Chapter 3: Fainted with fear
In the evening, Ruan Xingfeng was a little hungry, but he didn't know where the kitchen was. Logically, the kitchen should be on the first floor, but it wasn't there. He didn't dare to go to the second floor casually, so he could only sit on the sofa in the living room, which looked like a carefully carved work of art.
He took a sip of water from the cup on the coffee table, and when he put it back, there was an almost inaudible "beep" sound when the bottom of the cup touched the glass coffee table.
Then, the blank wall in front of him suddenly rippled with a soft blue light like water waves, and the center area of the light quickly became transparent, revealing a spotless and futuristic kitchen space inside.
The soft ceiling lights lit up layer by layer, illuminating the mirror-like metal operating table and the embedded holographic touch panel. An almost invisible door slid silently to the side.
Ruan Xingfeng stood there in a daze, forgetting about hunger. All that was left was amazement and a deeper chill. This was not a surprise, but more like a display of his ignorance and insignificance by the cold technology.
He walked in hesitantly, his feet touching the warm, slightly heated floor. The air was filled with the scent of high-quality detergent and metal, without a trace of fireworks.
He walked to a huge transparent storage cabinet, where various high-end ingredients were sorted and arranged in categories, and the labels even indicated the calories and nutritional information.
The cabinet door automatically lights up the sensing area when he approaches, and the small screen next to it displays: "Please verify your identity."
He subconsciously pulled out his pure black access card and taped it on. "Verification passed, Mr. Ruan Xingfeng." A gentle but emotionless electronic female voice called out, startling him. The cabinet door slid open silently, letting in a rush of cold air.
He casually picked up a fresh-looking sandwich. The moment he touched it, the holographic panel in the center of the console suddenly lit up, revealing a 3D image of the sandwich and a line of text:
"Recommendation: Select Confirm. According to the health terms of the agreement and today's schedule, it is recommended that you finish eating before 23:00 and reserve sufficient digestion time to ensure 'evening state'."
His hand holding the sandwich froze in mid-air. The aroma of the food now smelled like some carefully prepared feed. A huge, precisely controlled feeling of suffocation, accompanied by the faint blue light of the holographic screen, completely enveloped him.
This technologically advanced kitchen now reveals the essence of his bought-out life more clearly than any cage's iron bars.
He didn't want to think too much, so after eating, he went back to lie down on the sofa in the living room. He didn't dare to touch anything now, for fear of touching any switch again.
Liao Feng came back to see how the little deer was doing, otherwise he planned to sleep in the company again. The smart lock was just a facial recognition for him and would not make any sound. After changing his shoes, he didn't have time to take off his coat and went to the person on the sofa.
I picked the person up gently, and complained in my heart that he didn't know how to take care of himself at such a grown-up.
He carried the little deer to the bed in the room on the second floor, crawled in and let the little deer lie in his arms. Ruan Xingfeng groaned unconsciously and fell asleep again relying on the warm body temperature.
Ruan Xingfeng was awakened by an unusual warmth and an indescribable feeling of being wrapped in heaviness. His consciousness slowly rose like a sinking ship, and he vaguely remembered that he seemed to have fallen asleep on the sofa.
But the touch beneath him was soft and elastic, obviously the big bed in the bedroom. The air was filled with a strange and oppressive smell, strong and warm, with a wild and almost blood-curdling deterrent, completely different from the faint cold woody scent on Liao Feng in his memory.
He instinctively wanted to stretch his curled up body, but when he tried to turn over, he suddenly bumped into a warm, thick "wall" covered with dense hair.
The sleepiness disappeared instantly, replaced by a sense of creepiness.
Ruan Xingfeng suddenly opened his eyes, and what came into view was not Liao Feng's handsome but distant profile, but an astonishingly lush mane that shone with a golden-brown luster in the dim morning light!
His breathing suddenly stopped, and his heart seemed to be gripped by a huge cold claw, beating wildly, almost breaking his chest. His blood froze in an instant, and then rushed back to his head the next second, causing dizziness and tinnitus.
The herbivore's fear of top predators is the most primitive alarm engraved in his genes, which sharply tears at all his rationality.
He rolled his eyes stiffly and extremely slowly, looking up along the majestic mane.
A huge and perfect lion's head was placed on the pillow beside him!
The distance was so close that he could even see the tightly closed eyelids under the thick eyelashes, and feel the heat waves with a strong carnivorous smell coming out of the huge nostrils with deep breathing, brushing against his cheeks and neck.
The broad forehead, the muzzle that appears powerful even when closed, and the huge canine teeth that are slightly exposed even in sleep and flash with a cold white light, all indicate absolute dominance and deadly danger.
It was a lion! A living, full-grown male lion!
Herbivorous instincts instantly took over. Ruan Xingfeng's muscles tensed like iron, his limbs went cold and numb, and even his fingertips lost all feeling.
He wanted to scream, but his throat seemed to be strangled by an invisible giant claw, and he couldn't make a single sound. He wanted to escape, but his body seemed to be nailed to the bed, and he couldn't even move a finger.
The overwhelming fear drowned him like a literal ocean, freezing him to the bone, making it impossible to breathe. He was a forest deer, naturally one of the most delicious creatures on the lion's diet! This feeling of oppression, with his natural enemy so close and defenseless, was a thousand times more terrifying than any nightmare.
He could only stare with his eyes wide open in extreme fear, his pupils shrunk into needle points, staring at the huge head that was so close to him and symbolized death.
Every time the lion took a long, steady breath, it was like the death knell of the countdown ringing in his ears. The warm fur pressed against his arm, and the touch was no longer the "warmth" in his vague memory last night, but a burning sensation like a branding iron, reminding him that he was now sharing a bed with a beast that could easily tear him apart!
He thought he knew a lot about Liao Feng, but now he found out that he didn't even know that Liao Feng was a lion beastman, and he was scared half to death.
Liao Feng also felt that the person in his arms was gone. He didn't like the feeling of cold, especially after having experienced warmth, he didn't want to continue to be cold. He opened his eyes and saw Ruan Xingfeng's pale face, but the difference in vision made him notice that he had turned back to his original form.
Although he had been very restrained, he still couldn't change the habit of protecting his original form when he was most comfortable and warm. He quickly changed back to human form, without saying a word, just hugged Ruan Xingfeng in his arms.
Liao Feng: "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you. It's illegal to harm herbivores at will. I won't do that kind of thing." He used the most gentle tone of his life to comfort the frightened deer in his arms.
Ruan Xingfeng's fear slowly disappeared when he no longer smelled the scent of the lion, and he fell asleep again in the warm embrace.
Liao Feng waited until he fell asleep and then left. Song Xuexi had no time to help with management as the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, so he was even busier on his own.
It was troublesome to go back to the apartment, but he was worried that the timid little deer was alone at home. What's more, what happened today made the other party even more afraid of him. This was beyond Liao Feng's expectations, and made him a little flustered.
While in the meeting, he was thinking about how to overcome the state of suddenly returning to his original form. It was impossible for the deer to overcome its fear of him. There was no herbivore that was not afraid of carnivores. Anyway, he had never seen it. Most of them were as frightened and panicked as the deer at home, unable to speak.
He worked until very late at night, but unexpectedly Ruan Xingfeng did not sleep either. He sat in the living room and seemed to be drawing something. Liao Feng didn't quite understand these designs, but he thought they were quite impressive.
Ruan Xingfeng noticed his gaze and looked up at him. There was no longer fear in his eyes. Just like the first time they met in the private room, the same beautiful doe eyes looked at him, revealing a hint of expectation.
Liao Feng: "Why aren't you sleeping so late?" He casually threw his coat on the sofa, but avoided all of Ruan Xingfeng's design drawings. He glanced at the draft drawings and gave his most satisfactory evaluation, "These look difficult, you drew them very well." After that, he went upstairs to get some hot water. It started raining outside and his body couldn't stand the cold. The old injuries from 20 years ago could not be healed, and the new injuries that were added later could not be cured in a short time.
Ruan Xingfeng had noticed Liao Feng's eyes many times. Those eyes were different. The left one was dark blue like a wolf, while the right one was a standard lion's eye. It seemed that the pupil of Liao Feng's left eye had never moved. It just stood there as if it had been installed later.
What made Ruan Xingfeng even more fond of him was that there was a very faint mole at the corner of Liao Feng's eye. If he had not been forced to look into Liao Feng's eyes that night last time, he thought he would not have noticed it.
Liao Feng did not come down from the second floor after taking a shower. The temperature dropped a lot because of the rain. The autumn rain, in particular, was a torture for Liao Feng, no different from the snow in the cold winter.
After Ruan Xingfeng finished drawing the design, he went upstairs and saw Liao Feng curled up on the bed, shivering. He was a little worried, so he climbed onto the bed to check on him.
Liao Feng: "I'm fine, just a little cold." He didn't want to appear too vulnerable, but he found himself extremely weak. Ruan Xingfeng heard his words and crawled into his arms, hugging him tightly, trying to keep him warm in this way.
Liao Feng felt cold, not because of his physical reaction, but because of the pain in his heart. The bloody malice and gory scenes were a past that he would never forget, and also the way he had come. He even murmured softly, "I'm your brother, how could you push me?" When he said this, he seemed to be experiencing that incident. His body twitched instinctively for a few times, and he trembled against the person in his arms. Ruan Xingfeng heard this and imagined a lot in his mind.
But no matter what he thought, his hands were still tightly holding the shivering lion. He didn't want to care too much and just wanted to hold the lion to keep him warm.
The sound of rain outside the window seemed to become a little softer at this moment. Ruan Xingfeng lowered his head and watched Liao Feng's tightly furrowed brows relax ever so slightly in the continued warmth, and the frightening trembling also subsided a little.
He silently pressed his cheek against the other's slightly cool head, using his warm skin to convey silent comfort.
The cold is still raging, and the shadows of the past are still heavy. But on this cold rainy night, a herbivore uses his thin but firm arms to briefly build a fortress against the wind and frost for a predator trapped in the abyss of cold.
Liao Feng basically spent the whole night in between fever and fever subsiding. Ruan Xingfeng was also very worried, really afraid that something might happen to Liao Feng.
This was the first time he had seen Liao Feng so fragile. He used to think that all carnivores were very strong and would not have such a fragile side, but Liao Feng gave him the feeling tonight that he was about to die.
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