In the bathroom, the incandescent lights were blindingly bright.

Yan Ruoyun woke up in a daze, feeling nothing but alternating waves of cold and heat over his body. It was as if he were floating in an endless ocean—above him was a blazing, fiery sun, and beneath him was piercingly cold seawater…

And he didn’t know where the currents were sweeping him away to.

A sharp beeping sound rang in his ears.

Yan Ruoyun froze for a moment, taking a long while to realize that the sound was coming from the subcutaneous monitor installed on the outer side of his left upper arm.

To him, the scene before his eyes wasn’t unfamiliar.

He was half-lying in a bathtub filled with cold water, the water level submerging his chest. Presumably, the emergency department nurses had changed him into a blue-and-white vertically striped hospital gown. The pure cotton gown, soaked with water, clung tightly to his skin, bringing an oppressive sense of suffocation.

This feeling was exactly like a stranded whale, the oxygen in its lungs about to be depleted, leaving it to only despairingly dry up and die.

“Beep, beep… beep, beep…”

The subcutaneous monitor was still sounding.

This was a common medical device for Omegas, looking very similar to a sports watch. It was ring-shaped, equipped with a small electronic display screen, and featured a waterproof function.
On the inside of the screen was an extremely fine needle. Once pierced into the skin, the tip extracted hormones from the blood every second, then passed the data through a tiny chip to be analyzed into easy-to-read numbers.

Right now, the entire screen was glowing red beneath the water’s surface. The values on the screen jumped up and down at one-second intervals, constantly maintaining a terrifying four-digit number.

But Yan Ruoyun no longer had the strength to pay attention to this.

Under the onslaught of an unprecedented high fever, not only were his limbs weak and numb, but his vision was blurred, and physiological tears kept continuously welling up.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just tears…

He rested for a while, then, half-conscious and half-dazed, climbed out of the bathtub, bringing with him a splash of water dripping onto the floor.

Just this single action consumed a lot of his strength.

He gripped the edge of the bathtub, gasping for breath several times, then moved to the door with weak steps. He reached out and fumbled around the door lock several times before finally touching the latch.

“Click—”

Yan Ruoyun habitually locked the door.

After doing all this, he leaned against the wall to rest again. His breathing trembled inconsistently, and he used all his strength to barely overcome the wave of intense dizziness.

Then, his whole body trembled. His already pale face looked even worse, and a trace of disgust even flashed in his eyes.

“…”

Slippery, warm liquid continued to gush out. Especially after soaking in cold water, the temperature difference was incredibly obvious… so obvious that Yan Ruoyun clearly felt it had already flowed down the inside of his pant legs to his ankles.

—Almost like incontinence.

Omegas in heat all secrete a large amount of gland fluids, but a volume as massive as his was no longer considered normal.
Yan Ruoyun’s severe germaphobia was forced out precisely because of things like this.

Enduring the severe discomfort, he dragged himself back into the bathtub, simultaneously turning on the showerhead hanging above his head.

The icy water stream made him jolt.

Yan Ruoyun blinked and barely sobered up a little.

But this raging fire burning from the inside out was already scorching him, delaying for even a moment was impossible—gradually, his hand resting on the edge of the bathtub powerlessly slid into the water, controlled by muscle memory formed over years…

Under the circumstance where the use of suppressants was strictly forbidden.
This was the only way he could make himself feel a little better.

However, in this abnormal heat, the soothing behavior Yan Ruoyun had long grown accustomed to was completely ineffective. It was even like pouring oil on a fire, making the situation increasingly severe.

He weakly tilted his head back, his slender neck arching into a startling curve. His Adam’s apple bobbed rapidly up and down, vaguely revealing the intense discomfort of the body’s owner.

Fine streams of water poured down endlessly from the showerhead, creating a pattering sound as they hit the water’s surface.
This sound echoed with the warning beeps of the subcutaneous monitor, making enough noise to cause a nervous breakdown.

Yan Ruoyun unconsciously turned his face to avoid the shower stream, angling his head toward the door. However, his eyes had long lost their focus; he was like a corpse that could breathe and twitch.

After a while.

He suddenly raised his other free hand and slowly touched the gland on the back of his neck, as if looking for something.

But after a week of recovery, the bite marks on it had completely healed. Yan Ruoyun couldn’t help but close his eyes, reminiscing about the scene from that day, attempting to retrace the feeling of the first mark.

The first bite was incredibly painful.
And then.
It was the warm, scalding sensation of a tongue wrapping around the gland.

He involuntarily raised his other free hand and shoved his curled index finger into his mouth.

His knuckle was clamped between his teeth, the tip of his tongue sweeping past the gap of the joint, and then… he bit down hard without hesitation!

An unprecedented force allowed the tips of his teeth to instantly break through the skin’s surface, leaving several deep marks.
Beads of blood quickly welled up, sliding down Yan Ruoyun’s hand to his wrist, eventually merging into the water, diluted until the color was untraceable.

…Pain can also make one sink into oblivion.

In every past heat cycle, Yan Ruoyun would rely on pain to stay awake, but this time, he almost wanted to just sink into it like this…
But just as this thought surfaced, a strong wave of disgust rose up, as if two opposing forces were battling in his head, refusing to stop until one side was dead.

Right at this moment—

A familiar voice came from outside the bathroom door.

The youth’s voice was slightly hoarse, with a hint of a smoky quality. When he spoke, his tone was always flat and rippleless… but most of the time, especially when facing Yan Ruoyun, it was slightly restrained and stumbling.

But this time was different.
His voice was ice-cold, as if he had discarded all feelings, completely devoid of any emotion, making it even harder for Yan Ruoyun to distinguish.

He shivered from the cold, his toes curling subconsciously, yet that place that had been uncomfortable for so long suddenly lost control amidst the youth’s few words…

—He finally released.

But Yan Ruoyun didn’t feel relieved. Instead, a heavier, darker weight than before descended on him, like an airtight net trapping him securely.

Yan Ruoyun blankly stared at the cloudiness gradually floating to the surface of the water, laughing self-deprecatingly: “What does this even count as…?”

Without a doubt, he liked Lin Zhu.
He was just incredibly disgusted by… this uncontrollable body, this body that seemed born to be controlled by others.

Yan Ruoyun turned off the showerhead.

Straining his low, hoarse, and weak voice through the door, he said to the youth outside,
“Can you wait outside for a bit, please?”
“…It’s not very convenient for me right now.”

The next instant.
A response came from outside the door.

The youth replied with a cold voice: “No, your current condition is very dangerous, so—” He paused for a moment, and immediately the door lock let out a clack sound.
“I’m just coming in.”

The bathroom door swung open in response.

Lin Zhu stood outside the door, pinching a card he found from who knows where, having exceptionally cleanly swiped open the deadbolted door.
He took two steps forward and backhandedly closed the bathroom door again.

Yan Ruoyun silently stared at the blonde youth’s highly unethical behavior. His mood was so gloomy that he didn’t want to move a muscle or say a single word… forget about what was shameful or embarrassing; right now, he didn’t want to care about any of it.

That was until Lin Zhu crouched down by the bathtub without looking sideways, and explained with a flat attitude similar to that of a habitual outlaw:

“Sorry, I think I scratched up your medical insurance card.”

Yan Ruoyun: “……….?”