Ren Junzhu carried Shen Yue back to the bedroom. He touched his cheek and called softly, “Shen Yue, wake up.”
There was no response. Shen Yue had no awareness at all. He bit his lips tightly, pressing them until they turned red, but as soon as he relaxed his bite, they quickly returned to a pale, lifeless white.
He was completely soaked. Ren Junzhu unfastened his buttons, intending to take off his wet clothes, but Shen Yue had his arms wrapped around himself. When Ren Junzhu grabbed his wrist to pull his hands away, Shen Yue kept shrinking inward.
Even in unconsciousness, he seemed to realize that no one would help him anymore. There was no assistance coming from outside, so his body instinctively curled in on itself for protection.
His eyes were tightly shut. His breathing was faint and weak. When Ren Junzhu tried to move his arms, they kept retreating, and his breathing carried a hint of muffled, aggrieved sobbing.
The movement caused the chain on his wrist to jolt. Losing patience, Ren Junzhu grabbed his collar and, with a sharp tearing sound, ripped the thin, paper-like shirt in half. He then stripped off Shen Yue’s pants and shoes and wrapped his naked body in the blanket.
The blanket was pulled up to his jaw. Mud stains hadn’t been cleaned from his face, making him look dirty, but that only made his already pale complexion seem even more fragile. His cheeks looked slightly sunken, and even the light blanket covering him seemed heavy enough to crush him.
Ren Junzhu stared at him silently, his expression unreadable.
“Cold…”
“Cold…” The person under the blanket murmured restlessly, his voice faint as a mosquito’s buzz. Ren Junzhu lifted the blanket and lay down beside him. Feeling the warm body temperature, Shen Yue reached out instinctively.
His pale fingers landed on Ren Junzhu’s hand. The contrast between bronze skin and pale white skin was striking. Their hands brushed and then interlaced almost naturally, fingers loosely entangled. After grabbing his hand, he didn’t try to get any closer, as if that alone was enough.
Shen Yue’s careful, restrained movements made Ren Junzhu frown slightly.
A large hand grasped his waist and pulled him into an embrace. With almost no weight of his own, Shen Yue rolled over and collapsed onto Ren Junzhu’s body.
His wet long hair dampened Ren Junzhu’s chest, carrying a faint, intoxicating fragrance. Ren Junzhu’s expression darkened for a moment, becoming even more unpleasant.
Shen Yue lay entirely on top of him, his chin resting against his chest, his arms wrapping around his neck with practiced familiarity.
This was the sleeping posture they used every night seven years ago after being together. Ren Junzhu had always liked Shen Yue sleeping on top of him. At first, Shen Yue was very afraid, because Ren Junzhu’s back was too broad, his arms thick and muscular, and lying on him meant being completely enveloped by the strong aura of an overwhelming 3S Alpha.
As an Alpha himself in essence, Shen Yue felt deeply uneasy and resistant to this. But Ren Junzhu was forceful and domineering. Shen Yue often didn’t even know how he fell unconscious each night. Only when he woke up dizzy the next morning and saw that sharply defined jawline would he realize he hadn’t even touched the bed.
Gradually, Shen Yue became used to it. At the base, when there were no missions at noon, if Ren Junzhu was sitting on the sofa reading documents, Shen Yue would naturally walk over and lie against his chest to take a nap.
Shen Yue’s icy-cold hand slipped into the back of Ren Junzhu’s neck. Ren Junzhu frowned slightly but didn’t pull it away. Shen Yue kept saying he was cold, yet his body and face were burning hot. His breath spilled across Ren Junzhu’s chest, carrying intense heat.
Ren Junzhu reached up to feel his forehead. As expected, he had a fever.
He picked up the phone on the bedside table to make a call, but Shen Yue grew a little restless. His cracked lips murmured, “Hot…”
“So hot…”
As a top-tier awakener of pure fire attribute, Ren Junzhu’s body temperature was higher than normal, especially during intense physical activity. Back then, this had often made Shen Yue feel as if he was being burned, and the two of them had taken a long time to adjust to it.
Shen Yue, with his pure water attribute, was afraid of high temperatures and had a relatively strong tolerance for cold. But compared to icy water, he actually preferred lake water under spring sunlight, neither hot enough to peel the skin nor cold enough to make one shiver.
During intimacy, Shen Yue often ended up crying, not only because of size and force, but also because of Ren Junzhu’s body heat. So many times, he felt as if his stomach was about to burn.
Because of the fever, Shen Yue began to move restlessly in discomfort. Pressed against Ren Junzhu’s cool body, he trembled and rubbed against him. His bare, slender legs tightly clung around Ren Junzhu’s waist and abdomen, while his damp, heated breath fell on Ren Junzhu’s chest, causing his brow to furrow deeper and deeper, veins rising at his temples.
He pulled Shen Yue away to create some distance, but Shen Yue immediately started complaining of cold again. Even under the blanket, goosebumps were visibly rising across his skin, fine pale hairs standing on end. Meanwhile, Ren Junzhu himself was also being drenched in sweat from the situation, his handsome face growing increasingly dark.
He pinched the soft flesh of Shen Yue’s hip and warned in a low voice, “Behave yourself, Shen Yue.”
Hearing the familiar voice, Shen Yue instinctively calmed down. But after a short while, he began to sob. Tears flowed down without him realizing it, soaking his face again after it had just dried, leaving him looking very uncomfortable.
Ren Junzhu’s chest was also soaked by his tears. Helpless, he pulled him into his arms together with the blanket, squeezing his thin face in frustration. “How old are you already, and you still cry at the drop of a hat.”
Shen Yue sniffed, hiccupped twice, and buried his face against his shoulder, gradually stopping his crying after a while.
Ren Junzhu quietly looked at his profile. Although he looked worn and thin, his beauty was still unmistakable. After all these years, times changing, eras shifting, even he himself had become a completely different person, yet this man still looked the same as when they first met on campus, unchanged in the slightest.
Ren Junzhu raised his hand and wiped away the tears on his face.
If he cries so easily… then why did he make that choice seven years ago?
His expression darkened as he slowly closed his eyes.
By the time Jiang Xuechen arrived, the sky had just begun to brighten. He knocked on the door, and only after hearing permission did he enter with his medical kit. But the moment he saw Ren Junzhu, he was startled.
“Colonel, your eyes…!”
In the darkness, Ren Junzhu’s eyes glowed, one red, one blue, emitting a deep, vivid radiance that was anything but human. Jiang Xuechen didn’t know how to describe it. Those heterochromatic eyes carried an overwhelming sense of solemnity and detachment from the mortal world, as if an ancient beast that had just awakened from a long slumber were now gazing indifferently upon all living beings, to it mountains and rivers were insignificant in its grasp.
That transcendent indifference made Jiang Xuechen instinctively take a step back, his creamy-scented pheromones unconsciously releasing in self-defense.
“What are you backing away for?” Ren Junzhu frowned slightly. He rubbed the corner of his eye, and when he looked up again, his pupils had already returned to normal. “Come over and check him.”
With that oppressive aura gone, Jiang Xuechen finally saw their situation clearly. Ren Junzhu had placed Shen Yue back on the bed. Shen Yue was curled up, still unconscious.
On the way here, Jiang Xuechen had already learned roughly what had happened. He examined Shen Yue’s body, no external injuries, but he was running a persistent fever of 39°C. It might have been from being caught in the rain and catching a chill, but as a 3S Alpha, even if he did get sick, he shouldn’t have fallen unconscious.
He put down the thermometer and stood up.
With his movement, his hair gradually turned completely white from root to tip, and his eyes also transformed into pure white pupils. Unlike the earlier manifestation of his S1 ability, “Insight Eye,” this transformation continued further: two curved, thick silver horns grew from his head, and a pair of enormous white wings unfolded behind him.
His entire body was bathed in a sacred light, his expression solemn and holy.
Several feathers drifted out from his wings, spinning and circling in the air like a halo. They circled around Shen Yue on the bed before finally settling on his neck.
In Jiang Xuechen’s perception, however, those white feathers appeared red.
Awakener of Baize, S2 ability: Sacred Feather Light.
Attribute: Light and Spirit. A support-type diagnostic ability.
The white feathers released from the awakener’s wings form a scanning halo that automatically locates the weakest point in a patient’s body and marks it. If the severity of the issue is under 10%, the feathers appear green; between 10% and 40%, blue; between 40% and 70%, yellow; above 70%, red.
If the most vulnerable area of a person shows green under Sacred Feather Light, it indicates excellent health with no illness. Blue indicates minor issues in bones or organs. Yellow indicates more serious conditions. Red means the marked area is already threatening the patient’s life and requires immediate medical attention.
If the condition lies in internal organs, Sacred Feather Light can still identify it. As a form of mental light, it has no physical substance and can penetrate the body to mark internal organs.
“It’s red… his neck…”
“It’s the gland,” Ren Junzhu said. The feathers had landed on the back of Shen Yue’s neck.
“Gland?” Jiang Xuechen asked in confusion. “But every time I examine him, I always check his glands. Aside from slightly reduced cellular activity due to suppression from the inhibitor, I haven’t found any abnormal or diseased cells.”
“It’s because of his innate ability,” Ren Junzhu replied. “His second innate ability, Ripple Within the Palm, allows him to control any body of water, oceans, rivers, and the like. But the cost is that whenever it rains or snows, he develops a fever. The former director of the medical center once explained to me that when the sky produces precipitation, all the awakened cells in his body become abnormally active and hot. It’s a manifestation of his extreme affinity for water elements.”
Shen Yue’s innate ability: Ripple Within the Palm.
Attribute: Pure Water. Elemental control-type ability. Passive-type ability.
The awakener possesses the power to control any water source, with the range of control determined by the concentration of pheromones. At the same time, when rain or snow falls from the sky, the awakener’s bloodline immediately responds, raising body temperature as a form of resonance with nature’s gift.
“In the past, whenever it rained, he would also be like this…”
Ren Junzhu recalled. Seven years ago, on rainy days, Shen Yue would also develop a fever, but his mental state would be very good. As a pure-water 3S awakener, he naturally loved rainy weather and humid climates. Whenever that happened, Ren Junzhu would forcibly hold him in his arms and make him rest, not allowing him to do anything else.
“So when does his ability usually stop?” Jiang Xuechen asked.
“When the rain stops.”
Jiang Xuechen was shocked. “Although Dongcheng isn’t a tropical city in the far south, it rains frequently throughout the year, often for several consecutive days, especially in summer and autumn. Then… then doesn’t that mean he spends a large part of the year running a fever and enduring this kind of pain?”
“…Yes.” Ren Junzhu closed his eyes and nodded.
Jiang Xuechen was stunned. He looked at the person lying unconscious on the bed, and something seemed to block his throat. For a moment, he couldn’t say a word.