Inside the medical room, the “beep-beep” working broadcast of the instrument emitted a humming electrical current. The Alliance spared no expense in cultivating good seedlings, and the military academy’s medical equipment was likewise equipped to the highest standards of the Alliance military.
Disinfectant mixed with a dense, bitter medicinal scent filled every corner of the room, and the blue-and-white lacquered tiled walls added a touch of chill.
On the narrow single iron cot, the single bright red scratch on the pale cheek of the person lying there was covered and concealed by a medicinal cotton patch.
His lightly upturned eyelashes trembled slightly as Shi Yixing lifted his heavy eyelids, only half-opening them under the sting of the dazzling incandescent light. The tall, steep dark shadow standing by the bed loomed over, blocking the light.
On his scratched neck, the bruised fingerprint marks began to throb with pain once more. As his retina adapted to the brightness of the light source, his vision finally cleared up.
Shi Yixing gripped the railing erected at the edge of the bed frame, propped himself up into a sitting position, and stared with a guarded expression at the cold, Asura-like alpha before him:
“They provoked me first; it’s a testament to my kindness that I didn’t finish them off. Since Major General He cannot distinguish right from wrong, then don’t meddle in other people’s business.”
Helin Zhou bent down and leaned in. Between his thick, dark strands of hair, that pair of white, fluffy, tiger-striped triangular ears stood erect. His ripple-free blue pupils were like a deep vortex, concealing danger:
“Stupid little rabbit, recognize your own identity and behave yourself.
Do you think a low-tier alpha would ever have the opportunity to take the entrance exams for the military academy?”
Helin Zhou’s slender fingertips lifted Shi Yixing’s lower jaw, his gaze lingering on the small scarlet mole beneath his flushed outer eye corners. As if driven by some divine or demonic impulse, he rubbed it with his thumb, watching the instantly moistened eye sockets, the climbing flushed cheeks, and the damp, reddened lips…
Helin Zhou’s breathing grew heavier: “An alpha and yet so delicate—what a pity, I hate rabbits the most.”
Tipping his head closer to sniff his neck: “No scent at all, far too lacking.” His flippant tone was playful, yet also full of humiliation.
If not for his status as the Crown Prince holding him back, the clenched fists of Shi Yixing would have long since smashed fiercely into Helin Zhou’s face.
Is Helin Zhou out of his mind? Your grandpa! Delicate? Delicate your ass. Is your brain hollowed out with a tunnel running right through it? Does it even fall to you to evaluate me?!
He had entered the Alliance Military Academy fair and square as the top scorer across all subjects, an absolute top-tier alpha. The “King” character on his forehead must stand for “King of Idiots,” right? Hating rabbits yet holding him and sniffing him during his estrus cycle, pinching his ears, and pulling his tail?!
Gritting his teeth in exasperation, the rabbit’s fur puffed up in anger as he flexed his arm and shoved the person in front of him away hard. His finger joints ground together with a crisp crunch, trembling uncontrollably beneath the blanket.
He took a deep breath to regulate his emotions, brewing over how to beautify his vocabulary to hurl elegant insults.
“Click” The door handle was turned 90 degrees clockwise, and the room door was pushed open from the outside, creaking open and then clicking shut as two people followed one after another.
“Brother Tian! Sister Taotao!” Shi Yixing’s crisp voice pitched two keys higher, and the small dimples on both sides of his cheeks revealed themselves the moment he smiled. His burning gaze unabashedly glued itself to the alpha who had just walked in.
The two people who entered both froze upon seeing Helin Zhou inside the room, tacitly falling silent and pulling back the smiles that had been hanging on their lips.
The subtle atmosphere in the medical room added a trace of awkwardness. Helin Zhou’s icy pupils gained a layer of warm light, and his tone became somewhat more human-like: “Yao Tao.”
A faint, sweet scent of peaches drifted through the air, intoxicating anyone who caught it. The S-class omega ragdoll cat’s snow-white ear tips twitched, and wearing a well-tailored white lab coat with a dark blue satin ribbon hanging down to support her “Senior Medical Officer” work badge.
Yao Tao, wrapped in an omega’s smiling, gentle temperament, held a backup record notebook and met Helin Zhou’s gaze with a light smile: “Lin Zhou, don’t make things difficult for Xingxing darling. What will we do if we scare the kid?”
The A-class black wolf alpha, Zetian Xiaze, calmly bypassed Helin Zhou by the bedside, inevitably colliding slightly as they brushed past each other. A large bunch of clean white lilies was placed on the bedside table.
Xiaze Zetian smoothed down the tuft of hair sticking up at the back of Shi Yixing’s head, sinking his fingertips into his hair to rub it while his brows curved into a pleasant arc, speaking in a gentle voice:
“It’s alright now.”
Shi Yixing gripped his wrist with hesitant words left unsaid, and Xiaze Zetian cooperatively lowered his head, carefully listening to the soft, muffled whisper murmured against his ear:
“I had a fever… they didn’t find out, did they?”
“Rest assured, nobody knew. Sister Taotao gave you a suppressant right at the very first moment. But you and Helin Zhou…”
As if triggering some key keyword, the fluffy white-gold head bumped straight into his arms, letting out a whimper.
Shi Yixing naturally wrapped both arms around his neck, raising grievances in a wronged accusation: “There’s a perverted snake who wanted to pick a fight and even harassed me… Helin Zhou didn’t even ask questions before coming up and beating me straight away. He even mocked me for being a low-tier alpha.”
His slightly burning, furry rabbit ear tips brushed against the sensitive skin of his neck.
A dark shadow passed through Xiaze Zetian’s eyes as he supported his shoulders and pulled him away from his embrace. Straightening his skewed collar, he saw the horrifying, spine-chilling purplish bruises on his slender, fair neck, where deep skin and blood scratches were folded into varying depths of shade.
From behind came a deep, icy-cold voice: “The military academy is not a place for rabbit cubs to run wild. Fighting and brawling will be recorded as demerits according to the rules. Commander Xia, properly educate your good younger brother.”
“They were the ones who maliciously harassed me and trespassed into the training ground I reserved!” Shi Yixing’s eye rims turned red with anger, and the moment he lifted the blanket to get up, his shoulders were pressed back down to force him to lie back.
Xiaze Zetian’s large palm enveloped his furry rabbit ears, soothingly stroking them down in a very light motion, though the pressure of the kneading was somewhat heavy.
“Ding—” A current-induced warning of heartbeat skipped a beat. Shi Yixing’s body softened, his cheeks growing visibly hot enough to burn.
Yao Tao mixed a cup of warm water and handed it to him. The dazed, bashful person snapped back to his senses, stuttering for once in a rare moment: “Th.. thank you, Sister Taotao.”
He cautiously squinted sideways, stealing glances at Xiaze Zetian while supporting the rim of the cup with both hands, pressing his lips close to take small, light sips. One of his ears stood erect, while the ear that had been pinched hung limply and drooped, trembling slightly resembling a fluff-ball baby rabbit that hadn’t yet learned to perk up its ears.
Lifting his hand to rub the tip of the ear that had just been stroked, he felt the lingering warmth upon it and the faint scent of sage pheromones. Resolutely grabbing Xiaze Zetian’s hand as it was about to pull back, his burning gaze met avoidance, and unexceptionally, just like usual, his wrist was brushed away.
His heart felt like a piece of sour gummy candy lacking its sugar coating, leaving only sourness behind.
It was no secret that Shi Yixing liked Xiaze Zetian. The ethereal, scattered dandelion achenes fell onto barren soil and grew wildly, fighting desperately to carve out a bloody path of survival.
Xiaze Zetian had rescued a thirteen-year-old Shi Yixing who was being hunted down by assassins, pulling him out of the black market’s quagmire, cleaning him up, and pushing him to stand healthily in the sunshine.
People who wandered as strays feared nothing more than obtaining warmth, and feared losing grasp of that warmth even more.
Shi Yixing reined in the despondency at the bottom of his eyes, sliding a wet water trail down the rim of the glass cup to land on the web of his thumb. He turned his head away from looking at Xiaze Zetian to meet those deep, cold, ice-blue pupils instead.
“I accept the demerit, but I did nothing wrong. They had already broken the safety distance and constituted a threat to me, so I consider it legitimate self-defense.” His subdued tone remained calm and steady, carrying unyielding argument.
Looking at the tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, long-legged 1.96-meter S-class top-tier alpha before him, absurd and shameful memories of being forcibly invaded by tequila pheromones over several nights resurfaced.
The bite mark on his back neck had only faded after he applied high-strength medicine for an entire day, and the clingy, inseparable big cat image of Helin Zhou during his estrus cycle was an entirely different soul from the ruthless, cold, and heartless Major General standing before him right now.
The alpha breathed hot air as he rubbed the contour of his earlobe, calling him his wife with muddled infatuation. His damp, moist blue pupils looked pitiful as he pleaded over and over again for him not to leave. The strength in his hands pinning his wrists was astonishingly sturdy, and his solid thigh muscles suppressed his legs and ankles while his body was embedded into the soft quilt, the Helin Zhou on top of him crying softly while secretly exerting force.
The wine-brewed tequila left people slightly intoxicated, and as he was carried along in a daze, everything that should and shouldn’t have been done was thoroughly done.
When he slipped away, that thick palm transformed from a white tiger’s paw pad had been tightly wrapped around his waist.
His entire body was embedded in Helin Zhou’s embrace, and it had taken him forever of pulling out all the stops to pry the octopus-like alpha off his body.
Trembling with his hands as he picked up the remaining clothing fibers on the floor to barely cover himself, he rolled away smartly before the man woke up. He didn’t want to get involved with Helin Zhou in the slightest.
Too dangerous, not worth it.