Chapter 72

Chapter 72

"Answer me, what are you doing?" Wuyin persisted in asking.

Xie Linyuan, vulnerable and controlled, blushed rapidly on his cheeks and ears, a thin sweat forming on his forehead, his left eye pupil even showing a red crosshair, targeting the unruly right guard, his eyelids twitching incessantly.

He nervously said, "You're asking me what I'm doing... haven't you ever done this before?"

"No, I haven't."

Wuyin's answer wasn't surprising to Xie Linyuan at all.

Then Wuyin added, "It's really soothing, even more than kissing. Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

With an 'I can't believe there's such a wonderful thing in the world, and I didn't know about it before' tone, he eagerly asked, "What did you mean by 'too soon'? How long do we have to wait before we can do it again?"

"..." Little color bug.

"...Damn, how can someone make impatience look so innocent?"

Xie Linyuan calmed himself, striving to regain control of the situation, and said calmly, "First, let go of me. Wait for ten... twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes seemed acceptable to Wuyin, who promptly relinquished control of the body, allowing Xie Linyuan to quickly get dressed.

Once neatly attired, Xie Linyuan had also adjusted his emotions. He sat back on the bed with a calm and composed demeanor, legs crossed, hands folded on his lap, exuding the air of a corporate executive negotiating in a high-level meeting room, completely forgetting the earlier embarrassment of using Wuyin's video as a distraction and being caught in the act by the person involved.

"Why are you inside my body? Have you parasitized me?"

"Yes," said Wuyin.

His voice wasn't heard by Xie Linyuan's ears, but was a form of consciousness and brainwaves, directly perceived by Xie Linyuan.

"You can parasitize me? Then the one originally in my body..." Xie Linyuan paused, "Are you—?"

"I killed it," Wuyin said coldly. "Last time, it was stimulated by Xue Hongyi, causing your contamination chaos, which was troublesome. I don't like such accidents. If it's not fully under control, what's the use of keeping it?"

“……”

After a moment of silence, Xie Linyuan asked, "Why do I still have consciousness and memory after being parasitized by you? I can even control my body autonomously... This doesn't seem like your usual mode of parasitism."

"...," Wuyin fell silent. Just when Xie Linyuan almost thought he had disappeared again, Wuyin finally answered slowly, "Because this isn't parasitism at all, but my third skill, apart from parasitism and symbiosis."

He sighed, seemingly reluctant to reveal another of his abilities: "Coexistence, living together with the host."

After a lengthy silence, Xie Linyuan squinted skeptically, "Really?"

“……”

Wuyin began to play disappearing tricks again.

"Coexistence..." Xie Linyuan wasn't in a hurry. He savored the word, then, with a shift in tone, teasingly asked, "Are you sure it's not because my unique physique made your parasitism fail, and now you're forced to coexist with me?"

“……”

"Wuyin? I know you're there, say something, will you?"

After half a minute, Wuyin admitted irritably, "You guessed right. Your mechanically modified body is really complex. I've tried for a long time and only managed to achieve this state. I can't completely suppress you."

"Oh? Not continuing your act? Confessing so soon?" Xie Linyuan's smile broadened, his eyes gleaming with triumph and provocation, "I wouldn't know anyway. You could make up anything, what evidence could I possibly bring to refute it?"

Wuyin: "..."

The two had an unspoken understanding. The highest command, contamination chaos, parasitic ability... The leverage Wuyin held to threaten and control Xie Linyuan was disappearing one after another. Soon, this semi-mechanical body yearning for freedom would be completely out of his control.

...But Wuyin didn't know that an invisible rein was slowly forming in his hands, and at the other end of the rope lay Xie Linyuan's true vulnerability.

However, for now, this remained Xie Linyuan's closely guarded secret, one he didn't plan to share with anyone.

"It doesn't matter. That you could see through me so easily is my incompetence," Wuyin suddenly said, his voice muffled, "If one day I truly can't handle you anymore, I'll just escape."

"You think you can escape then?" Xie Linyuan's tone was icy, aggressive.

Wuyin snorted disdainfully: "If I can't escape, then dying at your hands, what does it matter."

Hearing this, Xie Linyuan couldn't help but curl his lips in excitement, finding this unemotional experimental parasite adorable. But then, he heard Wuyin's cold, angry chuckle: "But that's for later. Xie Linyuan, right now, I..."

Suddenly, Xie Linyuan lost control of his right hand again, watching helplessly as 'he' pulled out a Browning from under the pillow, chambered it with one hand, and pressed the muzzle against his temple, "Handling someone like you is a breeze."

Wuyin commanded coldly and mercilessly: "Twenty minutes are up. It's time to keep your promise and take off those cool clothes!"

Xie Linyuan: "..."

Xie Linyuan burst into laughter, fueled by rage - "You, an ignorant worm in this matter, completely at the mercy of others, how dare you be so imperious?"

He lay back, needing no visual stimuli this time; just knowing that Wuyin was inside him, sharing the same body, was enough to excite Xie Linyuan beyond cure. Every inch of his skin, every cell in his body felt more alive than ever before.

Xie Linyuan used every trick he knew, exerting himself to the fullest, until Wuyin, in fits and starts, couldn’t utter a complete sentence. He then wickedly coaxed Wuyin to regain control, trying to mimic his movements to cater to them both.

Fifteen minutes later, Xie Linyuan lay there, chest heaving, holding back his breath, listening to Wuyin’s unrestrained moans in his mind, the sense of achievement and conquest completely overshadowing the physical thrill.

Tianxia curiously propped its front paws on the bed's edge, tail wagging as it watched him.

No wonder the dog switched sides so quickly; it sensed Wuyin hiding inside Xie Linyuan’s body.

After a while, Xie Linyuan heard Wuyin's pleased question: "Continue after twenty minutes?"

Xie Linyuan: "..."

Xie Linyuan: "If you want me dead, just say it."

He stood up, opened the tent door, rolling it up, letting the gentle evening breeze dissipate the rich scent inside.

Wuyin idly stayed inside his body without attempting to seize control again, and after a while yawned, "Then I'm off to sleep."

For some reason, an image popped into Xie Linyuan's mind: a tiny Wuyin building a nest inside his left atrium with a matchbox, now crawling into it wearing cartoon pajamas, sleepy-eyed, turning over, "Goodnight."

"...Goodnight."

……

The next day, Wuyin, having stayed up too late the night before, was still in bed at noon. When he regained consciousness, he was already seated on the motorcycle heading to the subway station, his soul still lagging behind.

Xie Linyuan wore sunglasses and half-finger gloves. His mechanical left arm was reduced to an empty shell; the rest of it mounted on his head and tailbone, transformed into a pair of large cat ears and a lively long tail.

To smoothly enter the highly xenophobic beastman nation, he fabricated feline-like features for himself, resembling a Sphynx cat. Although Xie Linyuan could cover his mechanical ears with a skin layer to make them look real, he couldn't grow fur, so he opted for this commonly liked and easily accepted hairless animal appearance.

Prince seemed to know the trip was to find milk for him, showing excitement throughout the journey. The Border Collie looked eagerly ahead, while the Golden Retriever's tongue flapped in the wind, drooling.

"Has Prince grown taller?" Wu Yin suddenly asked. "It seems much bigger than when I first saw it."

Startled by the sudden voice in his mind, Xie Linyuan adjusted his sunglasses. "Can you give a heads-up before speaking?"

"How? Set off an alarm clock?" Wu Yin yawned. "Had breakfast? Remember to eat more these days, or I won't have the strength to infest another host."

Speaking, Wu Yin nonchalantly began eating chocolate from Prince's backpack, which he was unable to open one-handed. He handed it back, and sharp canine teeth helped him tear open the packaging.

"How did you know I put chocolate in its bag?" Xie Linyuan frowned, chewing. "Have you been awake all this time?"

"Obviously, your body is now my body. How could I not know what you're doing?"

"Can you not eat this?" Xie Linyuan implored. "It's meant for bartering milk with the beastmen."

"Isn't there still plenty in Prince's bag?"

"…I don't like chocolate," Xie Linyuan confessed.

To his dismay, Wu Yin seemed even more enthusiastic about eating it.

After Wu Yin forcefully fed him a whole piece of chocolate, they began to see signs for Bruto subway station.

Rinsing the sweet and bitter taste from his mouth with water, Xie Linyuan looked up to see the subway entrance, heavily fortified with iron plates and spikes. Two beastmen were on guard duty outside, armed and alert.

One was extraordinarily tall and muscular, nearly three meters, seated on a regular-sized chair like a stool, with distinctive grey-blue skin. The other seemed more normal until he turned around, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth protruding beyond his lips, resembling an anglerfish.

Wu Yin had seen beastman modifications before, but never any as drastically altered as these. They were outcasts even in peacetime, unseen like sewer rats, and seemingly unwelcomed even in the post-apocalyptic world.

The arrival of strangers had already caught the attention of the guards. They stood guard, notifying their teammates and aiming their guns at the motorcycle's occupants. Only when Xie Linyuan removed his helmet to reveal moving cat ears did their demeanor soften, and they even whistled at his motorcycle: "Nice bike, where'd you get it?"

"Found it on the side of the road," Xie Linyuan replied with a casual, toothy grin.

Prince also jumped down from the back seat of the motorcycle, shaking off its fur.