Chapter 40: This Is What They Call a Dog Fucking the Sun

Chapter 40: This Is What They Call Being a Total Dog

Rong Hua finished his harsh words and, without giving Shu Hanqing half a second's respite, crushed his lips against Shu Hanqing's.

Shu Hanqing was pinned against the rough tree trunk, his hands bound behind his back, leaving him no choice but to tilt his neck up and endure the assault.

The base of his tongue ached and stung, sending a numbing tingle through him.

The stifling heat around them seemed to vanish in an instant. His face burned hot, a flush spreading from his cheeks down into his messy collar. Beyond scattered, ragged breaths, he couldn't even string together a single word of protest or rebuttal.

The deep green vines wrapped around him had, in that instant, turned into countless nimble, ice-cold hands, slipping through the tears in his tactical suit and starting to move.

The icy touch against his burning skin was such a violent contrast that it jolted Shu Hanqing like an electric shock, and he started squirming.

Feeling the resistance from the man in his arms, Rong Hua bit down hard on the vulnerable curve of his neck, a sharp, throbbing pain along with heavy, ragged breaths.

In the middle of the sticky, feverish chaos, Shu Hanqing's ears suddenly picked up the sound of chains being dragged.

He finally managed to yank one hand free from the vines' grip and slapped his hand over Rong Hua's lips, which were still coming down toward him, his palm meeting a scorching, damp heat.

"...What are you doing?" Shu Hanqing's eyes were red-rimmed. "Didn't you say you hate me?"

Rong Hua, with his mouth covered, squinted slightly under the moonlight, forcibly pulling Shu Hanqing's palm away from his lips, and said, completely unapologetic, "...So what if I hate you? Can't I still do it?!"

Shu Hanqing's eyes went wide, and he turned his head away. "...Rong Hua, don't be like this. Forcing me like this just seems so..."

No bottom line.

Shu Hanqing never thought of himself as someone with high morals.

But he wouldn't sleep with someone he didn't have feelings for, and this kind of mess just felt pointless to him.

Shu Hanqing: "...If you're feeling pissed off, just fight me. If you win, I'll admit I lost and just avoid you from now on, okay?"

The brief flash of hesitation and suppressed emotion in Shu Hanqing's eyes, as Rong Hua saw it, came across to him as condescending pity and charity.

Rong Hua watched Shu Hanqing, who was clearly determined to cut ties with him.

"Who told you to avoid me? Yeah, I'm cheap! I'm rushing to be your little side piece," Rong Hua said, a hint of red at the corners of his eyes. "You already dumped me so cruelly, but I damn well can't let you go! Even though right now I can't even remember if we ever had one single good day together... I just can't forget how you make me feel! I'm still crawling back to you like a dog. Shu Hanqing, seeing me like this, you're pretty pleased with yourself, aren't you?"

"I just refuse to accept this! What part of me is worse than that idiot Mu Ye? You want to cut me off? I won't let you. I won't let you two be all sweet and happy together!"

This confession, like he was ripping his own chest open, slammed into Shu Hanqing and left him completely stunned.

Looking at that face—twisted with anger and resentment yet still devastatingly handsome—something deep in his heart suddenly caved in.

He opened his mouth, about to clumsily say something comforting, like maybe he wasn't that pathetic after all—

But Rong Hua gave him no room at all.

He seized the moment when Shu Hanqing was distracted and his heart was softening, and slammed his body down on top of him.

In that instant, Shu Hanqing's scalp went numb, as if a violent bolt of lightning had struck him right through the middle. The words of comfort he'd been about to speak shattered in his throat.

His head lolled back limply, his vulnerable throat completely exposed to the cold moonlight.

Rong Hua let out a long, ragged breath, but oddly, he didn't rush to make his next move. Instead, like a beast circling its prey, he leaned in and bit down hard on Shu Hanqing's red earlobe.

"Mm... ah...!"

A sound caught between pain and pleasure leaked out from between Shu Hanqing's clenched teeth.

Rong Hua was burning with fury and resentment, so his movements were naturally anything but gentle.

Shu Hanqing felt his sanity completely collapse in that moment, everything turning to total chaos.

"...Rong... Rong Hua..." He reached out, blindly digging his fingers into Rong Hua's sweat-soaked shoulders, like he was grabbing for the only lifeline in a raging storm.

Rong Hua murmured obsessively, "I'm here... I've always been here. Look at me, Shu Hanqing, I've always been here..."

In this world, intimacy and physical memory really can be manufactured, and misplaced memories can, of course, be forcibly twisted and rewritten through all this entanglement.

Just as Shu Hanqing was about to fall apart in the feverish storm, Rong Hua's low, devilish murmur exploded by his ear again.

"That man... that old bastard Mu Ye, does he fuck you like this too?"

That sentence ripped away half of Shu Hanqing's remaining sanity.

His sweat-soaked lashes trembled violently as he was forced to gasp and tilt his slick, sweaty neck up.

A surge of shame and fury made Shu Hanqing grit his teeth. He struggled to twist his limp body around and, with real force, sat down directly on top of Rong Hua.

He reached out with both hands and slapped them hard over Rong Hua's mouth, which was about to spew more venom, and commanded, "Can you shut that damn mouth of yours?!"

A weird flush spread across Rong Hua's face.

Shu Hanqing was too focused on shutting that infuriating mouth to realize that his own furious repositioning had made him miss the dangerous setup Rong Hua had already put in place.

Beneath him was an indescribable dampness and warmth.

Shu Hanqing was utterly lost.

Sweat dripped down from his temples, plastering his overgrown bangs—which he hadn't had time to trim—against his cheeks and eyes.

Shu Hanqing wished he could curl himself into a pathetic ball right there and escape this ridiculous, hopeless situation.

Under the moonlight, Rong Hua was also dazed for a moment.

A cool breeze carrying night mist blew through the shadows of the trees at just the wrong moment, sending a chill through Shu Hanqing's thighs.

Before he could even shiver from the cold, he was yanked back hard against Rong Hua's chest.

Shu Hanqing closed his eyes, expecting mockery to come next.

But in the dead-silent forest, all he heard was Rong Hua whisper two words in his ear: "Not dirty."

Those two words hit Shu Hanqing like a thunderclap, his whole face flushing crimson, the heat spreading from his neck to the tips of his ears until everything was bright red.

When vines hunt their preferred prey, they never rush to feed right away.

They prefer to trap their prize with a cruel, obsessive patience, slowly and deliberately toying with it and tormenting it.

Because the vines are soft enough and strong enough, they can tie up a helpless prey however they want, and arrange it into any position they please.

Those cold vines slithered and glided with a rustling sound.

Every vital spot of the prey, every fatal weakness that could completely destroy its sanity, had already been fully taken over by that point.

Both the switch and the master control were firmly in someone else's hands.

Stop on a dime.

Come and go as you please.

Rong Hua's broad palm suddenly slid up along Shu Hanqing's spine, clamping down hard on the back of his vulnerable neck. He pressed down with his fingertips, forcing the man in his arms to tilt his head back, revealing a face streaked with sweat and tears.

Rong Hua stared at him for a long moment, then curved his lips and chuckled low and deep: "Comfortable?"

When Rong Hua wasn't smiling, those exquisitely sculpted brows and eyes looked exceptionally cold and sharp, carrying an air of dangerous aloofness. But the moment he curled his lips into a smile, a strange brilliance lit up those beautiful eyes, giving you an inexplicable sense of being singled out and favored.

It felt like the ice and snow at a mountain peak suddenly melting the moment the sky cleared after a storm.

Shu Hanqing gazed dazedly at the smile before him.

This little bastard had always had a strange temper—when angry, he wouldn't give you the time of day, preferring to coldly and deliberately ignore you, acting aloof and proud better than anyone.

But in truth, he was way easier to win over than anyone thought.

In the midst of all the chaos and jostling, Shu Hanqing's mind began to blur. He reached out with his sweaty, shaky arms, slowly wrapping them around Rong Hua's damp neck. He tilted his head up and gave Rong Hua's cold lips a soft, appeasing kiss.

At that one feather-light kiss, Rong Hua—who'd been acting all high and mighty—suddenly turned as docile as a wild beast that had just been petted. He lowered his head and pulled Shu Hanqing close.

The storm raged again in full force, but Shu Hanqing knew in his heart that this little tyrant was finally pleased.

After all the exertion, as night gradually receded and the sky began to pale into the cold, gray light of early dawn, Shu Hanqing—soaked as if he'd been dragged from water—was finally wrapped in Rong Hua's coat and carried bridal-style to a hidden mountain stream nearby to clean his worn-out body.

The stream water was icy cold, making Shu Hanqing shiver.

So Rong Hua used vines to quickly dig out a pit and had Shu Hanqing fill it with water himself.

As Rong Hua scooped up warm water to wipe him down, he raised an eyebrow and said without a shred of shame, "Good thing you have the Water Ability."

Shu Hanqing: "..."

He didn't think that was any excuse for Rong Hua to be screwing him out in the middle of nowhere, in the assessment zone, in the dead of night.

He felt like he'd seen everything at this point and was completely done. Clenching his teeth, his face dark with anger, he lifted his shaky foot to kick the other man's knee, hoarsely telling Rong Hua to stay away from him.

Rong Hua threw up both hands in surrender and said he'd go rinse off in the stream.

He had to admit, thanks to those brutal weeks of training and the Water Ability automatically circulating through him to help him recover, after nearly half a night of exhausting sex with Rong Hua, he was sore all over but barely showed any signs of being completely wiped out.

In the past, he would've blacked out who knows how many times by now. But this time, he could even manage to clean the mess off himself with a straight face.

He looked up at the surrounding rocks.

Shu Hanqing really wanted to grab Rong Hua by the collar and demand: Can you stop being so damn sloppy and disrespectful out in these godforsaken places?

Shu Hanqing scrubbed himself raw.

If he had to compare it to something, the way he was scrubbing like he wanted to peel off a layer of skin was exactly like those protagonists in the cheesy dramas he used to watch—the ones who'd been violated by the bad guy and were full of self-loathing.

Of course, it wasn't because he felt violated or humiliated by Rong Hua that he was washing so fiercely.

It was purely because he was completely grossed out by how pathetic and embarrassing he'd acted earlier. As a grown adult with full mental faculties and superpowers, losing control like that just now made him feel ashamed and mortified to the bone.

As he used his Water Ability to rinse off, he raised a hand and angrily rubbed at the red marks all over his shoulder.

Maybe the cold wind had messed with his head, but in the middle of the water sounds, he suddenly got all dramatic and muttered to himself, "This filthy body of mine!"

Rong Hua, who was nearby grabbing clean clothes from the backpack, heard every word loud and clear.

Rong Hua: "..."

But in Shu Hanqing's mind, which had been quiet for so long, a familiar crackling static suddenly buzzed to life.

The plot he'd thought was dead and buried had actually come back online.

Before it could scold him, Shu Hanqing spoke up in self-defeat: "…Alright, stop buzzing! As you can see, the plot's long gone off the rails. If you've got the time, just wipe all my data clean and reset it. Save me from living like some guy who owes everyone everything—today feeling guilty about one person, tomorrow waking up guilty about another, and ending up pleasing nobody and running myself ragged."

And the one who ended up hurt was Shu Hanqing's ass.

The plot: "..."

The plot had nothing to say.

Shu Hanqing was wearing Rong Hua's clothes, a couple sizes too big for him. He'd thought that after everything they'd been through, things might ease up between them. But to his utter shock, when they headed back the same way after cleaning up, Rong Hua's attitude toward him was even worse and colder than before they'd hooked up.

Rong Hua's already cold, handsome face now wore a look that clearly said: I really don't want to deal with you right now, so you'd better have the sense to keep your mouth shut.

Shu Hanqing stared at him in silence.

What a load of bullshit.