Chapter 24: The Sobering Swamp

When Fu Rangyi woke up, his mind was groggy. His vision was a field of darkness. A flower scent, so thick it was almost choking, wafted up in wisps and strands, like silk and satin, enveloping the entire space.

It was his pheromones, and they were the pheromones of his suseptible period. The scent of grapefruit blossoms overpowered all other smells; it was at its most intense.

Opening his eyes, Fu Rangyi was a bit dazed, as if waking from a long, chaotic dream. Afterward, those scorching scenes gradually disintegrated and dissolved, like a drop of pink ink dissolving in water, disappearing without a trace.

Sensation returned. His shoulders and wrists were a little sore. Soon he felt something was wrong. He turned his face and found that his left hand was tied up, the wristband once again on his arm.

“What’s going on…” He raised his hand and found that the other end was still attached to something. Following the blue outdoor rope, he saw it was wrapped twice around the leg of the bedside table, and that wasn’t the end of it; it continued on.

The other end was actually attached to Zhu Zhixi, who was curled up asleep on the beanbag chair.

Isn’t this beanbag chair from his room? How did it get next to my bed?

He raised his hand higher, and the rope tugged, pulling Zhu Zhixi’s left hand up.

What kind of game was this? Fu Rangyi tried to remember, but his mind was a mess, his head splitting. The memories he could barely trace back were of him taking two days off from the university, taking medicine, sleeping unconsciously, and feeling very unwell after waking up…

He had also gone to Zhu Zhixi’s room and into his tent.

And then?

Some very unclear fragments flashed by quickly and then disappeared.

Fu Rangyi tried to get up, wanting to untie the knot on his wrist. It was harder than he had imagined.

“What now…” A familiar, sticky-sweet voice floated up. “I just fell asleep not long ago. Give me a break.”

After speaking, Zhu Zhixi whimpered twice and wanted to turn over to continue sleeping, but his hand was being pulled tightly by the rope. He took a deep breath, as if with some helplessness, and climbed up, pushing the blindfold to the top of his head.

He looked up, his hair sticking up in a mess, and stared blankly at Fu Rangyi for a while.

Fu Rangyi’s mind was a blank. Perhaps because his susceptibility period hadn’t completely ended and was still affecting his emotions and intellect, he suddenly felt a strange worry, a fear of saying the wrong thing.

He had wanted to wait cautiously for Zhu Zhixi to speak, but the guy was sitting on the sofa yawning, too sleepy to even utter a word. So he had to ask first.

“What are you doing here?” He raised his hand slightly, trying to use a gentle, questioning tone as much as possible. “And, what is all this?”

Zhu Zhixi blinked very slowly, then, as if he hadn’t seen or heard anything, he lay down directly, wrapped himself in his blanket, and turned his back to him. His movements were not at all polite, almost pulling Fu Rangyi off the bed.

What was wrong now? Did I really ask the wrong thing?

Fu Rangyi raised his own hand, and thus Zhu Zhixi’s hand was also pulled out of the blanket by the rope.

“Say something.”

This time, Zhu Zhixi sat up in one go, suddenly launching into a rapid-fire barrage. “Say what? What’s going on with you now? Are you pretending to have amnesia again? I’m telling you, I will absolutely, absolutely not fall for it a second time.”

As he spoke, he untied the rope from his wrist and stood up, leaning on the edge of the bed. Who knew that his legs would suddenly give way, and he almost knelt in front of Fu Rangyi.

Why was he suddenly angry?

Almost subconsciously, Fu Rangyi reached out and supported his elbow, even though his own hand was currently tied.

“Lying? What did I lie to you about?” His head still hurt. He frowned, belatedly realizing he was still wearing a muzzle. “And this muzzle… where did it come from?”

He remembered he wasn’t wearing a muzzle before. Because he didn’t have one at home, he hadn’t even dared to let Zhu Zhixi come back, trying every way to send him away.

How did he end up coming home anyway?

Zhu Zhixi pulled his hand away and stood up straight. He widened his eyes, a look of utter disbelief on his face.

“Are you pretending to have amnesia now? No, how about we just get to it? Let’s not beat around the bush. We’ve already done what should and shouldn’t be done anyway.”

Fu Rangyi was bewildered.

“What are you talking about? Untie me first.”

Zhu Zhixi stared at him for a long time, then squatted down and fumbled on the beanbag chair for a while, found his phone, and turned his back to Fu Rangyi to open an app.

But he seemed to have forgotten that from this angle, it was easier for him to see.

Fu Rangyi unethically stole a glance.

The interface looked very familiar.

“How do you have permission for my wristband?”

Hearing this question, Zhu Zhixi was about to retort, but when he saw the latest data loading, he froze.

Not getting an answer, Fu Rangyi also glanced over. The data, which had previously been a sea of red, had mostly stabilized.

What happened? He suddenly felt a little uneasy.

And Zhu Zhixi put down his phone, suddenly ran to the master bathroom, and not long after, came out with a piece of paper that looked very much like instructions, fuming.

“Damn you, Li Qiao…”

He crumpled the paper into a ball and started typing furiously on his phone with his head down.

Fu Rangyi frowned. “Li Qiao?”

Zhu Zhixi was busy sending messages and didn’t even bother to reply.

“You met with him privately?” Fu Rangyi couldn’t control his tone.

Zhu Zhixi finally turned around. “Why are you so fierce?”

Fu Rangyi paused, and after adjusting his breathing, said again, “Untie the rope.”

After he spoke, he glanced at the phone Zhu Zhixi was holding. The screen lit up with a WeChat message, and the sender was indeed Li Qiao.

“You added him? He’s not a good person.” Fu Rangyi’s face darkened.

Zhu Zhixi hummed twice. “I already know.”

Fu Rangyi’s hand tightened. “What did you two do?”

Suddenly, he noticed Zhu Zhixi’s expression turning a bit strange, as if he had thought of something and was about to blurt it out, but then held back, choking on his words for a long time. In the end, he just threw down a frustrated sentence, “He almost worked me to death!”

“He? Worked you?”

A tingling sensation spread through his arm, a faint electric current conducting. The wristband started to glow again.

“Yes, it was him! The damn source of all evil.” After cursing, Zhu Zhixi let out a long sigh and approached the bed. “Forget it, I’ll help you untie this first.”

But for some reason, he suddenly paused, as if frozen by something, lost his balance, and knelt on one knee on the edge of the bed.

“Fu Rangyi, did you secretly…” Zhu Zhixi could barely move. “Release suppressive pheromones again?”

Fu Rangyi was lost in thought. Hearing this, he belatedly realized something.

“Can you just… retract them? Please?” Zhu Zhixi said slowly. “Although Betas can’t smell them, your level is too high. Releasing such suppressive pheromones makes me uncomfortable too.”

He stared at Zhu Zhixi and noticed his ears suddenly turned red, and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks, not at all like a Beta who wouldn’t be induced by pheromones.

As if afraid of being misunderstood, he added in a small voice, “…It’s like carrying a mountain on my back.”

“I’m sorry.” Fu Rangyi’s voice was very low. He casually made up an excuse. “I… haven’t fully recovered yet. My pheromones are a bit out of control.”

“Fine, I forgive you.” Zhu Zhixi replied generously.

In a short while, he recovered and was able to lift his hand.

“Give me your hand,” he said, reaching out to Fu Rangyi.

The feeling was very strange, yet somewhat familiar.

Fu Rangyi almost placed his hand in his palm. It was a complete first reaction.

But he held back, only extending his wrist to the other person with a sense of propriety.

Zhu Zhixi moved closer, lowered his head, and untied it very seriously, his mouth not idle. “You don’t sleep still either, did you pull it again? It’s so tight…”

The susceptibility period hadn’t completely passed, and the fluctuations of his pheromones were still ongoing. During this time, an Alpha’s five senses were exceptionally keen. At such a close distance, the headache worsened. He frowned, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

He easily caught the scent of Zhu Zhixi’s shower gel. He had stopped using the shower gel he had lent him last week and switched to a fruity one.

But now, the scent emanating from Zhu Zhixi was still a woody note, the same one that had been in Fu Rangyi’s bathroom for years.

Zhu Zhixi pulled at the rope bit by bit, muttering “so tight.” After a while, he said to him, “Don’t get me wrong, Li Qiao and I didn’t meet privately. He came looking for you and asked me to help take care of you. He brought the muzzle too.”

Actually, he didn’t need to explain.

Fu Rangyi knew very well.

Because besides the same shower gel scent, at this moment, Zhu Zhixi had not a single trace of Li Qiao’s pheromones on him. On the contrary, his entire body, every part of him, was saturated with his own pheromone scent, even his hair, almost soaked through.

This was not normal.

He was a Beta. It was difficult for him to retain pheromones, and they didn’t last long. Even if they slept in the same room, it wouldn’t go so far as to have his pheromone scent seeping from his skin.

The funniest part was, Zhu Zhixi seemed completely unaware of this.

He seemed to be trying to hide something.

Fu Rangyi lowered his head and looked at his clothes. The previous white henley shirt had been changed to dark grey pajamas, with the buttons done up to the very top.

He always started buttoning from the second button.

“Alright, it’s untied.” After untying the knot, Zhu Zhixi deftly coiled the outdoor rope, tied it into a bundle, and turned to toss it onto the beanbag chair.

Driven by instinct, Fu Rangyi stared at the back of his neck like a wild beast.

There was a band-aid on it.

Too many unreasonable details were piling up in his heart. Fu Rangyi frowned and tugged at the muzzle.

When he turned back, Zhu Zhixi caught this scene and thought he was uncomfortable from wearing it for too long.

Since the values have stabilized, can I take it off?

No, no. Better be cautious.

He lowered his head, opened the muzzle management app on his phone, and scrolled through it. He thought there would be some data monitoring, but there wasn’t.

But he accidentally discovered a function—unlock count record.

He casually tapped it open, and it had actually recorded two attempts. The first time failed, the second time succeeded. The times were both yesterday, with a difference of less than half a minute between the two unlocks.

This was a brand-new muzzle, with no previous usage record. If Li Qiao wasn’t lying and he didn’t unlock it remotely, then it could only be Fu Rangyi.

So he was pretending to borrow my phone yesterday, but was actually looking for this app to open the muzzle?

But how could he possibly guess the password in two tries?

How would Fu Rangyi remember my birthday?

When did he remember it? I never even mentioned it.

“When did you get back?” Fu Rangyi suddenly spoke, interrupting his thoughts.

Zhu Zhixi looked up, staring at him with a strange expression.

“Yesterday noon. I sent you a message, but you didn’t reply.”

Silence.

What a strange atmosphere.

After doing what shouldn’t be done, Zhu Zhixi had been worried, not knowing how to face him when he woke up, not daring to think how awkward it would be. But he hadn’t expected this.