“Is the Female master looking at me like that because she wants to ship me off to the Disciplinary Center too, to keep Yun Miao company?”
Feng Yan, not the least bit bothered by his own sorry state, asked it with a grin.
The Disciplinary Center: an institution under the Federation’s Female Protection Association, set up specifically to punish male beast husbands who defied discipline or harmed their Female masters. And the Yun Miao that Feng Yan mentioned was, in the original host’s memories, the one she’d wronged most cruelly of all, in and out of the Disciplinary Center three times in their first year of marriage.
This would be the fourth.
Jiang Wangyue’s head instantly throbbed harder.
Maybe she should just blow the whole thing up after all?
Frowning in thought, she didn’t notice the complicated look Lan Xue was giving her, by the time she lifted her head, it had already smoothed back into his usual expression.
The urgent thing was to fish Yun Miao out of the Disciplinary Center. Jiang Wangyue tapped a few times at the terminal on her wrist, then looked at Ji Li, apology in her eyes.
“Could I trouble you to make the trip? I’m afraid they won’t release him for me.”
Ji Li’s gaze flickered. He gave a silent nod and leapt straight out through the gaping hole in the floor-to-ceiling window.
A row of black lines slid down Jiang Wangyue’s forehead. [1] comic-strip shorthand for speechless exasperation, like the sweat-drop on a stunned anime character jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723720_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723720_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Why did not one of them like using the door?
The cold wind pouring through the hole made her shiver, and she hurried to pull open the wardrobe that took up an entire wall beside her. The instant all those gaudy, garish, rainbow-colored clothes appeared before her, Jiang Wangyue felt her eyes suffer serious visual pollution.
Was the original host in here doing dopamine dressing? [2] the fashion trend of wearing bright, cheerful colors to boost your mood jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723720_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723720_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
She dug out a dark-green loungewear set that was barely passable, and without so much as a glance at Feng Yan leaning against the wall, walked straight out.
Lan Xue, on the other hand, turned to look back at him and asked with a smile, “Need any help?”
“Go wait on your Female master instead.”
Lan Xue didn’t take the jab to heart. He gave his coat a light flick and turned to leave.
The wound on Jiang Wangyue’s neck wasn’t deep. Lan Xue fetched a small medical device and bent slightly to clean and dress it. A strand of snow-white hair drifted down before her eyes, Jiang Wangyue’s fingers twitched, but she managed to rein in the itch stirring inside her.
Back when classmates told her that most people from the Land of Flowers [3] an affectionate online nickname for China, a pun on 中華/中华, “Zhonghua” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723720_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723720_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); were suckers for white hair [4] -控/”-con,” otaku slang for a soft spot or fixation, so “white-hair-con” = a weakness for white-haired beauties jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723720_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723720_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, she’d scoffed at it. Who’d have thought she’d be a convert now, and the fragrance was real. [5] “真香,” the about-face meme: you loudly swear you’d never touch something, then end up loving it jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2723720_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2723720_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
Her eyes moved to Lan Xue’s open collar. From this angle she could see his collarbone and a sliver of chest.
So pale.
Paler than those people on Earth who bragged every day about their cool, fair complexions.
She couldn’t begin to imagine how gorgeous that white would look flushed with crimson.
“Female master, all done.”
The clear, mellow voice pulled her back to herself. She raised a hand and touched her neck, smooth. Pity the interstellar age had no anti-snake-venom serum, or Jiang Wangyue would absolutely have jabbed herself with a dose.
Dawn comes early on the Central Star. When Ji Li and Yun Miao returned, the morning sun was just rising. Jiang Wangyue’s gaze swept across Yun Miao’s pale face and paused briefly on that black-and-gold military uniform.
That pause made Yun Miao misread her meaning. His slender fingers went to the buttons of his uniform coat, and under her shocked stare he stripped off coat and shirt in one motion, baring the crisscross of whip scars across his body.
A voice edged with ice rang out at the same time. “Is the Female master satisfied?” Yun Miao asked coldly.
Jiang Wangyue sucked in a sharp breath, those whip marks were still seeping blood, big brother! She grabbed Lan Xue’s hand beside her. “There’s a treatment pod at home, right?”
“There is.”
“Quick—”
“No need.” Yun Miao unhurriedly buttoned his clothes back up, his cold voice cutting her off. “The Legion still has military matters to handle. I won’t trouble the Female master any further.”
This was his standard brush-off for the original host, the one that always left her stamping with rage and utterly helpless. Only this time, the moment Yun Miao turned, Ji Li reached out to stop him.
“You’ve been suspended. The Marshal gave the order personally.”
“Impossible,” Yun Miao blurted, his face going iron-gray in an instant.
He had been cast aside.
Watching his clenched fist, Jiang Wangyue hurried to soothe him. “It’s fine, let’s get you healed up first. Going back once you’ve recovered works just the same.” Talk it out nicely, don’t start swinging, she was no match for a hot-tempered little lion.
But Yun Miao, shrouded in boundless desolation, couldn’t make out a word she said. In his eyes there were only twisted human shapes and shrill, piercing sounds. Darkness welling up from deep in his mental sea swallowed him whole, gnawing his reason away bit by bit.
The first to notice something wrong was Ji Li. His expression changed abruptly. “This is bad! Yun Miao’s mental power is going on a rampage!”
What?
Before Jiang Wangyue could react, the violent, surging mental power swept across the entire living room and spread, little by little, through the whole house. Ji Li snapped his wings open with a whoosh, meaning to subdue Yun Miao by force. But Yun Miao’s true form was the Frost-fanged Ice Lion, one of the strongest combat beasts in the interstellar age, Ji Li, whose strength had never lain in his fists, was simply no match for him.
“Bang—”
Ji Li slammed hard into the floor.
A huge beastly silhouette loomed faintly behind Lan Xue. He stared at Jiang Wangyue at the eye of the storm, yet made no move at all.
Cold.
That was the truest and only thing Jiang Wangyue felt in this moment.
A vast white snowfield stretched out without end, a blizzard raging on and on, great sheets of snow howling past on the wild wind. She squinted as she took in her surroundings, working her nearly frozen limbs at the same time.
This was probably Yun Miao’s mental sea, and it really did live up to the species of his true form.
So here was the question: how was she supposed to use mental power to comb out his mental sea? The rapid loss of body heat had her seriously on edge.
Think, you useless brain, think fast!
“Hummm—”
In a place she couldn’t see, ring after ring of transparent ripples spread outward, with her at the center.
Outside.
Yun Miao had already been pinned down by Feng Yan and Ji Li, who’d come darting up together from the basement, but he’d lost his reason and was still struggling fiercely, the violent mental power around him only trending stronger. Lan Xue settled Jiang Wangyue, her hair already frozen, frost beginning to creep over her body, onto the sofa, then turned and drove two doses of suppressant into Yun Miao’s neck.
Yun Miao’s struggles stuttered. Just as they thought the suppressant had taken hold, an earth-shaking lion’s roar nearly dragged them, too, into mental collapse. Sent flying, Feng Yan and Ji Li stared in horror at the white lion crouched on the floor.
Had Yun Miao’s mind broken down so badly he could no longer even hold his human form?!
Lan Xue’s head whipped toward the sofa first, and his pupils shrank when he saw the situation. Jiang Wangyue, who’d had only a thin film of frost on her skin before, was now frozen completely solid!
This was bad.
An iron law of the Federation: if the Female master dies, her beast husbands die with her.
Feng Yan drew a blade glinting with dark-purple light, killing intent filling his eyes. Since they were all going to die anyway, better to let him put this woman down with one clean stroke, so that he could—
Ji Li clamped a hand over him. “Wait! Look! Something’s not right!”
References[+]