Cen Zhixu looked at her, her eyes glistening.
Her silver hair was still damp, falling in strands over her shoulders, the water droplets tracing a path down the side of her neck before disappearing into the collar of her nightgown.
Her voice was like a thin fishing line, one end hooked around Pei Yuan’s throat, while the other slowly, slowly reeled her back in.
The pad of her thumb rested against Pei Yuan’s back, gently tracing circles through her shirt. The fabric rubbed together, making a faint rustling sound.
The temperature felt light and airy, but when it brushed against the skin, it inexplicably ignited, spreading all the way up her arm.
Pei Yuan’s brain went buzz, and she inexplicably recalled what Cen Zhixu had said just moments ago:
[I only raise one.]
The restless heat being stirred up deep within her suddenly found a high-sounding outlet.
She abruptly grabbed the hand drawing circles in her palm, stopping Cen Zhixu’s movement.
Her finger joints embedded into the gaps between Cen Zhixu’s fingers.
Their fingers intertwined.
With one hand braced beside Cen Zhixu’s ear and the other firmly gripping her counterpart, Pei Yuan pressed her knees against the edge of the sofa, leaning downward to trap Cen Zhixu between herself and the soft cushions.
Cen Zhixu was pushed back slightly by the sudden pounce, sinking deeper into the sofa.
She didn’t dodge, nor did she push her away, lazily lifting her eyelashes: “What’s the rush?”
Pei Yuan deliberately put on a straight face, though her expression couldn’t quite hold onto the sternness. “Officer, you said it yourself, you only raise one little puppy.”
“And yet, you turn around and lead another little puppy home. Isn’t that breaking your promise?”
Hearing this, Cen Zhixu let out a sudden chuckle.
Her damp, moist silver hair scattered, cascading along her silk loungewear like a handful of ruffled moonlight.
She crossed her arms, lazily leaning back against the cushion, as if even exerting an extra ounce of effort was too much trouble:
“Just work duties. I’ll report to you next time. Still mad?”
Pei Yuan let out a half-joking, half-serious snort: “I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare. Miss Cen is such a busy person, how could I ever dare squeeze myself into your schedule?”
“You’re so busy, you come home late, and you have to deal with people all day long. I’m starting to wonder if you’re actually an interrogation officer at the White Tower.”
She shrugged, tossing out casually: “For instance, you just interrogated an Alpha for six hours tonight, and only got out of the solitary confinement cell a short while ago.”
Cen Zhixu: “Ah.”
The pad of her thumb pressed against Pei Yuan’s forehead, pushing her back an inch.
“What on earth are you thinking?” she said.
Pei Yuan thought about it, and it made sense. Cen Zhixu looked frail and noble, truly unsuited for the White Tower’s guard unit, which required chasing fugitives, close-quarters combat, and suppressing riots.
She had looked up the recruitment requirements for the guard unit, and they were extraordinarily rigorous, demanding extremely high standards for physical stamina, explosive power, and observational skills.
Even if selected, one had to undergo anywhere from several months to a year or two of training before officially starting work and receiving early warnings from the Eye of Order.
Cen Zhixu seemed more like a member of the White Tower Research Institute, a senior researcher or something similar, sitting behind a light screen all day, typing on a keyboard and writing code.
The awkward knot in Pei Yuan’s heart inexplicably vanished. As she lowered her head, the tip of her nose brushed against the side of Cen Zhixu’s neck.
Her skin still retained a trace of unwiped moisture, and her collarbone dipped down, holding a pool of water that shimmered with delicate light.
“You smell so good.”
Pei Yuan’s voice was muffled.
The hot breath fell into the hollow of her neck, scorching hot. Cen Zhixu’s shoulders shrank involuntarily.
“Don’t lean so close.” She turned her face slightly away. “It’s hot.”
How could Pei Yuan possibly listen? Instead, she inched forward by another half, lowered her head, and gently bit down on the soft, white side of Cen Zhixu’s neck.
“Mmph!”
Cen Zhixu’s breathing trembled.
She immediately bent her knees, kicking against Pei Yuan’s lower abdomen through the messy folds of clothing.
Her breathing was still slightly disordered: “So bold and unruly, and you still dare bite me?”
Pei Yuan let out a muffled laugh from the bump, looking completely innocent: “Didn’t I bite you before? And you even wrongfully accused me of having sharp teeth and a sharp tongue.”
Cen Zhixu let out a light scoff:
“You’re getting too big for your britches.”
She kicked Pei Yuan lightly, her toe sliding past her thigh side with lazy casualness:
“Get down.”
Pei Yuan let out a cooperative ouch, rolled off the edge of the sofa onto the floor, and sat up amidst the long-pile carpet.
Pressing her palm downward, the plush fibers of the carpet welled up between her fingers. It was thick and soft, making it quite comfortable whether sitting, stepping, or lying down.
No wonder Cen Zhixu liked it so much, turning on the cleaning machine to pamper the entire apartment’s carpets at every turn.
Pei Yuan thought to herself.
She took the opportunity to slide forward, leaning against Cen Zhixu’s calves that hung over the edge of the sofa, and raised her head to look at her.
After a temporary mark, due to pheromone fluctuations, a natural pulling force would arise between an Alpha and an Omega.
For example, they would want to cling to each other, feel a repulsion toward same-type pheromones, and instinctively seek out the other’s scent, body temperature, and touch for comfort.
Put simply, it was biology acting up.
Pei Yuan came to a confident conclusion: her inexplicable hostility toward the strange Alpha, and this clingy urge to hang onto Cen Zhixu and refuse to get up, were definitely all side effects of the temporary mark.
It had zero to do with her as a person.
Even though Cen Zhixu was indeed extremely good-looking and had a cute personality, she wasn’t her type.
As for what her type was, Pei Yuan didn’t quite know yet, but she would know when, eventually.
Cen Zhixu lowered her gaze to look at her, a hint of a smile hanging on her lips: “What? Planning to freeload here and refuse to leave?”
Pei Yuan looked up, completely unapologetic: “Biological reaction, can’t control it. How about the honorable officer showing some mercy and coaxing me a little longer?”
Cen Zhixu crossed her legs, her toes swaying beside Pei Yuan’s side before stepping onto Pei Yuan’s knee.
It was just a shallow touch, tracing slowly up along the tight muscle and bone lines by another inch.
And then another inch.
“Biological reaction?” she said.
Pei Yuan didn’t dare move, offering an awkward laugh: “Well, theoretically speaking, yes.”
Lazily stepping on her, Cen Zhixu suddenly pulled back, propping her hand on the edge of the sofa, and her whole body slid downward, pressing down into Pei Yuan’s embrace.
Pei Yuan was stunned, instinctively reaching out to catch her, closing her arms to encircle her completely.
Her long hair cascaded from her shoulders, spilling into her arms. The ends of her hair brushed against Pei Yuan’s forearm, carrying a slight coolness.
Cen Zhixu slumped into her embrace, resting on Pei Yuan’s shoulders, loosely enveloping her: “In that case, stop being all talk.”
Pei Yuan froze: “What?”
Lip-to-lip breath brushed past, Cen Zhixu’s voice seemingly steeped in water as it drilled into her ear: “Didn’t you say you couldn’t control your biological reactions?”
As she spoke, Cen Zhixu swept her long hair to one side of her body, revealing a slender, fair back of her neck.
“Be a good girl,” she coaxed softly.
“Bite me again.”
On that small patch of fair skin near the gland at the back of her neck, a ring of pale red tooth marks still remained. Shallow, yet strikingly obvious.
The culprit felt a little guilty.
Pei Yuan hesitated for a moment, reached out, and touched the red marks surrounding the gland.
Cen Zhixu trembled minutely in her arms, her long eyelashes casting a small patch of shadow to conceal her shimmering eyes.
She bit her lower lip, her body slightly taut, her breathing a bit more disordered than usual.
She didn’t push Pei Yuan away, nor did she speak.
Tacit consent.
Pei Yuan’s heart skipped a beat, as if a small drum inside her chest was beating wildly and recklessly.
She lowered her head, her nose brushing against Cen Zhixu’s long hair, tracing down the beautiful neck line and stopping right beside the slightly reddened gland.
Cen Zhixu hadn’t lied to her; that unfamiliar Alpha pheromone only clung to her collar and the tips of her hair, while wrapping tightly around the Omega gland was still a faint, refreshing citrus scent.
An Alpha couldn’t smell their own pheromones, but Pei Yuan just knew that was her own aura.
Her own Alpha pheromone was lingering in the place closest to Cen Zhixu.
Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, only to abruptly realize that her thoughts were heading in the wrong direction.
Wait, what am I happy about?
Why are you thinking like this? Pei Yuan asked herself in her heart, turning her face away vaguely inside her mind.
The two of them clearly amounted to nothing; they were just fake lovers bound by a contract, probing and utilizing one another.
She needed information about the Eye of Order, and Cen Zhixu needed her pheromones. They each took what they needed; it was nothing more than a transaction.
She shouldn’t be feeling this way.
This trace of covert joy, this covert sense of satisfaction, wove together a rather unsavory selfishness, a malicious craving to possess her entirely.
Pei Yuan lowered her gaze and kissed her.
Her lips rested against the gland, kissing it delicately, erasing the lingering strange aura bit by bit and replacing it with her own.
Cen Zhixu’s breathing instantly fell into chaos, her fingers loosely grasping Pei Yuan’s collar, gripping it tightly.
Pei Yuan bit down very slowly and very lightly, her tooth tips repeatedly grinding and licking along the gland, tasting it like a hard-earned little cake.
Hot breath blanketed over it, her canine teeth rubbing against it for a long time before finally piercing into the gland.
The originally aloof white iris was slowly saturated by a fermented, fruit-like sweetness, while deep within the fruit wine, a hint of cold white floral intent seeped in.
Invading each other, staining each other.
The air was filled with a dense fragrance, soft enough to make one dizzy, hot enough to make even thoughts sluggish.
For every fraction of an inch her breath pushed inward, Cen Zhixu’s spine tightened a fraction. In the end, she didn’t even have the strength to clutch the collar.
Leaving only her finger joints loosely hooking onto a small patch of fabric, sinking inch by inch into the crook of Pei Yuan’s arm.
The iris flower was gently crushed to pieces, cold fragrance, floral notes, and dew trickling layer by layer across the Alpha’s teeth, lips, and tongue tip.
Pei Yuan had originally only intended to bite her once.
It was just a temporary mark, as long as it covered up that trace of unfamiliar aura and let her own pheromones occupy her, that would be enough.
But once she truly touched Cen Zhixu, everything derailed completely.
Cen Zhixu softened in her arms, her breathing chaotic, sweat sliding down her brow and dripping onto the side of her neck, making her skin gleam with a glossy sheen.
Her long eyelashes were damp, her breathing disordered, rising and falling lightly and hurriedly, hanging on the verge of her throat, unable to steady or suppress itself.
Whether by a twist of fate or premeditated design, Pei Yuan lowered her head and pressed close to her once more, then a second time, a third time.
Slow and restrained.
Yet incomparably greedy.
By the end, Cen Zhixu’s brow was covered in a fine layer of sweat, burying her face haphazardly into the crook of Pei Yuan’s shoulder, her breathing trembling slightly, carrying a lingering, soft aftershock.
She was like a piece of fruit soaked in warm wine, every inch brimming with moisture and fragrance, ready to squeeze out intoxicated sweetness at the slightest pressure.
A temporary mark was destined from the very beginning to have pheromones that could only float on the surface.
It couldn’t reach deeper, couldn’t stay for long, and couldn’t legitimately occupy her.
After a day, at most two days, every wisp of citrus she transferred would completely dissipate into nothingness, leaving not a trace behind.
Yet Pei Yuan still selfishly utilized this extravagant moment of intimacy.
She was greedy, wrapping her pheromones around Cen Zhixu bit by bit.
Wrapping around the tips of her hair, her neck, her trembling fingers, and every single place she could touch and approach at that moment.
This is mine.
This is too.
Unobtrusive, uncrossing boundaries, yet stubbornly leaving behind numerous marks belonging exclusively to her.
Even if only a little bit.
Pei Yuan buried herself in the crook of Cen Zhixu’s neck, eyes closed, indulging in that trace of warmth, indulging in the sweetness of her scent.
Let’s laze a little longer.
Just a little longer.
Snap! A crisp sound echoed.
A thick report was slammed down in front of Pei Yuan.
Pei Yuan felt as though she had been slapped across the face by the report, shrinking her head in dejected defeat, not daring to utter a sound.
The doctor’s tone was cold and hard: “Pei Yuan, as an Alpha, controlling your pheromones is the most basic standard of self-discipline!”
“Do you have any idea about the signs of your rut? Did you really have to wait until your pheromones leaked and your colleagues complained before remembering where the medical ward is?”
“I’m truly sorry,” Pei Yuan said with a wilted voice. “I’ll definitely pay attention in the future, get my checkups on time, and take my suppressants regularly.”
The doctor let out a cold snort, flipping through a few pages of the report, but her movements suddenly paused.
She pulled that single page out separately, adjusted her glasses, and furrowed her brow.
“Strange,” the doctor muttered to herself. “Your grade is really only D?”
Pei Yuan’s heart skipped a beat.
“The fluctuation range of your pheromones is weird,” the doctor stared at the charts. “It doesn’t look like what a D-grade should exhibit.”
“The peak is too high, and the decay curve is also wrong. The overall shape is much closer to an A-grade, or even higher.”
Pei Yuan felt extremely guilty: “Could it just be an accidental situation? Hey, you know how it is, work stress has been high lately, and me? I don’t eat enough, I don’t sleep enough, I don’t dress warmly enough, I’m just utterly miserable.”
The system chimed in: “Host, yesterday apart from three main meals, you additionally ingested four cream puffs, two milk teas, and various snacks. Your sleep duration was eight hours, and you purchased three sets of new clothes using Miss Cen’s secondary card.”
The mechanical female voice calmly summarized: “Synthesizing the judgment, you eat well, sleep well, and dress warmly, and the description of utterly miserable does not exist.”
Pei Yuan said: “System, this is called strategic eating, strategic supplementing of sleep, and strategic image upgrades in cooperation with Miss Cen.”
“Besides, Cen Zhixu bosses me around every day, bullies me, tortures me with contracts, and even calls me a puppy. How is that not another form of misery?”
Pei Yuan argued with absolute confidence.
The system: “Acknowledged.”
After Pei Yuan bluffed her way through, the doctor remained half-skeptical, ultimately pressing that page of the report back down.
She instructed her to reduce contact with Omegas during this period and return for regular checkups.
Having finally managed to deal with the doctor, Pei Yuan grabbed the test report and slinked out of the medical ward.
The system said: “Host, before I entered dormancy at 21:23 last night, your pheromone concentration was still in the safe zone.”
“After exiting dormancy at 9 AM this morning, that value has climbed to nearly a three-month peak and continues to spread outward.”
The system was meticulous: “It is recommended that you submit the critical events that occurred during dormancy so that the pheromone fluctuation model can be updated.”
“Understood.”
Pei Yuan nudged her canine teeth, flipping the pages of the report so they rustled loudly.
Speaking of what happened last night, Pei Yuan barely managed to recall the beginning before feeling completely mortified.
She prided herself on having top-tier self-control. Over the years, she had witnessed too many Alphas lose their composure during ruts, acting utterly pathetic and out of their minds over a hint of Omega pheromones.
Pei Yuan had watched coldly from the sidelines, rather disdainful, thinking they were all just individuals with weak willpower.
Yet last night, she had merely bitten Cen Zhixu on the side of her neck before her brain went fuzzy and muddled, leading her to bite a second time, and a third time.
In short, completely excessive.
It perfectly matched Cen Zhixu’s four-word evaluation of her from earlier: sharp-tongued and toothy.
No wonder Cen Zhixu’s expression had been cold, calmly instructing Pei Yuan to carry her into the bathroom before expressionlessly kicking her out.
Pei Yuan looked at the report, her brow furrowing.
Just now in the medical room, the doctor had injected her with two suppressants to lower her pheromones back to daily levels.
Yet as the injection pushed into her blood vessels, Pei Yuan had distinctly felt something was off: the overflowing Alpha pheromones weren’t being suppressed as rapidly as they used to be.
The drug took effect slowly, and the suppression was weak.
She stopped at the end of the corridor, leaning against the wall, opened the light screen, and quickly flipped through her past few medical checkup data.
The conclusion wasn’t hard to draw:
The efficacy of the suppressants was declining.
In fact, even the word declining was too mild, accurately speaking, it was accelerating in failure.
And the node where this accelerated failure began happened to coincide precisely with when she started frequently approaching Cen Zhixu.
“It’s all the Mole’s fault,” Pei Yuan muttered softly. “It must be that the suppressants she dug up are terrible. It has zero to do with me.”
She approached Cen Zhixu to extract intelligence about the Eye of Order, location, architecture, storage methods, and so on, nothing more.
It was a mission, it was official business.
It was the Red Serpent’s calling.
As for why she wouldn’t let go of someone last night, or why she greedily took advantage of the temporary mark excuse, none of that mattered.
It was absolutely impossible that she was love-struck, blinded by Cen Zhixu, and losing her mind. Yes, that’s right, it must be the Mole’s substandard suppressants.
It looked like she would have to find a way to get out of the city.
Pei Yuan thought to herself secretly.
But before that, she still had some things she needed to figure out, preferably gathering a bit more information regarding the Eye of Order to hand over to the Mole.
More importantly, she needed to find a suitable timing and a sufficiently natural excuse to leave the city.
She couldn’t be too hasty, and she couldn’t show any flaws.
Due to the pheromone leak, the supervisor ruthlessly docked one day of Pei Yuan’s annual leave, invited her out of the White Tower, and ordered her to go stay wherever it was cool.
Of course, once her pheromones stabilized tomorrow, she would still have to come back to work.
With nothing to do, Pei Yuan wandered aimlessly, eventually strolling back to the side of Mirror Lake.
The afternoon sunlight was pleasant, the wind passing through the tall, slender trees along the shore, leaves rustling, while the lake water was pushed by the wind into overlapping layers against the bank.
The sunlight fell in, shattering into fine gold dust that flowed and shifted with the ripples of the water.
What a peaceful and serene scenery.
If only there weren’t that circle of thick, sturdy gray metal safety railings ringing the shore.
Pei Yuan let out a regretful sigh: “They move so fast. It’s only been a few days, how did they even manage to install guardrails?”
The system calmly stated: “After all, since Mirror Lake was built, there has never been a drowning incident.”
“Even a three-year-old knows not to cross the gentle slope of the bank, and certainly not to roll continuously to the right for nearly 10 meters after falling until hitting the water.”
Pei Yuan: “Thanks for the praise. I’m deeply honored.”
The system: “You’re welcome.”
Pei Yuan walked up to the railing and tapped twice on the metal crossbar. A dull, heavy echo came back from where her knuckles made contact.
Thick and solid.
She curled her fingers, knocked in a different spot, and listening to the echo inside the hollow structure, she roughly figured it out.
Not cheap. The White Tower was quite lavish with its resources just for her single accident.
Pei Yuan rested against the railing, gazing out at the lake surface.
The last time she came here, there had been nothing. No barriers, no warnings, just a gentle slope and stone bricks. Someone fell in, so now, there was a circle of railings.
It was the Eye of Order.
It saw an accident, judged that there was a hidden hazard here, and immediately triggered a correction mechanism: deploying resources, issuing commands, modifying the environment.
And what drove all of this was memory.
It had memory.
Observing, learning, modifying the environment, then observing the modified environment, it was growing smarter and more accurate.
Growing unceasingly.
Truly terrifying.
However, it was also genuinely impressive.
No wonder the White Tower’s inner city could run with such precision and high efficiency, rising rapidly to surpass other city-states.
And no wonder the Mole used all sorts of coaxing and deception, dead-set on dragging her into the city to steal that thing.
As Pei Yuan was pondering roughly how much impact force the railing could withstand, a familiar figure flashed in her peripheral vision.
She tilted her head to look.
Not far away, a guard member happened to be walking in this direction, and their lines of sight collided unexpectedly.
Of all coincidences, it was that very unlucky guard member who had rescued the drowning Pei Yuan, only to be pestered by her into chatting endlessly about the Eye of Order.
Pei Yuan’s eyes instantly lit up.
The unlucky guard’s eyes instantly dimmed.
The next second, Pei Yuan walked over with a bright, beaming smile, while the poor guard’s expression shifted, and she turned around to walk away.
She walked fast, but unfortunately, Pei Yuan chased even faster. Within a few steps, the unlucky guard was ruthlessly grabbed by the arm.
“Oh heavens! Isn’t this little Lin?”
Pei Yuan grabbed her, her tone sounding utterly familiar. “You’re my great benefactor who saved my life, why are you running away when you see me? You’re breaking my heart.”
The unlucky guard’s expression stiffened, her face plastered with the despair of wanting social anxiety to protect her.
She wore patrol uniform gear, carrying basic police equipment at her waist, with her ID badge pinned straight and proper on her chest:
▌Lin Jianqiu
ID: PR-3-0719
Affiliation: Outer Patrol Team 3
Little Lin remained silent for two seconds, forcing a sentence out between her teeth: “Hello.”
Pei Yuan was even happier: “What a coincidence, the scenery is so nice, I’m just taking a walk. Are you on patrol?”
Little Lin braced herself and replied: “Yes, this is part of my job. Is there anything I can help you with?”
Pei Yuan smiled brightly: “There are plenty of things you can help me with, for instance.”
Little Lin’s smile froze on her face.
Last time, this woman had pestered her for a full two hours, refusing to leave, and aside from devouring small cakes, she had asked at least 40-odd questions.
Among them, at least 5 had triggered the Eye of Order’s silent warning, causing her comm-ring to buzz continuously and the interface to turn entirely blood red.
Officer Cen.
Little Lin let out a mournful cry from the bottom of her heart: Please come quickly and take your girlfriend back.
Spare a regular, slightly socially anxious working stiff who just wants to patrol in peace.
Otherwhere, in the White Tower Pheromone Testing Room.
Cen Zhixu was flipping through a report when her movements suddenly paused. She turned her head to look at the empty wall.
The doctor was organizing data and looked up upon seeing this, asking, “What is it?”
Cen Zhixu turned back, flipping the pages over: “Nothing.”
“The little puppy I’m raising is a bit mischievous,” she said nonchalantly, “worried she might wreck the house again.”
The doctor said kindly: “Raising a pet is a good thing. Regular companionship and interaction help regulate emotions and also help stabilize pheromones.”
Cen Zhixu smiled softly: “Yeah.”
The doctor brought up a set of monitoring curves on the light screen, her brow relaxing: “Officer Cen, all your indicators have improved quite a bit this time.”
“The process of glandular failure is slowing down, and your pheromones have stabilized much more. You can tell that your high-compatibility Alpha is putting in a lot of heart.”
The doctor looked approving: “She hasn’t blindly suppressed or extracted, but instead cooperated with your state, guiding and soothing you bit by bit to make the disordered pheromones trend toward stability.”
Cen Zhixu uttered an acknowledgment, raised her hand, and brushed a strand of silver hair falling over her shoulders behind her ear.
Her earlobe was exposed, redder than usual, having been bitten by someone who didn’t know their own strength, the trace lingering and thin, a faint flush of blush.
It was quite nice,
Except she was a bit too fond of biting people.
Cen Zhixu thought nonchalantly.
The doctor continued: “This kind of gentle, continuous guidance is far more effective than suppressants.”
“Judging by this trend, the intensity of your next rut will be much milder. But your situation is special, the temporary mark will decay very quickly.”
The doctor turned slightly more serious: “To be safe, increasing the frequency of temporary marks around the rut is more prudent.”
Cen Zhixu hesitated for a moment, asking, “How often would be appropriate?”
The doctor compared two sets of models on the light screen, her tone natural: “Once a day is best.”
Cen Zhixu’s smile froze slightly:
“Would that be a bit too frequent?”
The doctor thought about it and took a step back: “If that really won’t work, once every two days?”
Cen Zhixu remained silent.
The doctor gave a few more reminders about other precautions, such as reducing mental load and avoiding emotional fluctuations.
After finishing, the doctor stood up to help prepare her nutrient formula, which would take about twenty minutes before she returned.
The testing room was quiet for a moment.
Cen Zhixu walked into the washroom, standing before the mirror, gathering the silver hair scattered across her shoulders.
The strands slipped through her fingers, falling softly like a handful of cool moonlight as she casually swept them to one side, revealing her slender neck line.
Cen Zhixu turned slightly, reflecting the patch of skin usually hidden beneath her hair more completely in the mirror.
Clear tooth marks remained on the back of her neck, the redness still unfaded, varying in depth.
Cen Zhixu stared at those marks, her eyelashes fluttering as her finger joints slowly clenched the edge of the sink.
She still remembered.
When Pei Yuan lowered her head, the breath that landed on the side of her neck, when she gripped her, the undeniable strength between her fingers and palm.
The closeness.
The suddenly intense citrus and liquor.
Canine teeth sinking into flesh, a subtle pain, a lingering numbness crawling all the way up her spine, finger joints tingling, moistness overflowing and soaking her clothes.
Unignorable heat, out-of-control sweat, and the recklessly colliding, continuously gushing pheromones.
Cen Zhixu quietly gazed at the mirror surface.
Her breath crashed against the wall and bounced back, echoing continuously in the narrow washroom.
Cen Zhixu bit her lip lightly, raising her hand to touch the bite mark. The moment she touched it, a trace of subtle numbness and heat still lingered.
Her temporary mark.
Cen Zhixu lowered her head, twisting a corner of her collar, lightly bringing it to the tip of her nose to sniff the faint, warming scent of citrus along the edge.
It was a pity that scent was far too faint, before long, it would dissipate completely.
Not enough, far from enough.
Honestly.
She needed more, much more.