Chapter 117
During her evening class, Gu Ximian received a message from Zhuang Chi: 【I’m sorry, I might not be able to pick you up from class today.】
This was an unwritten agreement between the two of them. Since their home wasn’t far from the university, if only one of them had an evening class, the other would come to the school to pick them up so they could go home together. Zhuang Chi had always loved doing this and was quite enthusiastic about it. Last time, she had even arrived a long time in advance and waited eagerly outside Gu Ximian’s classroom. So, receiving such a message today was rather surprising. Gu Ximian thought for a moment and replied: 【Are you busy tonight? Are you not at home?】
She had assumed that perhaps the Alphas from the Presidium had invited Zhuang Chi out, but she saw Zhuang Chi’s quick reply: 【No, I’m at home.】
…Then what was going on? Gu Ximian frowned slightly, watching as Zhuang Chi typed for a long time. The final message that came through had a hint of resignation: 【…It’s a bit hard to explain. I’ll try to sort it out first. If I really can’t, then I’ll explain it to you in detail when you get back… okay?】
How intriguing. Gu Ximian simply replied with an “okay,” but even after putting her phone down, she couldn’t help but wonder what it could be. Could it be a surprise? No, Zhuang Chi wasn’t the type to build suspense for a surprise. Her “can’t” probably meant a real problem was preventing her from leaving the house.
But she was perfectly fine at home, so what problem could there be? This message had made Gu Ximian so distracted that she couldn’t focus on her lecture. The more she considered the possibilities, the more alarming they became. She even started to suspect some supernatural phenomenon had occurred, like Zhuang Chi turning back into the Z who couldn’t open doors. But she mentally crossed out these ideas one by one. After all, Zhuang Chi was able to send her a message just now. If something major that would affect them both had happened, Zhuang Chi would have definitely given her a heads-up.
For Zhuang Chi to be so vague, it was most likely something that only concerned herself. Gu Ximian thought. And her Alpha had always been good at enduring things, ever since she didn’t cry out in pain when her gland was injured. Now, she was enduring not marking her. Maybe this time she was enduring something again without asking for help… Wait a minute, could it be that Zhuang Chi’s susceptible period had arrived?
She suddenly felt this possibility was quite high, and her heart skipped a few beats. She grabbed her phone and sent a message: 【Is it your susceptible period?】
The message was like a stone sinking into the sea; ten minutes passed with no reply. She had been wondering these past few days when Zhuang Chi’s susceptible period would come, so Gu Ximian became even more certain. She instantly lost all desire to continue listening to the lecture. After signaling to the teacher that she had an emergency, she packed her things and left, running all the way back home. Without even taking a moment to calm her racing heart, she hurriedly opened the door.
There wasn’t the expected wave of a bitter, cold scent, but the living room was indeed empty. Gu Ximian walked in and looked around, spotting Zhuang Chi’s phone on the sofa. It seemed she hadn’t received her message because she didn’t have it with her. There was also an opened delivery box on the coffee table. Gu Ximian glanced at it but was in no mood to care. As she walked upstairs, she raised her voice slightly and called out, “Zhuang Chi?”
She heard a noise from Zhuang Chi’s room. The door was ajar, not fully closed. Gu Ximian walked over, and just as she was about to give a token knock, she smelled the familiar scent.
So it was. Her heart tightened. She pushed the door open and went inside, seeing Zhuang Chi standing by the window with her back to her, looking as if she were in a daze. The window was cracked open to let in a breeze. But even seeing only her back, Gu Ximian immediately noticed the leather straps fastened across the back of her head and neck. When Zhuang Chi heard the noise and turned toward her, the delicate metal contraption restraining the lower half of her face came into Gu Ximian’s view.
Gu Ximian froze. As she realized Zhuang Chi was wearing a bite guard, she heard Zhuang Chi’s trembling voice, “…After I put this on, I realized it takes two people to take it off, which is why I said I might not be able to pick you up. I was originally thinking of looking for some tools to help me get it off before you came back, otherwise it’d be so embarrassing. But looking at the situation now…”
As Zhuang Chi spoke, she pressed her neck in confusion and annoyance, clearly feeling her gland heating up under the suppression collar. Just like last time, there had been no warning signs at all. It had suddenly gotten hot about ten minutes ago. At first, she thought it was just the heat from her frustration at being unable to remove the bite guard after trying for so long. But at this point, she had to admit… it wasn’t that simple.
…How could a susceptible period have such perfect timing? It was as if it had waited for Gu Ximian to return before starting. Zhuang Chi sighed silently, lamenting, “…It seems there’s no need to take it off anymore.”
Back in the living room, Zhuang Chi sat pitifully on the sofa while Gu Ximian sat beside her, slowly flipping through the bite guard’s instruction manual.
“…It really is… very complicated.”
After reading it, Gu Ximian was clearly at a loss for words as well. She simply said this before putting the manual down and turning to Zhuang Chi. “You used the gift right away, huh? Did you sense your susceptible period was coming?”
“…No. I just put it on before I saw that it needed two people to take it off.”
She could only blame herself for not reading the manual thoroughly before rushing to put it on. Zhuang Chi was dejected, still muttering in discontent, “How could my susceptible period start so suddenly? It hasn’t been that long since the last one…”
“Didn’t the doctor say before that the frequency of your susceptible period might be unstable?” Gu Ximian said, handing Zhuang Chi her phone. “You should have told me sooner. You didn’t even reply to my message.”
She indeed hadn’t brought her phone with her after going upstairs to look for tools, and then she had become unsettled by the sudden heat, forgetting all about her phone messages. Only now did Zhuang Chi see that Gu Ximian had sent her a message. She stared at the short message twice, then suddenly frowned.
“…So you’re saying,” she said slowly, looking up at Gu Ximian and asking tentatively, “after you sent the message… because I didn’t reply in time, you thought I must be in my susceptible period?”
“Yes. And isn’t that the case?”
Gu Ximian tilted her head and reached out again to touch the prominent cage-like part of the bite guard, chuckling softly. “…But I really didn’t expect this. That you’d actually be willing to go this far…”
Her tone and expression were somewhat complex, but Zhuang Chi didn’t have the mental capacity to delve into it at that moment. A possibility had struck her, stirring up a tempest in her mind.
…Could it be, Zhuang Chi thought silently, that her sudden susceptible period was a result of Gu Ximian’s subconscious?
Now that she considered it, the possibility seemed quite high. Hadn’t she started to feel hot not long after Gu Ximian sent the message? Zhuang Chi was suddenly at a loss for words. She felt she should blame herself for not seeing Gu Ximian’s message in time and explaining things, which had led to the current situation. She also felt that she really needed to be more careful with Gu Ximian’s power—wow, the Notebook had just warned her not to let Gu Ximian misunderstand, and not even a month had passed before she took such a huge fall… Speaking of which, why didn’t the Notebook step in to help this time? It probably thought it was no big deal even if she entered her susceptible period. Damn it!
What was done was done, and there was no solution—Zhuang Chi didn’t think she could make Gu Ximian subconsciously believe that she wasn’t in her susceptible period now. So, she painfully accepted reality and, learning from her mistake, resolved to never miss Gu Ximian’s messages ever again, no matter what. With that in mind, Zhuang Chi was about to apologize to Gu Ximian for missing her message when she looked up and saw the other person typing something on her phone. She thought she’d wait until Gu Ximian was done, but then Gu Ximian glanced at her. “You should also ask for leave now, right? You won’t be able to go out for at least two days.”
…So she was asking for leave. Zhuang Chi’s face scrunched up in dismay. It seemed Gu Ximian had already mentally prepared for the susceptible period before she had… or rather, she had been like this ever since she got home, accepting the situation with remarkable speed, showing not a hint of surprise or shyness. It was the same now. Zhuang Chi watched as Gu Ximian put down her phone and naturally leaned over to touch her neck, asking with a slight upward glance, “The suppression collar… should I help you take it off first?”
Zhuang Chi was startled and subconsciously held Gu Ximian’s hand. As their eyes met, her heart began to beat faster in confusion.
She’s so close, Zhuang Chi thought, feeling inappropriately grateful that the bite guard could hide her expression.
“So…” she said softly, “so soon? Take it off now?”
Perhaps because it wasn’t actually time for her susceptible period to start, or because it had only just begun, Zhuang Chi’s condition was still manageable. The heat was building up bit by bit, not yet at a boiling point. But if the suppression collar was removed now, it would be like a signal of consent, and she could imagine her thoughts would become chaotic much faster.
She felt she should prolong her period of clarity as much as possible, but Gu Ximian seemed to think otherwise. Zhuang Chi saw a flicker in her night-dark eyes as she responded, “It has to come off sooner or later anyway. It’s fine if it’s a little earlier. It’ll hurt if it keeps pressing on you.”
Although it was indeed starting to get uncomfortable… the reason felt like a spur-of-the-moment excuse. Zhuang Chi vaguely sensed something was off. She watched Gu Ximian quietly for a long moment, feeling that her calmness and urgency were strange. After some thought, she asked carefully, “…Gu Ximian, don’t tell me you’ve been waiting for my susceptible period this time…?”
That would explain why she was mentally prepared so early, and why she wasn’t nervous but rather seemed to want to push things forward. But saying it out loud felt absurd. What reason would Gu Ximian have to wait for her troublesome susceptible period? It didn’t make sense to her. Just as she was about to retract her words, she heard Gu Ximian say faintly, “You could say that.”
Gu Ximian had indeed been waiting for Zhuang Chi’s next susceptible period for a while.
The thought had been lingering in Gu Ximian’s mind probably since winter break, ever since she heard Zhuang Chi’s words in the room. There was no proper reason, just a desire to see it for herself. She knew her lover had very high moral standards and was a very honest person. Zhuang Chi’s words were undoubtedly what she truly thought, and there was no reason to distrust them, but—
But the more considerate Zhuang Chi was, the more Gu Ximian wanted to see her being overtaken by unspeakable, humid desires.
Wearing the bite guard meant Zhuang Chi was worried too, right? In fact, even if she didn’t wear it, if they were both careful like during the last susceptible period, they could probably get through this one normally, Gu Ximian thought. But if one of them had the thought of “not wanting to be careful,” then it was hard to say.
It was a very malicious thought, yet hard to suppress. Gu Ximian couldn’t say if this was a flaw everyone had or if it was just her personality—in that case, Zhuang Chi would have to blame herself. After all, she was the female protagonist Zhuang Chi had created; Zhuang Chi should know her personality well. The cleaner the new snow, the more one wants to be the first to leave footprints. The purer the love, the more one wonders if it’s truly without impurities… Not to mention they were in a world like this, where everyone was a werewolf in disguise. It was only natural to show one’s true form upon seeing one’s own moon. It was just that kind of madness.
Unlike the past few times of unconscious teasing, Gu Ximian was now very clearly aware that what she was about to do was like playing with fire, yet she was still willing to gladly accept any outcome. It was as if it didn’t matter if her palm was licked by the flames, it didn’t matter if she felt pain and was left with a scar. No matter what, she just wanted to see…
“…You’ve said it before, right? Your pheromone addiction to me, you treat it as if you’ve been marked by me.”
Gu Ximian said softly, slowly pulling her hand out from under Zhuang Chi’s and placing it back on Zhuang Chi’s suppression collar, feeling for the clasp.
“But you don’t seem to understand. A mark isn’t just a physiological imprint, an attachment to a person, but also…” Gu Ximian moved closer, whispering into Zhuang Chi’s ear, “during a susceptible period, the inability to resist the one who marked you.”
Her long, slender fingers hooked and slowly unfastened Zhuang Chi’s suppression collar. Her fingertips intentionally or unintentionally brushed against Zhuang Chi’s gland, feeling the person before her stiffen for a moment.
“Let me teach you now.”
“What I’m about to do, if you had marked me, you could do the same back to me at any time.”
It was as if she were split into two people. One was trembling slightly at the suddenly intensified scent of bitter coldness, while the other felt incredibly calm, allowing Gu Ximian to maintain a steady voice and say, “You need to feel it carefully, think about it carefully, and then…”
And then let her see, could Zhuang Chi really resist marking her?
Even Gu Ximian herself didn’t know, didn’t know what kind of answer she truly wanted.
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