Chapter 7
Shi Yu was confused and bit his lips anxiously.
The smell of chili peppers choked her nose a little. Shi Yu covered her mouth and coughed. She couldn't bear it anymore and moved her body to the side. After swallowing the barbecue, her throat was filled with a burning and itchy feeling.
After a while, there was a slight "bang" sound from the grass beside Shi Yu. She was startled and glanced at the thing on the grass with a little panic - it was Wayne's military water bottle.
"If you're thirsty, drink some." Wayne's hoarse voice was devoid of warmth. "Don't even think about anything else."
Shi Yu was disappointed: "Oh, okay..."
Indeed, it’s not very good... Shi Yu didn’t think much about it and picked up the kettle distressedly. She opened the lid and took small sips.
Obviously, it was Wayne who met her first and she had spent the longest time with him, but now she is telling him that she is going to find someone she doesn't know very well. For a friend, this must be a sad thing, right?
But, but——
Shi Yu lowered her eyes and held the tilted kettle. The sweet water moistened her throat, but she felt even more unbearable and anxious.
She didn't quite understand what was happening to her. After learning she wouldn't be able to see Akatsuki anytime soon, she felt a sudden surge of restlessness within her, making her feel uneasy. Shigure couldn't help but take two deep breaths, each one accompanied by a slight sob.
The tip of her nose was red, and she looked in a trance at Wayne who was half-crouching beside her.
A big hand wearing a half-bloodstained glove brushed away the hair on her cheek without any explanation. Shi Yu was stunned for a moment, and suddenly wanted to push Wayne's arm away sadly, but she pushed it away twice, but she had no strength after all. She could only turn her face away slightly as if to express rejection, which made it seem like she was putting her neck into his palm.
Wayne pressed the back of her neck, his brows furrowed.
There was no sign of being marked. For Beta, it was just a mental connection. This reaction was an overreaction.
The Alpha's scrutinizing gaze swept across the girl's delicate profile. She seemed to be shedding tears, unwilling to look in his direction. However, when Wayne's index finger lightly scraped the delicate, warm skin beneath his palm, Shigure shuddered, and then, as if overreacting, she turned her head back in a slightly frightened manner.
"Can you, can you!" Shi Yu cast an accusing gaze at Wayne, his voice trembling with grievance, "Stop touching me like this..."
As if completely ignoring Shigure's words, the red-haired boy narrowed his green eyes, which seemed to be dormant in shadows, in thought: "What else has Xiao done to you?"
He stared into Shi Yu's red eyes: "Do you know that?"
Shi Yu was so angry that tears were about to fall from the corners of her eyes. She shook her head quickly: "I don't know."
"——And I think he can't do anything to me!" Shi Yu, whose brain was controlled by emotions, still managed to utter these words. The girl's watery and shiny, slightly red eyes, as if washed by water, glared at him with obvious anger. Wayne looked at her silently, feeling that she did have some complaints about him.
"Oh, I see."
Wayne paused, raised the corners of his mouth, and seemed to smile. Then the boy tapped the palm of his other hand with his fingers and stood up.
Shigure:?!
In an instant, the pressure brought by the height made Shi Yu's body stiffen. She hugged the kettle tightly and looked at Wayne in a daze. A little regret flashed through her mind.
"There's no one here." Wayne raised his chin slightly towards the forest, hinting at something, and said with a cold smile, "Since you want to see Xiao, let's go."
Shigure: “Eh, huh??”
Before Shi Yu was knocked unconscious, she actually wanted to discuss something with Wayne... Actually, it was okay not to knock her out, she would just be carried, she could accept that.
However, Wayne acted too quickly. After a familiar darkness in front of his eyes, Shi Yu instantly fainted in the arms with a pungent smell.
…
What woke Shi Yu up was the smell of barbecue and...chili peppers that lingered in his nose.
Although he couldn't accept this weird alien barbecue (although it was quite delicious), Shi Yu miraculously woke up at dinner time.
There were faint sounds of birds and insects in his ears, and a strange and huge tree trunk was twisted and stretched towards the dome. After Shi Yu woke up for a while, he was a little scared and looked down stealthily along the dense and messy branches that stretched out in front of him.
It was hard to even see the bottom... She felt dizzy, groaned, and retracted her head that was sticking out.
Perhaps this has always been Wayne's secret base during the day, Shi Yu thought randomly. It seemed that there was something different from the forest she saw yesterday. Now there were some strange and thick giant trees all around. She looked out from the wide platform in the tree where she was, and could only see the thick brown tree trunks that were crowded and blocked her sight like a natural prison.
She thought of the leopard. A book Shi Yu had read before said that this fierce and brutal animal would hang its prey on the branches of the tree where it lived. Few animals on the grassland had the ability to climb trees like the leopard, so the leopard could enjoy its own delicious meal at its leisure.
Thinking of this, Shi Yu had a creepy thought that he might be the reserve food hanging on the tree...
Just at this moment, Shi Yu heard Wayne let out an impatient click. Along with the sound of burning wood, Shi Yu subtly smelled another hint of burnt smell. She said "eh" in her heart and secretly glanced back.
Come to think of it, she had never noticed how Wayne cooked. Could it be that he was actually not very good at it?
Although she was curious, she was afraid of being discovered. Shi Yu blinked and shifted her gaze outside. Holding Wayne's water bottle, she took sips from it to relieve the sore throat.
Suddenly, I heard the muffled sound of military boots marching very close to my ears.
...Shi Yu moved to the side awkwardly, and saw Wayne leaning against the other end of the open vent on the platform in the tree in his peripheral vision. He crossed his arms and looked at the sea of trees below with indifference.
The forest breeze surged through the dense layers of foliage like a tide, the deep green stretching like vast mountains to the horizon. Shi Yu was startled, her attention instantly drawn to the scenery below. It was as if she were sitting on a high observation deck. The momentary leisure and ease made the girl breathe a sigh of relief.
"Stay here."
After Wayne finished speaking, Shi Yu watched as Wayne pushed the tree wall behind him hard and jumped down by stepping on the branches.
Shi Yu was stunned, and quickly squeezed out an urgent and vague "Wayne" from her throat. She supported herself on the ground with both hands and looked down hurriedly, but her sight was blocked by the dense branches and leaves. Shi Yu looked at the thick tree trunk under the platform a little at a loss, wondering if she could hold on to it and slide down.
Fortunately, Wayne came back in about five minutes.
Shigure lay prone on the ground, trying very hard to pay attention to the situation below. When a bright red hair appeared in her field of vision, accompanied by a strange... boy? Both of them were gradually approaching her, Shigure breathed a sigh of relief and quickly returned to her original sitting position.
"I say, don't you have any sense of shame?"
The boy was still chatting with Wayne when he came up, but his tone was sarcastic and cold: "It's really hard for the Clement family to have someone like you."
"It's better than being a shameful dead person." Wayne walked past Shi Yu without looking at him and replied lazily.
"You yourself...oh?" The voice under the mask was a little distorted and hoarse, and the boy was about to spit out vicious words but was interrupted by himself.
He stopped and looked down at Shi Yu who was sitting at the entrance of the cave. He smiled meaningfully and said, "Is this, that one?"
Only then did Shi Yu see the boy's appearance clearly.
He was tall and thin, with a strange mask covering the lower half of his face. His skin was pale, and beneath his dense lashes lay dark, golden pupils that shone fiercely. His dark green combat uniform seemed unusually large for a young man, and the sleeves seemed slightly empty as his thin wrists moved. A faint sound of empty bottles clattering against each other could be heard from him.
Noticing the blatant look the strange boy gave her, Shi Yu shuddered and immediately smiled a tearful smile as she greeted him, "Hello...?"
Not sure whether the boy heard her own voice as low as a mosquito, Shi Yu pursed her lips and lowered her head to the side to avoid the boy's sticky gaze that was almost glued to her face. She moved back a little nervously and pressed her slender back tightly against the tree wall.
This was another stranger, and Wayne had no idea what he wanted. Shi Yu silently held onto his water bottle and continued to drink.
The sudden presence of another person made her feel strangely uncomfortable. She thought with great repulsion that it would be better if Wayne could send him away quickly - in fact, she was not the kind of person who was shy. However, in addition to the smell of chili peppers, an indescribable bitter smell choked her nostrils. Shi Yu rubbed her nose, feeling palpitations and uneasiness.
Furthermore, this young man has a strange and sinister aura, making him look quite terrifying. A bit like a wizard from a comic book villain camp...?
The young man looked at the awkward Shigure for a moment, then she heard the man before her laugh softly and hoarsely. As he started walking again, he said, "Not bad."
What's so good about it? Shigure, whose emotions were easily volatile, muttered inwardly. Silence was golden, she exhaled softly, smiled weakly at the boy's back, and pretended she hadn't heard anything.
Shigure soon realized what the boy was here for.
For a moment, she began to doubt it. Maybe Wayne was quite popular. After all, he was asked to climb such a high tree to cook a meal... and this was just someone he had just picked up at the bottom of the tree. This boy, who looked very gloomy and strange, actually roasted enough for three people.
Although they were basically just arguing with each other, their tone was still familiar enough as if they were old acquaintances.
Holding the barbecue, whose original form she no longer wanted to delve into, Shi Yu thought about things and took a bite, chewing it slowly in her mouth. Delicious food will taste the same if you eat too much of it. She felt bland and found that the barbecue that she thought was delicious yesterday had become just average today.
After dinner, Shi Yu thought that nothing was wrong. Maybe Wayne was going out later, so in order to avoid being knocked out, he decided to go to sleep obediently.
Wayne seemed to feel at ease only when she was asleep, although Shigure didn't quite understand why.
So, taking advantage of the peculiar drowsiness that only comes in the afternoon, Shi Yu leaned against the wall, closed his eyes slightly and fell asleep.
In a daze, she suddenly heard the voices of young men talking nearby.
"It's like an Omega's stress period... Smell? There's no smell at all. It's clearly a Beta..."
A cool warmth touched his cheek, and Shi Yu hummed softly in his dream, rubbing against it like a clingy cat.
The voice in my ear disappeared instantly.
Shi Yu felt extremely peaceful and contentedly continued to fall into a sweet, dark dream.
"Please, just mark it temporarily."
After a long while, she heard someone continue to say, "I'm afraid no Beta is worthy of a noble like you. Why don't I do it?"
"Anyway..." The voice laughed sinisterly, "I've already lost all the shame I should have. I'm just a dead man now, so it's a perfect match for Beta."
The author has something to say:
I'm still gradually unlocking characters, and the progress is so slow I'm practically beating myself up!
In order to write the final big scene (isn't it) based on emotion (?) we need two more.
The uneven distribution of roles is inevitable. Some people only get one chance to appear on screen (……)
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