Chapter 45: You’ve Really Never Kissed Anyone Before

Chapter 45: Have You Really Never Kissed Anyone Before?

Yan Shenyun pushed the wheelchair without a word.

Along the way, Shu Hanqing sat restlessly in the wheelchair, constantly asking about Rong Hua—whether the antitoxin reagent had taken effect and when he might wake up.

Yan Shenyun stopped in front of the elevator, looking down at Shu Hanqing's white-bandaged head. "You should be more concerned about your own injuries than about people who don't matter."

"...That's not quite fair. A large part of his injuries are because of me."

"His body is tougher than yours. His ability, forged by those post-natal inducing agents into something leaning toward pure slaughter, doesn't need your concern." Yan Shenyun pressed the down button on the elevator, watching their blurred reflections in the metal doors. "As long as he gets through the early stage of the virus's incubation, he'll be able to recover on his own using his ability."

Shu Hanqing listened to Yan Shenyun's cold tone and felt like the man was looking down on him.

Even if he might be slightly inferior to Rong Hua, he wasn't weak by any stretch.

"So, Professor Yan, did you bring me back because you need me to test the drugs on Rong Hua?"

The elevator doors slid open in front of them.

But Yan Shenyun didn't step in.

The assistant had already left. Yan Shenyun walked around to the front of the wheelchair, bent down, his white-coated body tilting forward, hands braced on both armrests, completely enveloping Shu Hanqing in his shadow.

"So if I said yes," Yan Shenyun's eyes churned with a deep, unsettling emotion—rarely seen—"would you test the drugs for him?"

Too close.

Shu Hanqing could smell the cold, clean scent of storax that had long soaked into Yan Shenyun's clothes.

Storax is said to clear the mind—Shu Hanqing had only gotten used to that scent around Yan Shenyun.

Shu Hanqing nodded under that gaze.

Rong Hua had become like that to save him, so there was no way he could stand by and do nothing.

Besides, he was going to be a test subject regardless—using it to help Rong Hua didn't seem like a loss to him.

Yan Shenyun's gaze was too complicated, like he was looking at someone beyond redemption.

After a long moment, Yan Shenyun let out a sigh.

He slowly straightened up, his tone carrying an indescribable weariness. "...Shu Hanqing, sometimes I truly believe in one saying—character is destiny."

Shu Hanqing couldn't understand Yan Shenyun's reasoning at all. "What do you mean?"

Yan Shenyun didn't answer. He simply stepped back behind Shu Hanqing and pushed the wheelchair into the elevator's swaying white glow.

As the elevator rose, that cold voice slowly drifted down from above: "...What I mean is, you could stand to cherish yourself a little more. There's no one in this world worth sacrificing yourself for with a self-destructive mindset. Stay away from Lei Zheng in the future—he's got more blood on his hands than you've seen corpses. He's never been a good person."

Shu Hanqing was baffled, unable to figure out what Yan Shenyun was really up to by obstructing him so persistently tonight, only to suddenly offer this piece of advice.

Truth be told, his mind was in too much chaos to parse Yan Shenyun's convoluted reasoning.

He was about to settle the score with that so-called "Plot Master" that had been playing dead in his head—what exactly was its purpose in yanking him around like a puppet across so many worlds?

He refused to believe he had only experienced a so-called past life and this one.

The feeling of having his memories forcibly formatted and wiped was too strong.

But those fragmented flashes deep in his mind always kept alternating between Rong Hua's and Mu Ye's faces.

The images were shattered, bloody, and blurry—impossible to piece together into any usable clue. Yet Shu Hanqing was absolutely certain those past moments were things he had really lived through.

Yan Shenyun really seemed to despise Lei Zheng.

Of course, Lei Zheng's disgust for Yan Shenyun—as if he wanted to devour him alive—was about the same.

In his past life, Shu Hanqing had navigated the cracks between various factions, playing the part of a smart man who knew when to play along.

He wisely avoided bringing up anything about Lei Zheng in front of Yan Shenyun; instead, he turned his thoughts elsewhere and tested the waters: "Professor Yan, if there's a communicator here... could I contact Mu Ye?"

Yan Shenyun: "You really are busy all day, every day."

Shu Hanqing choked on those words, momentarily at a loss for a response.

He was also a bit puzzled himself—he only wanted to survive in this world, so how had he ended up tangled up with these formidable figures in such a messy, absurd mess?

But the problem was, this snowballing situation was already way beyond his control alone.

And besides, they liked him—Shu Hanqing could understand that, because he was just that great.

"...If it's not convenient," Shu Hanqing looked up, "then could I trouble Professor Yan to pass a message along to him? We really haven't been in touch for way too long."

They were in closed training here—nobody could reach anybody.

Yan Shenyun didn't answer right away.

He pushed the wheelchair and finally brought Shu Hanqing to a temporary room. "I'll have someone pass a message along to him. As for you, stay here and rest for the next few days. You're not allowed to go anywhere."

Yan Shenyun had even specially left a high-end nursing robot in the inner room that served both medical and surveillance purposes.

Seeing that Shu Hanqing felt he didn't deserve it, Yan Shenyun reassured him: "You're a bit weak right now. If we're going to run tests, we'll need to wait until you've recovered a bit more."

And so, that recovery turned into several quiet, peaceful days.

During this time, Shu Hanqing took his prescribed high-purity, high-energy nutritional supplements on schedule, slept well, and gradually got his energy back.

As for the Plot Master in his mind, it had gone completely quiet since he confronted it that day.

Shu Hanqing had mulled it over countless times—what kind of bizarre existence this so-called Plot Master really was.

It claimed the whole world was a book, but the plot was so wildly off-course it didn't even qualify as fanfiction—every character was totally out of character.

One afternoon, a dagger deftly pried open the window of Shu Hanqing's room, and then a tall figure agilely leaped up and rolled through the window with fluid grace.

Lei Zheng steadied himself, brushed the dust from the outer wall off his clothes, and smoothed his hair.

At that very moment, Shu Hanqing was lounging on the soft couch, slowly sipping a glass of milk.

He just watched, dumbfounded, as Officer Lei—who had a perfectly good front door—chose to sneak in through the window like some common thief. The milk in his mouth hadn't even been swallowed yet, and he nearly choked on it.

Shu Hanqing: "...Lei Zheng, why are you sneaking in through the window?"

"You think I wanted to do this?"

Lei Zheng strode over, instantly closing the distance between them, and complained: "It's that lunatic Yan Shenyun. He's been guarding against me like I'm a thief these past two days—even a fly couldn't get past that front door."

Lei Zheng said as he looked Shu Hanqing up and down.

Seeing that Shu Hanqing's complexion had improved quite a bit, his originally pale and thin cheeks now showing some color, he looked at Shu Hanqing's hands, then lifted his pant leg to check on the wounds, asking, "Are your wounds much better?"

Shu Hanqing helplessly let him conduct his rough examination and nodded.

These past few days, Yan Shenyun hadn't let him leave this temporary recovery room much, but he'd never been short on medication. He could walk freely now, and his crystallized Superpower had long since recovered without any major issues.

Lei Zheng stared at Shu Hanqing's handsome face, and the little flame that had been gnawing at his chest for days instantly burned even brighter.

He'd thrown his dignity out the window—literally—to climb in today, precisely because he wanted to see with his own eyes, and personally test again, whether that rare hint of indulgence and gentleness Shu Hanqing had shown that day was just a fleeting dream.

With that thought, he could no longer restrain himself.

Lei Zheng scooped Shu Hanqing up off the couch in one motion, pressing him firmly into the sofa, and hot, heavy, greedy kisses rained down on Shu Hanqing's soft cheeks and neck.

The room was cool, but his chest burned.

Shu Hanqing tilted his long, fair neck back, forced to endure this wild assault of affection, then his senses snapped back. He raised his newly healed hand and pushed against Lei Zheng's chest.

No slap, and definitely not that same disgusted resistance that had once wanted to take them both down. The push was as soft as a passing breeze.

＊＊

Shu Hanqing actually didn't find him repulsive anymore!

Lei Zheng's beastly, rough, possessive assault left Shu Hanqing completely breathless.

The corners of his eyes flushed a vivid, instinctive red from the lack of oxygen, and a few broken, muffled groans escaped through his teeth. Finally unable to bear the suffocating force, he turned his head, struggling to carve out a sliver of space between Lei Zheng's fierce lips, and rasped out: "...Lei Zheng... you bastard... stop..."

Hearing that trembling, low voice, Lei Zheng froze.

He couldn't blow the goodwill he'd just built up.

Panting, he buried his head in the crook of Shu Hanqing's neck, like a ferocious Tibetan mastiff finally tamed—for a moment.

After a long moment, Lei Zheng reluctantly pulled back half an inch. His calloused thumb traced Shu Hanqing's swollen, slick lips—lips he'd ravaged—savoring the taste.

Lei Zheng coaxed in a low voice: "...Did I kiss you too hard? Did I hurt you? This is the first time in my life I've cared about someone this much. I don't have experience..."

At the words "first time," Shu Hanqing tilted his head slightly, a flicker of doubt in his eyes.

In their past life, the way things had started between them wasn't exactly pretty.

It had been all probing and violence from the start, and some things, once asked face to face, would just sound too sentimental and pointless.

But Shu Hanqing remembered it clearly to this day—the first time Lei Zheng had grimly dragged him into bed in their past life, his movements violent, his methods ruthless. A complete bastard through and through.

So much so that even now, Shu Hanqing still couldn't figure out whether Lei Zheng had experience or not.

Shu Hanqing steadied his breathing, met Lei Zheng's scorching gaze, and asked, half-doubting: "...You really never kissed anyone before?"

"...Bullshit, why would I lie to you." A suspicious dark flush actually flashed across Lei Zheng's face.

Saying such an honest, virgin-like confession out loud made this commander—who strode through the base like he owned the place—feel embarrassed.

Lei Zheng covered it up with a heavy cough into his fist, scrambling to save face: "...Before the apocalypse, I had my head buried in the military doing closed special training. All I thought about, waking and sleeping, was how to make a name for myself and climb the ranks, how to get promoted. Then the apocalypse suddenly hit, and I was spending every day scraping lives out of piles of corpses. Who had the time to think about this kind of thing."

Shu Hanqing let out a scoff.

No wonder he'd always been as irritable as a powder keg ready to blow—turns out the root of it was all that pent-up frustration.

Lei Zheng watched Shu Hanqing's half-smile, and his heart itched again.

He seized the chance to grab Shu Hanqing's right hand—the one that had just healed—and brought it to his lips, gently pressing kisses over the fresh, light pink scabs on the back of his hand.

Lei Zheng felt like a flame was raging in his throat. The look in his eyes as he stared at Shu Hanqing carried a secret, burning, uncontrollable anticipation.

Shu Hanqing met that direct, beastly gaze, and an unbearable shame shot straight up his spine to the crown of his head.

It was like a lake being violently churned by raging storms and thunder beneath a sky heavy with dark clouds over an open plain.

Shu Hanqing couldn't take this charged, tense atmosphere. He subtly tried to pull his hand back: "...Calm down first and help me with something. It's important."

Lei Zheng held onto his fingertips, not letting go: "What is it? Tell me."

Shu Hanqing didn't waste words. Turning sideways, he pulled down the collar of his military shirt, exposing the back of his neck—pale, delicate, yet marked with a Thunder Mark—for Lei Zheng to see: "...There's still a little bit of your power left inside my body. Help me draw it out completely."

Lei Zheng's gaze fell on the shoulder and neck fully exposed by the pulled-open shirt.

He took advantage of the opening along Shu Hanqing's collar to cop a feel, all while seizing any chance to badmouth his rival: "You should've had me do this from the start. Yan Shenyun's been playing dumb all along—he's nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing, a sanctimonious prick."

As if he were some noble, righteous saint himself.

Lei Zheng patted Shu Hanqing's shoulder, dropped the joking tone, and warned: "No matter how much it hurts, just hold my hand tightly and hold onto me. Don't let go for anything. Now, sit on the bed."

Shu Hanqing didn't argue: "Okay."

Lei Zheng reached behind him and unclipped the heavy, pure-black sidearm from his waist, tossing it with a clatter onto the nightstand.

Then his towering, black-tower of a frame bent steadily before Shu Hanqing, and he extended both hands toward him.

Shu Hanqing raised both hands and clasped his palms. The next second, Lei Zheng leaned down and pressed him onto the bed, giving Shu Hanqing the illusion that Lei Zheng was about to lift his legs and—him.

But Lei Zheng lowered his head, their breaths intertwining.

"Close your eyes."

Shu Hanqing closed his eyes as instructed.

The same second his vision went dark, his body went limp without warning.

The pain made Shu Hanqing let out a low moan, his body trembling instinctively.

A steady stream of Lei Zheng's voice, hoarse from restraint, reached his ears: "Baby, it'll be over soon."

Compared to Yan Shenyun's extraction, this didn't hurt as much. It was more like an itching sensation that couldn't quite be scratched.

That domineering thunder-type power belonging to Lei Zheng was eerily quiet.

Shu Hanqing could feel the power inside him flowing obediently out through their clasped palms, showing no resistance to returning to its source.

The unbound power surged violently through his blood vessels, boiling, sending waves of near-loss-of-control tremors through him.

Lei Zheng noticed his trembling and pulled him into his scorching embrace.

Just as the last stubborn wisp of power was finally fully drawn out and returned to Lei Zheng's body, Shu Hanqing felt his whole body lighten. He was about to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Something at the deepest junction of their spiritual worlds shattered with a boom, like an ancient key having its seal pried open.

Massive swaths of memories that had never existed in this world violently burrowed into the depths of both their minds at once.