Chapter 41

Chapter 41

The moment he fell into that embrace, Meng Shijiu's fingers instinctively tensed, his hand reflexively reaching for Dan Yue at his waist.

Not finding it, he immediately understood who it was.

The force prepared for a counterattack dissipated halfway. Meng Shijiu didn't move; instead, he leaned into the newcomer's embrace like a boneless fish, using them for support.

"Use me and then discard me?" The low voice sounded somewhat abrupt in the empty room, its tail end turning into a sated sigh after successfully pulling the person into his arms.

Meng Shijiu said softly, "Pretty gutsy."

The response was silence and arms tightening around him.

Moonlight spilled in from the window a few meters away. The two were hidden in the darkness, separated by a stretch of distance from the cold, luminous band spread across the floor.

"I'm really tired. Let go."

Meng Shijiu lazily thumped his heel against Cui Suifu, not too lightly, not too heavily.

"Hmm." The Second Prince agreed promptly, but his eyes remained closed, unmoving.

Before closing his eyes, a trace of imperceptible surprise flickered in his dark gaze.

This surprise wasn't directed at Meng Shijiu.

But at himself.

"No." Cui Suifu slowly released his hold, the lingering warmth leaving a damp, reluctant ache in his heart.

Cui Suifu murmured, "So this is what it feels like to care for someone."

Once released, Meng Shijiu couldn't even be bothered to turn on the light, walking towards the window. "What feeling?"

Cui Suifu lifted his head, watching his back as he walked away. "The feeling of losing control."

It was as if every tiny emotion concerning him was amplified ten thousandfold. Not only did his heartbeat no longer belong to him, but his body didn't either.

Only by watching him walk away did he gradually regain command of his body, yet he didn't want to see him leave.

He relaxed his body, leaning against the wall, his tense muscles loosening inch by inch.

Meng Shijiu didn't perceive any loss of control at all. Walking to the desk, he asked, "Where did you lose control?"

Cui Suifu gave a self-deprecating laugh. "When you walked in, when I hugged you."

"I didn't dare." He emphasized the word "I."

"Didn't dare what?" Meng Shijiu's back was to him, his voice sounding somewhat distant.

This illusory distance caused a sudden twinge in his heart. Cui Suifu flinched almost imperceptibly, letting out a silent hiss.

"Didn't dare to hug you."

He didn't dare.

This liking was so cautious he could hardly believe it himself.

Thus, this embrace seemed like him, yet not him.

As if a long-dormant soul had suddenly awakened, forcefully usurping control of the body—those surging longings, nameless grievances, or perhaps even more chaotic, indistinct emotions; maybe they were nothing at all, but in this moment, they all became the most primal desire.

He suddenly, heedlessly, wanted this embrace, even if it meant expending all his strength, even if he were to die the next second.

Cui Suifu did not live by impulse, even though this seemed to fit the external image the Second Prince presented to all of Lottelance.

In fact, he was merely adhering to his own rules.

Still hidden in the darkness, Cui Suifu's gaze was intense.

The silver-haired Alpha walked into the moonlight. Having grown accustomed to Cui Suifu's occasionally gloomy stares, Meng Shijiu didn't quite understand. He placed the orange candy on the table. "Can't tell. Typical of you."

See, who had been on the table all along, jumped into his arms. "I can electrocute him."

Meng Shijiu raised an eyebrow. "? I thought you couldn't shock target individuals?"

Meng Shijiu lifted a hand to press down on See, whose eyes were about to pop out as he got agitated, as if to soothe him.

It fell silent behind him. Meng Shijiu turned his head.

He watched Cui Suifu's tall figure shift and begin walking towards where he stood.

Meng Shijiu glanced over, replying to See, "If he's electrocuted, he'll just take up space."

See: "Then I'll electrocute him on his way back."

Meng Shijiu: "?"

Cui Suifu stepped closer.

Until they both melted into the moonlight, their shadows overlapping on the ground.

The two looked at each other quietly for a moment.

Cui Suifu suddenly grabbed Meng Shijiu's wrist and pressed it against his own left chest.

...

Thump thump thump thump thump.

The beats pounded against his palm, like a dying trapped beast ramming against its cage.

Cui Suifu: "This is the real me."

Meng Shijiu still showed little reaction to this sudden display of affection. The red-haired Alpha's palms were sweaty from nervousness. He withdrew his hand with disdain, holding both hands out towards Cui Suifu. "Hand it over."

Cui Suifu couldn't help but laugh, his canine teeth showing again. "Hand what over?"

Meng Shijiu narrowed his eyes. "What? I'm getting angry."

Cui Suifu pressed his lips together. "You're not angry at all. I have eyes."

Meng Shijiu also smiled, but his meaning remained unchanged. "Hand it over."

From this angle, Meng Shijiu needed to tilt his face up slightly to look at Cui Suifu.

Meng Shijiu slightly lifted his chin, silver hair slipping over his shoulders, revealing the sharp lines of his Adam's apple, the small of his back just meeting the edge of the table.

Cui Suifu looked at him for a moment, then taking advantage of the moment, gently guided him to sit on the desktop.

He leaned in, bracing his hands on either side to trap him in that small space, tilting his head to look up at Meng Shijiu.

Moonlight spilled down.

Cui Suifu had never looked at Meng Shijiu's face this closely before.

He believed that anyone’s first glimpse of Meng Shijiu would be like witnessing the fleeting bloom of a night-blooming cereus—a breathtaking sight—and every second of gazing thereafter would just be falling deeper into a mesmerized daze.

Now, steadying his heartbeat, his gaze followed the moonlight, tracing from the silver-haired Alpha’s forehead, brow bone, and bridge of the nose, down to those vivid lips.

A heart-ensnaring siren, yet one who possessed the bone structure of someone dignified and handsome.

Like jade, snow, bamboo.

Slowly tinged with silver-white, jade-green, and crimson, he was transformed into a bewitching beauty straight out of a painting.

It made one wonder what kind of experiences could meld such contradictory traits into the person before his eyes.

Cui Suifu felt he was getting weirder and weirder.

He found himself wanting to know about a person’s past, a person’s experiences.

Rising alongside these desires was his own inner struggle.

He figured his pointless resistance probably looked like nothing more than a laughable, pitiful pose in Meng Shijiu’s eyes.

No, it had probably never even been noticed.

These feelings had come on too fast.

Which made it seem frivolous.

Cui Suifu felt an indescribable discomfort, even a sour sting in his sinuses, but what was done was done.

Meng Shijiu’s lips were truly beautiful.

He really wanted to kiss them.

And he truly didn’t dare.

Cui Suifu took a knife from within his robes and gently pressed it into Meng Shijiu’s palm.

He sighed, the corners of his eyes tightening into clean lines.

Meng Shijiu looked down. It wasn’t Dan Yue, the one he wanted.

He held it up to the moonlight.

—The hilt was wrapped in silvery mermaid-silk, every strand fitted to the curve of the palm. At the end was a cluster of roses carved from blood jade, the pistils inlaid with dazzling gems.

The blade was sheathed in an equally ornate scabbard, but Meng Shijiu averted his eyes without even drawing it.

Exquisite, ornate, gorgeous—even without unsheathing it, one could guess how sharp this blade was.

The roses on the knife were like spirits of the night.

Cui Suifu said softly, “Flowers for you.”

“It’s called Nian Jiu.”

Meng Shijiu frowned and shoved the knife back, his tone leaving no room for hesitation. “I’m not taking it.”

The air grew still, locked in a strange stalemate.

Cui Suifu asked, “Why not?”

Meng Shijiu felt a long-absent wave of irritation. “It’s bad luck.”

Cui Suifu fell silent again.

Catching the ambiguity in his words, the silver-haired Alpha clarified flatly:

“What I mean is,”

“Giving a knife as a gift is bad luck, not that the name is bad.”

The red-haired Alpha, head still bowed, spoke up suddenly.

“—Wasn’t Dan Yue also given to you by someone else?”

“He’s dead.”

—The word “he” cut in so swiftly it almost overlapped the tail end of the question.

Cui Suifu’s head snapped up.

Even though the person before him showed little change in expression, Cui Suifu clearly sensed the silver-haired Alpha’s demeanor instantly growing colder, becoming distant, indifferent.

…His features also seemed to grow even more strikingly beautiful because of it.

Meng Shijiu withdrew his hand and unsheathed “Nian Jiu.”

—Under the moonlight, Nian Jiu’s blade was as thin as a cicada’s wing, like a stream of spring water frozen solid. Its graceful arc tapered toward the tip, ending in a glint of cold starlight.

Meng Shijiu turned his hand, using the exquisite hilt to lightly lift Cui Suifu’s chin.

The slender blade poised above his pale wrist as he said, his voice listless, “Didn’t you want to be a dog?”

Cui Suifu’s brow twitched.

Meng Shijiu curled his lips into a slow, disdainful smile, the knife tip suddenly dropping.

The blade grazed the skin over Cui Suifu’s veins, tracing the curve of his neck. The cold metal hovered a hair’s breadth from his warm flesh.

An instinctive wariness sent a slight shiver down Cui Suifu’s spine, but like the most vulnerable throat being licked by a serpent’s tongue, along with the tension came an indescribable, tingling numbness.

Meng Shijiu was somewhat satisfied by his lack of resistance and lack of any strange expression.

“If you’re my dog, your life naturally belongs to me,” he said softly, uttering the ruthless truth.

Meng Shijiu let go with a soft *snap*, and let Nian Jiu fall carelessly.

The silver-haired Alpha’s tone remained casual. “I want you alive.”

Cui Suifu silently caught the knife, appearing utterly calm and composed, not letting the sharp blade slice his palm.

Meng Shijiu thought the matter was over and prepared to climb down from the table.

As he leaned down, about to plant his feet on the ground, the red-haired Alpha, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly reached out and pressed his hand on Meng Shijiu’s shoulder.

From a certain angle, it seemed he was pulling Meng Shijiu into a frontal embrace.

Meng Shijiu shot him a sidelong glance, eyebrow slightly raised.

Faint mockery appeared on the sharp, unruly face.

"I won't."

"A real dog can at least protect its own life."

The red-haired Alpha regained his usual swagger.

He deftly sheathed Nian Jiu and stubbornly offered it to Meng Shijiu again, though his lifted gaze held a hidden tension.

Meng Shijiu: "..."

Only Cui Suifu knew how agonizing those few seconds of waiting were.

Meng Shijiu watched him for several seconds.

The silver-haired Alpha suddenly grabbed Nian Jiu and shoved him aside: "Get lost. I'm taking a shower. If you've got nothing else, get out."

His palm now empty, a reckless grin instantly broke across Cui Suifu's lips. His eyes brimmed with undisguised delight, as if every strand of his hair was soaked in exuberant joy, blindingly bright.

Of course, Meng Shijiu didn't see it, but after taking two steps, he suddenly stopped.

Wait...

The silver-haired Alpha looked back.

He still hadn't given Dan Yue back.

Meng Shijiu met a pair of eyes as dark as night.

They were still filled with lingering, untamed mirth, bright and scorching, yet the moment their gazes locked, they overflowed with tension and tender feeling.

The two stared at each other across a short distance.

For a moment, Meng Shijiu thought the light streaming through the window wasn't moonlight, but the blazing sun of a clear, cloudless sky.

*Forget it,* Meng Shijiu thought to himself.

*Forget it.*

He turned back around.

A searing grip suddenly pulled at his arm.

—Someone yanked him back into the moonlight.

—Or rather, under the blazing sun.

That final glance from the silver-haired Alpha was absolutely heartbreaking.

Like a shattered dream, holding delusion, coldness, and a faint trace of tenderness.

Cui Suifu couldn't understand it, yet he lost control again.

By the time Cui Suifu regained his senses, he had already pinned the man down, kissing him all the way from the window to the bed.

The red-haired Alpha crushed the soft lips of the person in his arms, grinding against them with a touch of brute force.

His nerves were dying, then transforming and being reborn. A thought flashed through Cui Suifu's mind—

Meng Shijiu wasn't resisting.

He wasn't!

Cui Suifu's mind exploded.

He thrust his tongue out, forcefully parting Meng Shijiu's slightly trembling lips.

The deep invasion instantly triggered a continuous shudder from the man beneath him.

Cui Suifu's throat was parched, like a traveler who had wandered the desert for too long.

The kiss was both reckless and tender.

…But he was clearly getting a bit too carried away.

During a gasp for air, Meng Shijiu managed a muffled, low curse. His lifted neck instantly tensed into sharp lines, his Adam's apple rolling violently beneath thin skin: "...Not my bed..."

—It was Qian Chunyan's.

The love-drunk Alpha abruptly scooped Meng Shijiu up by the waist. Silver hair traced a chaotic arc through the air as he was pressed into another bed.

Before the man beneath him could even catch his breath, scorching lips and tongue descended again. This time, even his fingertips carried a burning heat, lifting the hem of his shirt as if demanding double repayment for the interrupted intimacy.

Cui Suifu looked fierce, but his kisses were meticulous.

At first, he just stirred chaotically, fiercely turning the silver-haired youth's wet, red mouth into a muddy mess. But soon he slowed down, refusing to surrender any inch of territory, thoroughly devouring the scent of orange candy and the moisture between their lips.

The tall Alpha bent his leg, pinning the man down, incessantly tangling with and sucking Meng Shijiu's trembling, soft tongue, savoring the way Meng Shijiu's waistline abruptly tensed before weakly collapsing back into his burning palm.

...

Cui Suifu was shuddering with pleasure down to his soul. The Alpha's innate possessiveness roared, tearing at his nerves and eroding his reason.

He greedily plundered the silver-haired Alpha's breath, not retreating until the last trace of air was squeezed from the other's lungs.

Tendons stood out slightly on the red-haired Alpha's neck. His dark eyes were frighteningly bright, fixed intently on Meng Shijiu's flushed face—every subtle tension, every unconscious flinch on that face was clearly reflected in his gaze, branded deep.

The long-awaited clash of lips and tongues stimulated Meng Shijiu's nerves. Heat spread boundlessly between their mouths, scalding and tingling.

Meng Shijiu's sudden surge of emotion needed an outlet, but as his long lashes fluttered uncontrollably like dying butterflies, he felt a twinge of regret.

Mist gathered at the corners of his eyes. The jade-green lakes rose like ice melting into spring water.

The silver-haired Alpha slowly suppressed the urge to blink, preventing the wetness in his eyes from fully spilling over, only forcing a vivid red to bloom at their corners.

Like the intense crimson on the wings of a red dragonfly skimming low before a rainstorm.

His vision was already somewhat blurred.

Cui Suifu's eyes were like the only brightness in the night.

Yet these eyes overlapped with another pair of eyes.

...Xu Zhiyao.

His right hand, which was about to lift, abruptly froze.

The Alpha pinning him down seemed provoked, deepening the kiss.

The mist in the silver-haired Alpha's eyes thickened, obscuring everything but the night.

Like a nightmare.

In the apocalypse, there is no time for nightmares.

Meng Shijiu didn't mourn anyone in the apocalypse.

Be it his father, the one who tried to drag him down to hell, or thousands of Xu Zhiyaos, Meng Shijiu had never dreamed of them.

But now, it felt as though he were in a dream.

Fluttering paintings, falling starry rivers, the roar of helicopters... all twisted into an inescapable vortex like seawater.

Until a sharp pain came from the corner of his mouth.

Meng Shijiu reflexively blinked, his vision gradually coming into focus.

He saw the red-haired Alpha's eyes, interwoven with lust and bitterness.

Cui Suifu was so angry it hurt his lungs.

Meng Shijiu had spaced out.

In such a situation, he had spaced out.

Cui Suifu: !

His pent-up pheromones could no longer suppress instinct, bursting through their restraints and erupting violently in the room.

The intense scent, like overturned vintage spirits, swept through every inch of the air with a pungent, searing heat, burning away all reason.

The strong liquor's aroma was rich and mellow; to be honest, it didn't smell bad.

But an Alpha's pheromones only grate on another Alpha.

Meng Shijiu shoved Cui Suifu away, his face still glistening, and slid lazily off the bed.

Cui Suifu clutched the back of his neck in vain.

*If only I were an Omega,* Cui Suifu suddenly thought.

Cui Suifu reached out and grabbed him: "You, you, you..."

Meng Shijiu hummed: "Stuttering again."

Cui Suifu: "I, I, I, I..."

The prince babbled incoherently: "But, but... we kissed."

Meng Shijiu paused and met his gaze.

In the room, the ventilation fan droned on incessantly.

Staring into his impassive eyes, Cui Suifu, as though spellbound, took hold of his hand.

He first planted a chaste, light kiss on the jutting knuckle of the silver-haired Alpha's hand, then suddenly dug his canines into the soft pad of the fingertip.

After leaving a red bite mark, Cui Suifu looked up: "Are we... together now?"

Meng Shijiu couldn't be bothered to think when dismissing him, idly scratching the other's chin with a faint laugh:

"Who said that?"

He turned on his heel and walked into the bathroom.

...

Cui Suifu was dumbstruck.

See, who had been gnashing his teeth nearby for a long time, finally gave a chilly meow.

—

The bathroom was too soundproof; Cui Suifu couldn't hear anything.

He stood there regaining his composure, his expression growing increasingly somber.

In the empty room, the red-haired Alpha suddenly drew a snow-white blade.

It was Dan Yue.

He had swiped it when Meng Shijiu entered.

It truly was an utterly ordinary-looking knife from the outside, but its beautiful, snow-white blade had proven countless times how effortlessly it could slice through iron.

By the moonlight, Cui Suifu wasn't looking at the blade.

He was looking at the hilt.

The curvature of Dan Yue's hilt was astonishingly exquisite; every indentation fit the lines of a palm seamlessly, as if it were a natural extension grown from the very bones and blood of the wielder.

Perfectly conforming to the curve of Meng Shijiu's palm.

The number of weapons Cui Suifu had used could encircle the imperial city of Qiyu three times over, so he could easily recognize that this level of hilt fit wasn't achieved through later carving.

—It was a seamless unity forged over years of relentless combat, tempered by blood and the warmth of a hand.

He really wanted to ask.

*Forget it,* Cui Suifu thought.

Just like when he helped Meng Shijiu swipe Qian Chunyan's campus card from Zong Geman, he hadn't asked then either.

He was just about to put the knife away when he suddenly came face-to-face with Qian Chunyan, who had just finished cleaning the dorm building and walked in.

Qian Chunyan had just turned on the light: ………

Cui Suifu holding Dan Yue: ………

#My mortal enemy is holding a knife in my dorm room late at night#

#How to cope with sharing a dorm with my crush and my mortal enemy#