersome. His hand rested soothingly on the back of the raincoat, only to trace a trail of water droplets, unsure if the gesture truly reached Lu Kongyun. So he slipped his hand inside and embraced him anew. The military uniform was dry, clinging smoothly and coolly to his body. His hands glided upward from the narrow waist, like an embrace deepening with each stroke.

Everything will be fine.

“What do you mean by that? Are you trying to use me to fix your physical issues, or are you trying to deceive me again?” The person in his arms sounded far from grateful.

“…”

There was nothing to feel wronged about. Yet Yu Xiaowen couldn’t help but feel this way.

His chest pressed against Lu Kongyun’s burned with heat, waves of sensation churning within.

“Lu Kongyun, I never wanted to deceive you. if I could choose again, I’d rather never have entered your life and disturbed you.”

He said it with genuine sincerity.

But after a moment of blank stare, the other person’s eyes darkened, clouded over like heavy rain clouds, growing even more gloomy and intense.

He remained silent and unresponsive for a long time. Yu Xiaowen lifted his head, looked at him, and hugged him tighter, his heart aching even more.

“You’ve already disturbed me,” Lu Kongyun said.

Yu Xiaowen: “…I’m sorry.”

“Regretting it?” Lu Kongyun said slowly, “I don’t need your unnecessary guilt. Because the one clinging on to someone they don’t even like, some gullible Alpha fool, is you, right?”

Yu Xiaowen froze. “…I…”

Yu Xiaowen’s neck was seized, and he was shoved back against the large cabinet behind him. The sudden chill of the cabinet door pressed against his back made him gasp, but Lu Kongyun immediately silenced him with a kiss.

“Mmm…”

Yu Xiaowen felt the other’s forceful invasion, lips and tongue, sharp canine teeth, pheromones almost carrying the scent of blood. A kiss of unrelenting possession unlike any he had ever known.

Passive as prey, his mind blank, he endured the painful kiss. He weakly placed his hands on the other’s shoulders, but this was interpreted as resistance. His wrists were clamped, yanked up, and he was slammed face-first into the cabinet with a dull thud.

His face was turned to the side. He tasted blood in his mouth. He saw two translucent shadows reflected in the glass, bodies pressed together without a single gap, one struggling instinctively, the other restraining instinctively.

A stinging pain shot through the back of his neck.

“!”

The bite was too deep. Yu Xiaowen’s pain deafened and blinded him, quickly numbing him until only overwhelming euphoria remained. The air and his body overflowed with the Alpha pheromones, invading and consuming everything within him like a predator’s deadly poison paralyzing its prey.

This instantly made him delude himself into thinking he was needed and loved, reaching a lethal level. Yu Xiaowen started to lose control, succumbing to his delusions.

He wanted to repay the other’s desire for him with his entire being, to become forever a part of his body and soul.

“Lu Kongyun, I… love you… fuck me…” He lifted his leg, reaching back to meet the motion, calling the other’s name in ecstasy.

“…”

This thoughtless remark, inexplicably, became the antidote that restored the other person’s sanity. The overloaded vehicle hurtling down the slope, its brake pads sparks flying, slowly halted its motion before crashing to its doom.

Everything came to a halt. Silence. As Yu Xiaowen gradually regained consciousness, all he could hear was the heavy breathing behind his ear.

Seconds later, he was released. Turning around, he saw Lu Kongyun walk to the table, grab two white wristbands, and quickly fasten them around his own wrists, setting them all to maximum intensity.

Yu Xiaowen stared at him in bewilderment.

Lu Kongyun stood with his back to him, motionless, his fist clenched so tightly that the veins on the back of his hand bulged and his knuckles turned white.

Yu Xiaowen had lost his mind, gone completely mad. He charged forward, his nose tingling, and pulled the other person around to kiss him forcefully. When the head turned away to evade him, he kissed his neck instead. He clung to the other like sticky rice cake, pouring every ounce of strength into adhering to every inch, grinding against every inch, kissing the other’s entire body with his own.

When pushed away with a single hand, he insisted on grabbing that wrist adorned with two wristbands, forcing it back onto himself. The other remained still, so he moved instead. He felt his sensitive pleasure points miss and then reconnect with the other’s fingers.

Finally, he heard a intake of breath, followed by a hoarse, drawn-out “mmh…” Then Yu Xiaowen lost his footing. Scenery and light shifted rapidly as he was laid onto the table.

The heavy military coat landed beside him, thudding against the tabletop.

The metal buckle on the other person’s belt clinked and clanked with a metallic ring.

Then he heard both of them let out cries of animalistic satisfaction.

He felt the beast’s unrestrained gaze sweeping down from above, and instinctively grabbed his clothes to cover himself.

The coat was torn off and tossed aside.

He didn’t know when the battlefield had shifted to the bed. The other person was unexpectedly skilled beyond imagination… He was rendered almost unconscious, drained of strength. Yet he persisted in fully cooperating.

Yu Xiaowen had a thought: this doctor probably had an organized checklist in his head, with every to-do item requiring a checkmark.

He seemed much more intense than two years ago. Was that a side effect of his illness?

As dawn began to break outside, Yu Xiaowen noticed the dog was mating.

Yu Xiaowen: “Bite me.”

Lu Kongyun: “No.”

Yu Xiaowen: “I want it!”

Dr. Lu calmly approached him, brushing aside his sweat-dampened hair: “You can’t do it now.”

Yu Xiaowen hated how this guy was always more level-headed than him. Every time he acted on wishful thinking, getting all mixed up, he’d stay cool and in control, handling everything with ease.

Yu Xiaowen: “Dr. Lu, you don’t need to be so cautious. I’m not asking you to take responsibility, and I’m certainly not going to become your mate just because of this…”

Yu Xiaowen forced a smile through the pain.

Lu Kongyun stared back, his eyes unblinking.

Then he was lifted upright by his shoulders, his neck pierced deep by sharp canine teeth.

He could feel the tsunami-like surge of pheromone flooding his glands and bloodstream. His glands showed no marking reaction typical of a normal Omega at this moment, nor did they prevent him from screaming, a scream that never came. He stiffened, trembled, and passed out.

This secret. It had been discovered after all.

……

When Yu Xiaowen woke up, he was hooked up to an IV drip. His mind felt numb for a moment. Turning his head, he saw a rice bowl on the table beside his face. He forced himself to lift his neck, inside was half a bowl of leftover vegetable and egg congee.

He licked his lips, a taste of rice water lingered. He must have eaten it, though he couldn’t recall when or how. Climbing up, he grabbed the bowl and continued eating until it gleamed clean.

Chewing, he set the bowl down and picked up the thermos beside it. He unscrewed the lid, took a look inside, then drank all the warm water. Only then did he remember there should be another person here. Where the hell was Lu Kongyun?

He glanced at his wrist, where another medical wristband identical to Lu Kongyun’s was now fastened. It seemed the patient had given him one.

Supporting his waist, he moved slowly, grabbed his IV drip, and walked out of the bedroom. The living room light was on, but no one was there. A note lay on the table, along with a crumpled ball of paper. He approached, first unfolding the ball of paper.

It read: I’ve gone to the nearby town to buy some food and medicine.

Yu Xiaowen had already finished eating, and the IV drip was hooked up. That was why this piece of paper was crumpled into a ball. Only then did he pick up another unfolded note to read.

It read:

Your current physical condition isn’t suitable for preparing to receive a child, but typically, when a S-class Alpha enters the birth canal, the conception rate is nearly 100%. Even with your reproductive issues, it’s not entirely impossible. Most medications on the market claim to be side-effect-free, yet their actual safety remains uncertain. Many product descriptions overlook or conceal variations in receptor responsiveness and efficacy. Therefore, I must return to the Institute of Life Science. There, we have medications confirmed to be entirely free of side effects. They only deceive and obstruct seeds without altering your bodily environment.

Yu Xiaowen’s face flushed so fiercely he could barely bear to look, muttering under his breath, “…Why write it in such detail? Is it really necessary?”

The next paragraph was just one sentence: Don’t go self-medicating.

The next sentence: I’ll be back soon.

Yu Xiaowen held the note, feeling his arm grow warm. A vague notion stirred within him, one that seemed clear enough if he could just part a thin mist, but he suppressed it. His intuition warned him that prying into things now, out of misplaced hope, might not be wise.

Then he forced himself to shift his focus, turning his thoughts to what demanded immediate attention.

Yu Xiaowen began piecing together the timeline through recollection. When he arrived at the cabin, it was late afternoon, nearing dusk. Then, after enduring a night of relentless exertion with the exceptionally fit Alpha, he finally collapsed, only to find dawn approaching when he came to. After that, he drifted in and out of consciousness, vaguely recalling waking up several times… Dr. Lu had kindly helped him shower, displaying remarkable kindness…

Ahem.

In Yu Xiaowen’s memory, the last time he was conscious seemed to be as the sun was setting, with golden light and shadows dancing on the wall… Then he fell asleep and never woke up again. During that time, Dr. Lu seemed to be doing something, hovering around him like a fly, even turning him over a few times. But he was too exhausted to react, so the other person would leave after a while.

And now, another evening had arrived.

So, two days have already passed.

Two days, the agreed-upon day to leave.

Yu Xiaowen frowned, staring at the words “I’ll be back soon.” His mind pieced together the truth of the situation. Gradually, all romantic notions vanished. He began to calm down.

He wrestled with himself, torn for a while. Then his gaze drifted to the opposite wall, and he sighed.

Yu Xiaowen, deep in thought, selected an outfit from the wardrobe that carried a faint scent of camphor. He dressed and left once more. Stepping outside the small hut, he took a deep breath. The mountain sunset inexplicably reminded him of that day two years prior, when he had met with the criminals in Shijia. It had been his final day as Yu Xiaowen, the upright detective of the Major Crimes Unit.

He stood for a moment, gazing into the distance before choosing to leave via the mountain path behind the house. He rummaged around in the shed at the back, selecting a bundle of tattered hemp rope and a rusty shovel blade, which he took with him.

Carrying the rope on his back, he traversed the rugged mountain path toward Banana Mountain, as previously agreed with Dai Jingxi. Banana Mountain was vast, its terrain complex and concealed. Without coordinates or precise positioning, meeting the other party would be difficult. He walked for a long time, stopping only when the evening glow cast its final golden light. After scanning his surroundings, he continued upward, halting beside a cliff neither too high nor too low.

He looked down at the cliff’s base. Below lay a river valley. After rain, the waters level augmented, but today, with no precipitation, the flow was gentler, the surface glistening clear, the current murmuring softly.

Yu Xiaowen crouched down, set the hemp rope from his back, tied one end to a tree trunk, and began knotting it tightly.

A rustling sound came from behind him.

Yu Xiaowen had been caught again. This time, however, he wasn’t surprised, he’d noticed the figure tailing him from the start. He merely glanced up at the silhouette approaching through the golden-red twilight and remarked, “You might as well come with me. We could have a little chat.”

“…” Lu Kongyun stood a short distance away, watching him tie another knot. “You knew all along.”