Chapter 48

Chapter 48

This royal-exclusive underwater interaction area shifted away from the dark ink-blue tones of the front hall, transforming into a translucent, soft light blue.

Schools of fish drifted and darted through it, dappled light speckled the surface. The glass separated two worlds, the entire interaction area resembling a liquid sapphire, designed with elaborate craftsmanship.

The handrails along the pool's edge were carved with intricate and exquisite patterns, inlaid rubies refracting a bewitching crimson halo in the water. The patterns on the fish resembled the colorful motifs found on ancient scroll paintings.

In a way, the lavish extravagance reached a level that could even evoke a sense of distaste.

Meng Shijiu was just about to descend into the pool from the walkway when he paused for a moment.

He looked down along the handrail. The pool bottom was paved with stones like moonlight, akin to exquisite gems meant to lure birds into a gilded cage.

The silver-haired Alpha only paused briefly before entering.

The Alpha's streamlined form, along with his satin-like silver hair, was enveloped by the constant-temperature seawater. A string of fine bubbles drifted along the crystalline current, floating towards the interwoven patches of light.

For a moment, he resembled a mermaid throwing himself into a net, actively leaping into a splendid, jewel-encrusted cage, becoming a flowing scroll.

Cui Suifu followed closely behind. Meng Shijiu swam a short distance following the handler's guidance, his gaze meeting Wen Hui's through the glass from outside.

Wen Hui pressed his palm down slightly, signaling him to be mindful of avoiding the fish.

Meng Shijiu turned his head and caught sight of Cui Suifu gently gathering his long hair as a jet-black fish swam through the strands, slowly passing by his chest, its tail lightly brushing against his collarbone.

Handler: "It has a very gentle temperament. You can touch it."

Meng Shijiu did not touch it. He grasped Cui Suifu's arm, took a step back, and in doing so, closed the distance between them.

Communication channel.

Meng Shijiu: "Can other people hear this channel?"

Cui Suifu replied quickly: "They cannot."

Through the faceplate, Cui Suifu saw the silver-haired Alpha didn't speak further. Beneath the transparent visor, the silver-haired Alpha blinked at him gently.

Cui Suifu: "What?"

Meng Shijiu: "Is there another pool below?"

Cui Suifu took his hand and pulled him over. The silver-haired Alpha seemed as if he didn't want to use any strength, letting himself be towed along.

Cui Suifu: "How did you know?"

Meng Shijiu: "I glanced at the layout while wandering around earlier."

Cui Suifu glanced back at him: "Aren't you directionally challenged?"

Meng Shijiu looked confused, swimming forward a bit to meet Cui Suifu's gaze: "When have I ever been directionally challenged?"

Cui Suifu, who had completely misunderstood based on forum analysis posts: "...Never mind."

Cui Suifu: "The forum always says you get lost?"

Meng Shijiu didn't mind: "I was probably distracted. What kind of pool is below?"

Cui Suifu: "Do you want to go down and see?" He added, "Into the water?"

Meng Shijiu: "Is that allowed?"

Cui Suifu: "Not really."

Meng Shijiu: "How come?"

Cui Suifu: "It's a bit dangerous. And there's not much to see, just two genetically modified sharks."

Hearing this, Meng Shijiu lost interest and changed the subject: "Genetically modified?"

Cui Suifu: "Mm. These two sharks are quite beautiful, very aggressive. I forgot who sent them... seems like it was a gift for Father Emperor's last birthday. Some expert in this field sent them. He took one look at their eye color and has kept them ever since."

Meng Shijiu: "What color?"

Cui Suifu gave a slight shake of his head. Meng Shijiu saw his black eyes beneath the visor narrow a bit.

"Oh, red," Meng Shijiu said.

The red-haired Alpha's sharply defined chin lifted slightly, his flamboyant hair color resembling a blazing flame at the back of his head.

"Stop for a moment," Meng Shijiu said.

"Hmm?" Cui Suifu stopped. The silver-haired "mermaid" being towed by him also halted, the hand Cui Suifu was holding withdrawing.

Meng Shijiu reached out his hand but stopped midway.

Meng Shijiu: "Tsk."

Meng Shijiu glanced at the special black gloves on his hands. The white recording device was still on his wrist, layers of protection covering the silver-haired Alpha's hand.

Cui Suifu could actually guess: "What do you want to do?"

Meng Shijiu: "Touch your hair."

Cui Suifu laughed: "Touch it once and we go up."

Meng Shijiu: "Deal."

Cui Suifu took his hand and helped him remove the glove.

Slowly, those pale hands were exposed to the seawater. The scene was actually quite impactful, but under Cui Suifu's overly meticulous actions, it lost some of its suggestive allure.

On the other side, Meng Shijiu was lazily removing his faceplate.

His one-handed disassembly was unexpectedly proficient. Cui Suifu hadn't anticipated him removing the mask at all and tensed up momentarily, only to see Meng Shijiu's expression remain calm, his extraordinarily beautiful face seeming as if it might melt into the seawater.

But now Cui Suifu couldn't hear his voice. Almost instinctively, Cui Suifu still asked in the channel: "How long can you hold your breath?"

Meng Shijiu naturally couldn't hear.

He continued to gaze quietly at Cui Suifu, even tilting his head slightly. Like an oblivious infant, yet his demeanor resembled that of an aloof deity.

Perhaps keeping his eyes open underwater was uncomfortable; he blinked.

Hair like cascading moonlight spread with the water current, winding around Meng Shijiu's slender neck.

His eyelashes fluttered lightly, fragmented light spots falling into his eyes, like mysterious whirlpools suddenly stirring in the deep sea, breathtakingly beautiful.

This person who appeared so lazy and gentle now seemed like a hegemonic monarch, giving Cui Suifu no choice at all.

Cui Suifu’s brow furrowed; without hesitation, he swiftly removed his mask.

He took it apart in a couple of quick moves, then decisively leaned forward, bowing his head before Meng Shijiu.

The tamer nearby was already numb to it, yet dared not make a sound, feeling only that the two were fooling around.

After removing his gloves, Meng Shijiu felt slightly off-balance. He leaned in, slowly running his fingers through Cui Suifu's hair.

Red flames seemed to burn between his fingers, yet the texture was soft and gentle. Meng Shijiu watched the Alpha who had obediently lowered his head before him, then slowly withdrew his hand.

The light on the imaging device suddenly brightened. The white wristband unfastened and was then buckled by Meng Shijiu onto Cui Suifu's wrist. The faint sound of the capture was barely audible in the water.

"Thank you."

It wasn't a voice transmitted through mental energy.

Nor was there any actual sound.

It was pheromones, leaving frost-like patterns on the back of Cui Suifu's hand.

Slowly spreading out to form the characters for "thank you."

This was a teasing retaliation, perhaps Meng Shijiu's impulsive counterattack for those past times Cui Suifu's emotional spikes had made his pheromones leak—a moment of whimsical payback.

An Alpha leaving traces of his own pheromones on another Alpha, separated only by a thin layer of fabric.

Along with that sense of losing control during the dozens of seconds he'd been without breath underwater.

It was strange. Looking into Meng Shijiu's pale eyes, which almost seemed to merge with the seawater, Cui Suifu suddenly, in that moment, caught a genuine whiff of the bloodthirst coming from the person before him.

—He actually felt, for an instant, that Meng Shijiu wanted to drown him in the water.

It had nothing to do with what Cui Suifu had done, or even with Cui Suifu himself.

It seemed to be an inherent part of Meng Shijiu's very nature.

He suddenly realized the temperature of the constant-temperature seawater had dropped somewhat—it was the silver-haired Alpha's pheromones, half-reined in, half-unleashed. It wasn't an illusion.

"—But I am also that kind of person."

...The silver-haired Alpha's words from their first meeting rang in his ears again.

Cui Suifu's brow abruptly tightened. Flecks of light slid down the ridge of his brow, his sharp and bold features now cold and stern as ice.

He suddenly reached out, pulling the soft figure before him into an embrace. The hug came abruptly yet restrained, as if merely to confirm something, over almost as soon as it began.

The silver-haired Alpha naturally wrapped his arms around Cui Suifu's neck, once again hanging onto him without exerting any effort.

Then, Cui Suifu secured his arm around his waist. The cold pheromones sent a chill through his entire body as he guided the other person upward toward the surface.

Like personally offering his own carotid artery to the blade held by Meng Shijiu.

—

He’d ditched class, but the rain hadn't let up yet.

Since See detached from his mind, this was the first time he had walked alone on the street like this.

He just hadn't expected to find himself on Yanbei's streets.

The Alpha didn't cover his face, still wearing his training clothes. His hair was dry but not tied up, lazily draped at his sides.

He walked slowly, holding an umbrella.

Before long, Meng Shijiu wandered to a dessert shop. Somehow, he opened the door, somehow ordered, and somehow ended up chatting with a female Beta at the next table by a floor-to-ceiling window.

Meng Shijiu: "This one."

Meng Shijiu pointed at the girl's right hand.

The girl turned her palm over.

—Empty.

The girl smiled: "You lose."

"Oh." Meng Shijiu stared at her left hand.

The girl blinked. Before she could turn over her left hand, Meng Shijiu's gaze was drawn away by another line of sight.

This line of sight stood out among the subtly directed glances around because it felt somewhat familiar.

Sure enough, Meng Shijiu instantly recognized the familiar face. He raised an eyebrow toward the expressionless Beta—

Wen Yunye.

That Beta assistant who always followed behind Shen Huaixu.

Meng Shijiu narrowed his eyes. Recently, Wen Yunye should have been quite busy in District 16, yet he could come out and appear here... Meng Shijiu instinctively scanned the surroundings.

Behind a table, in an inconspicuous dim corner, a pair of heterochromatic eyes hid in the shadows, gazing gently at him, unnoticed for who knows how long.

Meng Shijiu: ...

The female Beta placed the star coin from her left hand down: "What's wrong?"

Meng Shijiu: "Skipping class and running into the principal."

Thinking he was joking, the girl played along: "Then shouldn't you run quickly?"

Meng Shijiu nodded: "Yeah."

But he remained seated steadily, not moving an inch.

The girl laughed: "Still not running?"

Meng Shijiu nodded again: "But one shouldn't abandon a comrade, right?"

Girl: "What comrade?"

Meng Shijiu flipped open the menu, then closed it, tapping on the cake pictured on the cover.

He said with an air of seriousness: "Comrade."

—

Ten minutes earlier.

The warm light of the dessert shop shut out the rain outside, which showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.

Shen Huaixu sat in the corner, raising his cup to take a sip of water, when he suddenly noticed the people around him who had been chatting all went quiet at once.

He instinctively looked up.

"Creak—" The wind chimes rang twice in response.

He saw the door suddenly being opened by the expressionless server, and the silver-haired youth who had just been passing by stopped in his tracks.

The server bowed. "Welcome."

Then he walked toward the silver-haired youth, his voice trembling slightly with nervousness. "Would you like to come in and take a look?"

The silver-haired youth, whose presence was particularly distinctive, shifted his gaze to the server, seeming to hesitate for a moment.

The air fell silent for a few seconds. Shen Huaixu saw the youth gently sniff the air, his eyes lifting slightly at the corners, a soft, languid look seeping from his pale irises, his fine silver hair bobbing gently behind him.

Shen Huaixu suddenly felt that the sweet scent of butter and vanilla in the air wasn't so sickly after all.

The youth walked in.

Someone rushed over to take his umbrella, and then two or three staff members crowded around, blocking the silver-haired youth from view. Shen Huaixu only saw the youth nod politely toward them.

Around him, people quietly raised their phones, then hesitated and lowered them again. The youth seemed unaware, standing there quietly, his eyelashes casting a small shadow under the light, his entire person as if seen through a soft filter.

Whispers started up again. Shen Huaixu was usually accustomed to working in such an environment, but now it grated on him.

He saw the silver-haired youth sit down not far from him, giving a lazy smile to the girl across the table who had been watching him.

Then a server came over with a menu, blocking Shen Huaixu's view.

Fortunately, he could still hear the silver-haired youth's voice.

Even though he could hear the voice, Shen Huaixu didn't look away.

"This one?"

"Really?"

"What if it doesn't taste good?"

"Really?"

"Oh? Then I'll leave it all up to you."

He saw the server being charmed into a daze, his tanned skin visibly turning a deep red, the tips of his ears burning even brighter.

The server stammered a reply before hurrying away in a fluster.

Shen Huaixu saw the youth's attention quickly drawn to the rain outside the glass window. The rain was fortunate enough to fall for a full minute, reflected in those jade-green eyes.

The female Beta at the next table seemed rather outgoing and said something to the silver-haired youth. The youth turned his head with a cat-like, lazy swiftness.

The zipper of his track jacket had been pulled all the way up to the top while he rested his chin in his hand watching the rain. When he turned his head, it highlighted the sharp, clean lines of his jaw, giving him a somewhat aloof look.

Then Shen Huaixu saw him smile.

It was like a soft flower drifting lightly from a tree branch, falling perfectly into the palm of one's hand.

Shen Huaixu watched Meng Shijiu play an utterly childish game with the girl.

He saw him smile faintly, curl his lips, deliberately let his smile drop to pretend to be unhappy, and lean back as if feigning anger.

He saw the expression in his pale eyes go from focused to lazy and languid, but never once leaving the Beta's hands.

Then, as if finding the game somewhat boring, the youth seemed to sense something and shifted his gaze, landing on his own dull, bland, wooden, lifeless assistant.

Then, as if amused, he raised an eyebrow slightly.

The corner of Shen Huaixu's mouth nearly froze.

Until the silver-haired youth's gaze suddenly swept over.

Shen Huaixu instinctively curved his lips into a smile.

Who knows how Meng Shijiu could interpret such an expression from Shen Huaixu as gentle.