No matter how the world changes and shifts, you can always trust—the biological clock of a high school senior.

Early morning, exactly six o’clock.
No matter how reluctant Lin Zhu was, his biological clock, cultivated over many years, was simply like a veteran OCD patient, forcibly knocking open his eyelids without a single minute of error.

Last night’s sleep was outrageously short.
Fortunately, Lin Zhu was right in his prime years of eighteen or nineteen. A young man’s physical constitution could withstand the tossing and turning, so it wasn’t to the extent that one sleepless night would keep him from getting out of bed.

But he still inevitably felt uncomfortable.
Lin Zhu just felt his brain was dizzy. With exceptional difficulty, he tore his eyelids open a crack. What met his eyes was a head of soft, smooth black hair; the ends were brushed aside, revealing half of an arched neck…

Yan Ruoyun had his back to Lin Zhu, still immersed in a dream.
He saw that on the upper back side of the man’s neck, the already heavily ravaged gland now had several fresh bite marks, flanked by a few lingering fingerprints.

This was due to the fact that around five in the morning, after a brief period of peaceful sleep, the man had once again fallen into acute heat.
Lin Zhu was a light sleeper and was quickly awakened again by the beeping of the subcutaneous monitor.
His consciousness hovered between wakefulness and drowsiness. He soon followed his physical instincts, raising a hand to grip the long neck of the man in his arms, and injected pheromones into the gland in one go.

His other hand was not idle either.
His knuckles buried deep within the hot spring, tirelessly seeking the source of the water flow… yet got lost in the dark, enclosed, twisting passages.

Yan Ruoyun was not very conscious. Throughout the process, he only managed to squeeze out faint hums from his nasal cavity, like a small animal. They were extremely indistinct, easily masked by the roaring thunder of the stormy night.
Only the blond youth embracing him noticed them.

“…”

His memory stuck at this point.
Sleepiness and exhaustion suddenly grew a pair of wings and fluttered away.

Lin Zhu abruptly widened his eyes, precisely because he suddenly realized his palm was currently supporting a clump of soft, hot cotton candy. His index and middle fingers were sunk into the candy core, stained with melted syrup…
He was too tired last night.
He seemed to…
Have fallen asleep just like that…

Lin Zhu’s brain crossed from ‘groggy’ directly to ‘complete crash’, taking a full three minutes to reboot.
With a blank face, he withdrew his hold on Yan Ruoyun, then with light and slow movements, lifted the thin blanket and got out of bed. Turning his head, he discovered another thing that made his brain crash.

After a night of thunderstorms.
The early morning briefly cleared up.

The daylight was rejected by the heavy curtains. In the special care ward, only a night light persistently emitted a dim, soft yellow glow, casting an oil-painting-like filter over the room.
At this very moment.
Beneath the thin blanket, the man curled his limbs. His loose, blue-and-white striped hospital gown had been slept in until it was completely wrinkled—but what was absolutely certain was that no matter how terrible his sleeping posture was, it couldn’t possibly make the hem of his shirt ride up to his collarbones, let alone make his waistband slide down to…

The scenery right now was incredibly provocative.
Lin Zhu, however, didn’t have the slightest mood to appreciate it.

The hand pinching the corner of the blanket trembled slightly. In the next instant, he silently covered the thin blanket back over him, unable to believe this sight was actually caused by his own hands.

Lin Zhu: “…”
Even though just the day before he and Yan Ruoyun had been intimate enough to shower together, but… the scene at this moment was still too shocking, even somewhat breaching his moral bottom line.

Lin Zhu stood in silence for a moment, and ultimately just tiptoed into the bathroom.

Before long.
A faint sound of running water came from the bathroom.
The youth first took a small washbasin from the storage rack, placed it under the faucet to fill it halfway with warm water, then opened a new towel and soaked it in the water. Carrying the washbasin, he returned to the bedside and placed it on the nightstand.

“Splash… splosh…”

Lin Zhu wrung the towel dry, took a few deep breaths, and then lifted the thin blanket once again.
…Mm.
It really wasn’t an illusion.

His expression stiffened slightly. Silently, he lifted the man’s left leg up a bit to leave himself some room to clean up, and then used the warm towel to wipe away the dried traces of last night’s hot spring water.
His movements were light and gentle.

Lin Zhu’s complexion wasn’t dark; among boys his age, he was even considered on the fairer side. But when his forearm brushed against the back of Yan Ruoyun’s knee, he realized there was actually a full two shades of difference between him and the man.
…Making him look like a dark little person in comparison.

After cleaning up the worst part, Lin Zhu rinsed the towel, his expression suddenly revealing a bit of hesitation.
After pondering for a moment, the worry hidden in his heart ultimately won out. Lin Zhu used a clever bit of force to turn the side-sleeping man over… then, forcefully suppressing his shyness, he looked toward the spot confined by the air-cushion ring.

Phew…
Fortunately.
It wasn’t the bruised purple-and-red appearance he had imagined.

Yan Ruoyun’s appearance was very exquisite. This exquisiteness went from head to toe, as if covering every single strand of hair.
Even here was no exception.
Clean, tender pink.

Lin Zhu couldn’t help but look twice more, his attention primarily—it was just like when the two first met, Yan Ruoyun… it was a bit tight, carving out an indented curve.
It looked uncomfortable.

Lin Zhu thought of his choker, that feeling… was like having his neck tied by a noose, unable to even breathe evenly.
In one word: uncomfortable.
A feeling.

Despite thinking this, and not knowing what principles were involved, Yan Ruoyun had said it wouldn’t harm his body, so Lin Zhu believed it.
He let out a long sigh and, taking advantage of the towel in his hand not yet turning cold, continued to clean the patient who was a mild neat freak.

“…”

Suddenly, Lin Zhu’s hand movements paused.
His gaze landed blankly on that spot trembling and greeting him…

Lin Zhu: “???”

With a thoroughly baffled expression, he glanced back at the wet towel in his hand, confirming he hadn’t touched anywhere he shouldn’t have. His thoughts suddenly shifted, thinking the man had fallen into another sudden bout of heat in his sleep.
The strange thing was,
This time he didn’t hear the piercing beeps.

Lin Zhu didn’t dare drop his guard. Moving extremely quickly, he put the towel back into the washbasin and leaned in close to the bed, carefully observing the monitor on the man’s arm.
The electronic screen displayed a safe green. The numbers fluctuated slightly but consistently remained within the normal range.

How bizarre.
Lin Zhu bent over, hastily glancing at the man’s sleeping face.
He never expected—
With just this one glance, he discovered a clue.

Yan Ruoyun’s breathing rhythm was very long, as if he had entered a deep sleep. Half his face was buried in the pillow, one hand half-curled into a fist, resting right against his chin…
No matter who looked at it.
It was the picture of someone sleeping incredibly soundly.

But Lin Zhu, with exceptional sharpness, stared at the eyeballs occasionally rolling half a circle beneath the man’s eyelids, and couldn’t help asking,

“…Ge, are you awake?”