Chapter 24 Awakening Swamp

Chapter 24: The Fog of Awakening

When Fu Rangyi woke up, his head was heavy, and his vision was utter darkness. A thick, almost suffocating floral scent surged around him—silken threads weaving through the air, enveloping the entire space.

It was his pheromones, and not just any—it was the heat scent of his rut phase. The fragrance of pomelo blossoms overwhelmed everything else, cloyingly thick.

Opening his eyes, Fu Rangyi felt dazed, as if emerging from a long, chaotic dream. The fevered fragments of memory gradually dissolved and faded, like a drop of pink ink dispersing in water, vanishing without a trace.

Sensation returned, and his shoulders and wrists ached faintly. Soon, he realized something was off. Turning his head, he found his left hand bound once again, the cord looped around his wrist.

"What the hell is this?" He lifted his arm and noticed the other end of the tie was attached to something. Following the blue outdoor rope, he saw it looped twice around the leg of the bedside table—and then extending further.

The other end led to Zhu Zhixi, curled up asleep on a beanbag.

Wait, wasn’t that beanbag from his own room? How did it end up next to his bed?

He raised his hand higher, tugging the rope, which in turn lifted Zhu Zhixi’s left hand.

What the hell was going on? Fu Rangyi tried to recall, but his mind was a mess, his head pounding. The only memories he could barely grasp were of him taking two days off from school, taking medication, crashing, waking up feeling awful…

And then going to Zhu Zhixi’s room, crawling into his tent.

And then?

Hazy fragments flickered past and disappeared.

Fu Rangyi attempted to sit up, wanting to undo the knot on his wrist. It was tougher than he thought.

"What now…" A familiar, groggy voice floated up. "Cut me some slack."

Zhu Zhixi grumbled, made a small noise, and tried to roll over to keep sleeping, but the rope yanked his hand taut. He took a deep breath, as if resigned, and sat up, pushing his eyemask up onto his forehead.

He lifted his head, his hair sticking up in all directions, and blinked blearily at Fu Rangyi for a moment.

Fu Rangyi’s mind went blank. Maybe it was because his rut wasn’t entirely over yet, still affecting his emotions and thoughts, but he suddenly felt a weird apprehension—like he might say the wrong thing.

He had planned to wait cautiously for Zhu Zhixi to speak first, but the guy just sat there yawning, too wiped to speak. So Fu Rangyi had to ask first.

"Why are you here?" He lifted his hand slightly, trying to keep his tone carefully neutral. "And… what’s this about?"

Zhu Zhixi blinked slowly, then—as if he hadn’t seen or heard anything—lay back down, wrapped himself in his blanket, and turned his back to Fu Rangyi. His movements were anything but polite, nearly toppling Fu Rangyi off the bed.

What now? Did he really say something wrong?

Fu Rangyi raised his hand again, pulling Zhu Zhixi’s hand out from under the blanket with the rope.

"Say something."

At that, Zhu Zhixi snapped: "Say what? What’s wrong with you right now? Are you lying to me again? I’m not falling for that again."

As he spoke, he untied the rope from his wrist and tried to stand by leaning on the bed, only for his legs to give out, almost toppling him forward.

Why the sudden anger?

Almost instinctively, Fu Rangyi caught his arm—even with his own hand still bound.

"Lying? What did I lie to you about?" His headache pulsed, and he frowned, only then noticing he was still wearing a muzzle. "And this muzzle… where did it come from?"

He didn’t remember wearing one before. He didn’t keep one at home—which was why he'd kept finding ways to keep Zhu Zhixi away.

"You still came back?"

Zhu Zhixi pulled his hand away and steadied himself. He widened his eyes, looking completely stunned.

"Cut the crap. Stop pretending to have amnesia—just spit it out. We’ve already crossed the line—no going back now."

Fu Rangyi had no idea what he meant.

"What are you talking about? Let me go first."

Zhu Zhixi stared at him for a long moment, then crouched down, digging through the beanbag before pulling out his phone. He turned his back to Fu Rangyi and opened an app.

But he seemed to forget that this angle made it easier for Fu Rangyi to see.

Fu Rangyi sneaked a glance.

That screen looked familiar.

"How’d you get into my wristband?"

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi was ready to fire back, but the moment he saw the freshly loaded data, he froze.

Getting no answer, Fu Rangyi glanced over too. The previously red-alert data had mostly stabilized.

What happened? He felt a sudden dread.

Zhu Zhixi set the phone down and abruptly marched back out, clutching what looked like an instruction manual.

"That bastard Li Jiao..."

He crumpled the paper into a ball and hammered out a text.

Fu Rangyi frowned. "Li Jiao?"

Zhu Zhixi was too busy sending messages to respond.

"You friended him?!" Fu Rangyi couldn’t hide the bite in his tone.

Only then did Zhu Zhixi turn around. "Why the attitude?"

Fu Rangyi paused, took a breath, and repeated, "Let me go."

As he spoke, his gaze darted to the phone in Zhu Zhixi’s hand. The screen lit up with a WeChat notification—the sender was indeed Li Jiao.

"You even added him? He’s bad news." Fu Rangyi’s expression darkened.

Zhu Zhixi scoffed. "Tell me something I don’t know."

Fu Rangyi clenched his fist. "What did you do with him?"

Suddenly, he noticed Zhu Zhixi’s expression shift strangely, as if he’d thought of something but stopped himself at the last second. After a long hesitation, he only spat out angrily, "He wrecked me!"

"Him? Wrecked you?"

A sharp tingling shot through his arm as faint electrical currents pulsed. The wristband lit up again.

"Yes, him! That absolute menace." He swore under his breath, then sighed, moving closer to the bed. "Whatever, let’s just free you."

But for some reason, he suddenly froze mid-motion, like he’d been zapped, and lost his balance, collapsing onto the bed with one knee down.

"Fu Rangyi, did you secretly..." Zhu Zhixi could barely move, "let out suppressing pheromones again?"

Fu Rangyi was distracted and only realized what was happening after hearing this.

"Can you reel it in, please?" Zhu Zhixi said slowly. "Even though Betas can't smell it, your level is too high. Releasing such oppressive pheromones is weighing me down too."

He stared at Zhu Zhixi and noticed his ears had suddenly turned red, his cheeks flushing slightly—not how a pheromone-resistant Beta should look.

As if afraid of being misunderstood, Zhu Zhixi added in a low voice, "...It feels like I’m pinned under a boulder."

"Sorry," Fu Rangyi murmured, blurting out an excuse. "I... haven't fully recovered yet. My pheromones are a bit out of control."

"Yeah, whatever, you’re forgiven." Zhu Zhixi replied generously.

Soon, he shook it off and could lift his hand again.

"Give me your hand," he said, reaching out to Fu Rangyi.

It felt weirdly familiar.

Fu Rangyi almost placed his hand in Zhu Zhixi's palm—a completely instinctive reaction.

But he restrained himself, just holding out his wrist instead.

Zhu Zhixi leaned in closer, lowering his head to carefully undo the knot while muttering, "You toss around so much in your sleep, tugging at it again, so tight..."

The rut wasn't entirely over yet, and his pheromones were still spiking. During this time, an Alpha's senses were exceptionally sharp. At such close proximity, his headache worsened. He frowned, his throat working.

He easily caught the soap smell on Zhu Zhixi. The one he had borrowed before—Zhu Zhixi had stopped using it last week, swapping it for some fruity crap instead.

Yet now, the scent emanating from Zhu Zhixi was still woody—the same one Fu Rangyi had kept in his bathroom for years.

Zhu Zhixi worked the rope loose, muttering "so tight" under his breath. After a while, he finally said, "Don’t get the wrong idea. Li Jiao and I didn’t meet privately. He came looking for you and asked me to help take care of you. The muzzle was also brought by him."

An explanation wasn't even necessary anymore.

Fu Rangyi knew very well.

Because aside from the identical soap smell, there wasn't the slightest trace of Li Jiao's pheromones on Zhu Zhixi at this moment. On the contrary, every inch of him was drenched in Fu Rangyi's own pheromones—even his hair, saturated through.

This wasn't normal.

As a Beta, retaining pheromones was difficult; they fade fast. Even sharing a room shouldn't have left his skin permeated with Fu Rangyi's scent.

What killed him was that Zhu Zhixi seemed clueless about it.

It was as if he was trying to hide something.

Fu Rangyi lowered his head and glanced at his clothes. The white henley shirt from earlier had been replaced with heather-gray PJs, buttoned up to his throat.

He always started from the second button.

"Done, it's undone." After loosening the knot, Zhu Zhixi quickly wound up the rope and chucked it onto the beanbag.

Driven by instinct, Fu Rangyi's gaze locked onto Zhu Zhixi’s nape like a predator’s.

There was a bandage stuck there.

Too many things that didn’t add up piled up in his mind. Fu Rangyi frowned and yanked at the muzzle’s strap.

Turning around, Zhu Zhixi saw this scene and assumed the bite guard had been on too long, making him uncomfortable.

"Since the readings are stable now, can we take it off?"

"No, no. Better safe than sorry."

He lowered his head and opened the bite guard control app on his phone, scrolling through it, expecting some data monitoring—but there was none.

However, he accidentally discovered a feature—unlock history.

He tapped it casually and found two entries recorded. The first attempt failed, while the second succeeded. Both happened yesterday, less than 30 seconds apart.

This was a brand-new bite guard with no prior usage records. If Li Jiao hadn’t lied and didn’t remotely unlock it, then it had to be Fu Rangyi.

"So yesterday, when he faked needing my phone, he was actually looking for this app to unlock the bite guard?"

"But how could he crack the password in two tries?"

"How does Fu Rangyi even remember my birthday?"

"When did he ever learn it? I never told him."

"When did you come back?" Fu Rangyi suddenly spoke, interrupting his thoughts.

Zhu Zhixi looked up, giving him a weird look.

"Yesterday afternoon. I texted you, but you ignored me."

Silence.

The air was tense.

After what he’d done, Zhu Zhixi had worried about how to face him upon waking up, dreading how awkward it’d be. But he never imagined it would be like this.

That memory was just gone.

He didn’t have to feel embarrassed about it anymore.

But.

"My memory seems to have some gaps, honestly," Fu Rangyi broke the silence first.

"I know," Zhu Zhixi nodded.

He explained to Fu Rangyi, "It’s probably because of the inhibitor Li Jiao brought. I gave it to you, but I didn’t expect so many side effects..." His tone shifted suddenly, with an edge of blame—something rare for him.

"Quit being a guinea pig and testing drugs every day from now on. It’s too dangerous. Why not try living a little longer?"

Fu Rangyi didn’t answer.

A few seconds later, he spoke again, more to himself, "I remember telling you not to come back."

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi snapped, rolling up his sleeves like he was about to fight.

But Fu Rangyi quickly followed up, "What did I do to you?"

His anger fizzled out—like a punch landing on cotton.

His eyes darted, catching sight of Fu Rangyi clutching the sheets, red marks still visible on his wrist.

He lowered his eyes, his complexion worse than ever, lips pale, breath faint, his face marked by exhaustion and unease. It was as if he were the one in this room truly on the brink of death.

Many times, Zhu Zhixi prided himself on his vivid imagination, but at this moment, he hated it. Once again, he thought of Fu Rangyi in tears, pleading for touch, kisses, and embraces. Those suppressed desires, accumulated for who knows how long, had spilled out messily during his rut, mixed with traces of blood when his rationality was lost.

Another cycle of repression, another wave of self-loathing.

What exactly happened to you?

"Was it something terrible? Was it?" Fu Rangyi spoke again, looking at him with a deceptively calm gaze.

It was almost as if he was prodding Zhu Zhixi to say "yes."

The room fell silent once more, the light dim. The scented candle on the nightstand had burned halfway, its wax hardening in uneven clumps, the flame flickering faintly.

Whenever Zhu Zhixi stayed silent, Fu Rangyi’s mood would darken.

At the end of the day, he was still like some base animal, controlled by pheromones, losing his rationality, doing the very thing he despised most—forcing an unwilling partner, using every means to satisfy the primal breeding instincts rooted in his genes.

It was disgusting.

And of all people, it was...

"Fu Rangyi."

On the verge of breaking down, he suddenly heard Zhu Zhixi call his name, jolting him back to awareness as he looked up.

At some point, Zhu Zhixi had moved to the edge of the bed, sitting close, his eyes gleaming brighter than the candlelight as he met Fu Rangyi's gaze.

"You guessed right, something did happen. But..." Zhu Zhixi's face flushed, his tone offhand, though he looked away, "it wasn’t you doing something to me. It was something we did together."

Fu Rangyi froze.

"Don’t look down on me. I’m not an Omega, melting into a puddle at the first scent of pheromones, slipping helplessly into heat. Yeah, your pheromones are strong, but they can’t control my will. Even if you tried to force yourself on me, if I didn’t let you, I could still fight back."

As he spoke, he shook the rope in his hand, letting out a smug chuckle. "So what if you’re a top-tier Alpha? I had you tied up in seconds."

But even as he said this, Zhu Zhixi felt a flicker of guilt.

He knew full well just how terrifying the explosive strength of a rutting top Alpha could be—and he had personally witnessed the shrewdness of an Alpha who could still scheme even in the throes of his rut.

But what happened afterward wasn’t just one person’s fault. He couldn’t lie to himself—there had been plenty of chances to refuse.

It should have been fine. Fu Rangyi forgot, and Zhu Zhixi wanted to pretend it never happened, for both of them to return to normal. But he didn’t want Fu Rangyi sinking into self-loathing, trapped in his own spiral.

"What happened?" Fu Rangyi finally jerked back to the present, his voice hoarse.

"Does it matter? I don’t mind."

This wasn’t just empty bravado—Zhu Zhixi genuinely felt that way. What mattered wasn’t the past, but that Fu Rangyi was back to normal now, wasn’t it?

Still, perhaps because of residual unease, he suddenly thought he heard something. A soft creak. The same sound that had popped up intermittently yesterday.

Thinking the matter was settled, he bent down, grabbed the corner of the beanbag chair, and hauled it behind him like dead weight, ready to return to his room for some sleep.

But then something fell from the chair with a clatter, hitting the floor.

A tiny rubber duck.

And then Fu Rangyi suddenly called out to him, "Wait."

Zhu Zhixi really waited, but didn’t turn around or look back. After a long pause with no follow-up, he started to leave.

This time, Fu Rangyi spoke up, his tone barely concealing irritation, as if angry with himself.

"So... what exactly did I do?"

Zhu Zhixi took a deep breath and let go. The sofa thudded back into place. He turned, approached, and got onto the bed they had intermittently slept on last night, lunging forward with hands slamming against the headboard, arms encircling Fu Rangyi. The distance between them suddenly became extremely close.

He raised his eyebrows and spoke slowly, emphasizing each word: "You kissed me."

Watching Fu Rangyi’s slightly widened eyes in shock, Zhu Zhixi actually felt a perverse thrill and couldn’t help curling his lips.

"You flipped me over and kissed me, kissed me so hard, so fiercely, even using those Alpha fangs of yours to scrape against me—see? My lips are swollen, almost torn by you! Oh, and you stuck your tongue in too, not gentle at all, just shoved it deep like you were trying to choke me, you—"

"Hissed through gritted teeth," came the response.

"Shut up?"

Zhu Zhixi tilted his head. "Why? Didn’t you ask me to say it? I swear to heaven, I didn’t embellish a damn thing, every word is true. If I’m lying, may I die a horrible death."

Hmm, not like that oath carried much weight.

Fu Rangyi’s brows furrowed. "Why say all this?"

"I told you, you asked me to!" Zhu Zhixi whined like he’d been accused unfairly.

Fu Rangyi's voice caught before he ground out, "...I meant the last sentence."

Zhu Zhixi went still.

Their faces were too close. Fu Rangyi averted his gaze to the faintly swaying edge of the curtains.

"Is that all?" he asked.

"You also bit my hand, drew blood."

He extended his hand, but the wound was now too small to find, so he quickly hid it again, clutching it tightly before Fu Rangyi noticed.

"Just the hand?"

What’s with the third degree? Like interrogating a criminal...

When he didn’t answer, Fu Rangyi asked instead, "I marked you, didn’t I?"

"Marked?" Zhu Zhixi put on an air of indifference and laughed. "Not really. I can’t be marked—you just bit me, that’s all. It’ll heal in two days, won’t leave a trace."

Fu Rangyi fell silent.

That grating sound came again. This time, Zhu Zhixi confirmed it was Fu Rangyi grinding his teeth.

"Now what’s your problem?" He considered checking Fu Rangyi’s data on his phone, afraid his condition was flaring up again. But now wasn’t the right moment.

Fu Rangyi frowned, turning his face away, no longer looking at him.

Zhu Zhixi stared for a while, admiring how endearingly flustered he looked.

His arms were getting tired from holding himself up, so he quietly lowered them and flexed his fingers. How did those overbearing male leads in soap operas love manhandling people into walls so much? Did they work out enough for this? Like Fu Rangyi?

He let out a low laugh, then taunted, "—Want to know what I did?"

"What?" Fu Rangyi turned to look at him again.

"I touched your face, hands, neck, and pheromone gland." His luminous eyes darted restlessly, his plush red lips moving as he spoke. "Oh, and I hugged you too."

"*Hugged*. *You*." He arched a brow, slow and deliberate.

The light in Fu Rangyi's eyes kept wavering. He took a deep breath. "Zhu Zhixi..."

Before he could finish, Zhu Zhixi reached out.

His fingertips slipped into the gaps of the bite guard, curling around the metal bar, pulling Fu Rangyi closer bit by bit. The distance between them narrowed further.

"Cut the sarcasm. You asked for this."

He recognized the disbelief in Fu Rangyi's expression and felt a mix of smugness and unease.

Why the unease?

Ah, must be that adrenaline-fueled suspension bridge effect.

A man doomed by a family-curse of an illness counting down his days, and a last hope plagued by episodic attacks—both teetering on the edge, both desperate for rescue.

He can help pause this damned countdown for me, but I can’t release even a trace of pheromones to soothe him, forcing me to grit my teeth and grudgingly help. Thinking about it, Fu Rangyi’s the one at a loss here.

Xiao Zhu, your pose and moves are way too intimate! That nagging inner voice chimed in again.

Snapping back to reality, he let go of the bite guard.

He expected Fu Rangyi to bolt like he’d seen a ghost, retreating swiftly to the headboard, but he didn’t.

"This constitutes sexual harassment," Fu Rangyi said sternly. "I initiated it. It’s my fault. You’re within your rights to press charges—"

"No need."

Fu Rangyi steadied his breathing and continued, "I understand you don’t want to pursue it now. Then I’ll compensate you as stipulated in the contract. If someday you suddenly change your mind, I won’t stand in your way. You can rest assured."

For some reason, his calm tone at this moment irritated Zhu Zhixi.

This serious? I only picked the mildest things to mention. The stuff that actually borders on sex, I didn’t even...

Fu Rangyi. You absolute menace. The perfect candidate to revive Qing-era torture methods.

Never mind. Zhu Zhixi quickly retracted the thought in his mind, mentally cursing, spitting twice for good measure.

Because he knew—Fu Rangyi was a self-flagellating martyr. Every single torture would only be inflicted on himself.

"I told you this wasn’t just you acting alone. We both did it. If this voids the contract, we voided it together." He started acting up too, throwing Fu Rangyi’s own words back at him. "I don’t want a damn penny from you."

Fu Rangyi paused for a second, studying his expression.

Something in his voice felt wrong.

Had he ever spoken like this before? He was always laughing like nothing mattered every day.

"Then..." Fu Rangyi instinctively softened his tone, trying to sound genuinely contrite. "What kind of compensation do you want? Or... do you want to call it quits early—"

"I don’t want compensation."

"Why?"

Zhu Zhixi was on the verge of losing it.

You just had to push my buttons, huh? Fine, then I’ll really go for broke.

He raised his head: "Fu Rangyi, you said something yesterday. I know you might not have meant it, that you were just talking nonsense, but I heard it."

Fu Rangyi frowned: "What was it?"

"You said I’m different from others."

He stared at Fu Rangyi. Perhaps due to lack of sleep, his eyes were slightly red, but they still shone fiercely.

"So what I want is different too."

Fu Rangyi watched him quietly. After a long pause, he nodded: "Go on, what do you want?"

"Today, for the entire day, you have to listen to me. Whatever I tell you to do, you’ll do it. Every demand I make, you’ll meet without question."

Zhu Zhixi let out a snort, grinning slyly, his eyes bright and playful: "Think you can handle that, Xiao Fu?"

——Bonus Scene: Side Effects of the Medication——

Fu Rangyi saw the little duck, and with a *plop* in his mind, suddenly flashed back to a series of very explicit scenes. He thought his rut wasn’t over yet and he was hallucinating.

Li Jiao: Not exactly. (Wags finger)

Li Jiao: The side effects are limited—it doesn’t erase memories completely, just causes short-term memory gaps and confusion. And yes, *short-term*. As the drug metabolizes, the memories will gradually flash back and recover. So...

Xiao Zhu: You’ve got some nerve showing your face! You bastard, I— (gets yanked away by husband)

Li Jiao: Fu Rangyi, your partner here is a total spammer. Every time I open WeChat, I nearly jump out of my skin. You’d better get him under control.

Fu Rangyi: Then just block him. (Deadpan)