Chapter 27 Sentinel Direction | Gazing into the Abyss 4 A Morbid Relationship
The morning sunlight streamed through the kitchen window, casting a warm, golden glow on the stovetop.
Yuezhi stared intently at the bubbling milk in the pot, the air filled with a faint aroma of milk and the sweet and sour taste of blueberries.
I heard slow, unhurried footsteps behind me.
Before she could turn around, a warm body pressed against her from behind, two strong arms naturally encircling her waist, carrying the fresh scent of someone who had just washed up, and his chin gently rested on the top of her head, nuzzling her affectionately.
"What should I cook?" Pei Heng's voice, still slightly hoarse from just waking up, rang in her ears.
Yuezhi's body stiffened.
The warmth and weight from her back, the overly intimate embrace, instantly pulled her back to the chaotic and shameful dream of the previous night, and her cheeks began to heat up uncontrollably.
She forced herself to focus and tried to make her voice sound normal: "I steamed the shumai you made before, the one from the freezer. The milk is almost heated up, blueberry flavored, I know you don't like it too sweet."
As she spoke, she felt his arms tighten around her, his chest almost completely pressed against her back.
The blurred boundaries of their contact made her feel flustered and confused.
Yuezhi gently nudged him with her elbow, trying to remain calm as she said, "Don't be so clingy, it's hot."
Pei Heng seemed not to hear her protest, still holding her without moving. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly whispered something out of the blue, his breath brushing against her ear.
"I want to promote mucosal drainage."
Yuezhi's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively wanted to refuse. The "guidance" in her dream last night had frightened her quite a bit.
"My attempts to mediate weren't working, so let's just give up." She unconsciously tightened her grip on the spoon used to stir the milk, her voice growing softer and softer.
As soon as he finished speaking, Pei Heng behind him moved.
He wrapped one arm around her waist, and reached the other hand over her to the stove, turning off the fire with a "snap".
The bubbling sound from the pot stopped abruptly, and the kitchen became so quiet that only the two of them could be heard breathing.
The young man tightened his grip around her waist, easily turning her around to face him.
Caught off guard, Yuezhi met his eyes. His deep eyes appeared exceptionally clear in the morning light, but she dared not look directly at him. It seemed that because of last night's dream, just being alone with him made her feel a sense of danger.
Before she could say anything, Pei Heng lowered his head and kissed her lips.
It is not as destructive and aggressive as in dreams, but it is by no means gentle either.
At first, their lips met tightly, carrying the lingering sweetness of blueberry milk. But he was clearly not satisfied with that. He tightened his arms, pressing her closer to him, and raised his other hand to gently hold the back of her neck, with a hint of coercion, making it impossible for her to back away.
Yuezhi stiffly endured it, her hands helplessly pressed against his front, feeling the outline of his strong muscles under his casual clothes and the heat emanating from them, so nervous that she forgot to breathe.
Pei Heng pried open her slightly parted teeth in surprise and began to entwine himself deeply, slowly and firmly, brooking no refusal.
It was as if he was savoring something, or as if he was confirming something, drawing in every breath of hers, stirring up her reason.
Yuezhi's mind went blank, the chaos of the dream and the real touch of the moment intertwined wildly.
The hand that was originally in front of him had lost its strength to push him away. Her fingertips curled slightly and she grabbed the fabric of his shirt. Her breathing became rapid and her legs went weak. She leaned against the stove and could only stand up by relying on his arm around her.
Pei Heng sensed her softening, smiled with satisfaction, and kissed her more deeply and tenderly, as if he wanted to meld her whole body into his.
The kitchen was quiet, save for the sounds of their intertwined breaths and intimate whispers, which filled the morning light.
*
Inside the tower, in a psychotherapy room.
Yuezhi sat on the soft chair, inhaling the relaxing aromatherapy scent in the air, her fingertips repeatedly tracing the edge of the armrest.
The female doctor across from me spoke gently, with an encouraging tone, "What's been bothering you lately?"
Yuezhi lowered her eyelashes, staring at her hands clasped in her lap, and said with difficulty, "It's about my younger brother. We... are very close."
"Many siblings have a very good relationship, which is normal."
“No, it’s not that kind of…” Yuezhi’s voice lowered, “Our intimacy might not be normal.”
She described the scene in fits and starts, her sentences somewhat disorganized.
Speaking of Pei Heng's extraordinary dependence on her, after becoming an S-rank Sentinel, he only accepted her guidance, even though her effect as a B-rank Guide was limited. Speaking of his weakness after receiving drug guidance, speaking of how she temporarily softened and agreed to sleep in the same room, and how she still chose to hug him after waking up from a nightmare...
"And then?" the doctor asked patiently.
"Those dreams have left me feeling very confused." Yuezhi's cheeks flushed slightly. "The next morning, in the kitchen, he..."
The doctor waited quietly, without urging him.
“He kissed me,” Yuezhi finally said, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible. “He said it was mucosal drainage… but I know it wasn’t, or not entirely.”
She looked up, her eyes filled with confusion and self-reproach: "I feel this is wrong, very wrong. He's my brother, we shouldn't be like this, but when he gets close to me, my thoughts become very confused, and by the time I realize it, I've already acquiesced to his behavior. Doctor, am I sick?"
The doctor gently put down his pen and leaned forward slightly: "I'd like to know, when Pei Heng gets close to you and makes you feel confused and want to back away, what's the first feeling that wells up deep inside you?"
Yuezhi was stunned. She carefully recalled those moments, and then her face slowly turned pale.
“I’m scared,” she said softly. “A very strong fear, that he will suffer if he doesn’t get support, that his health will collapse, that I… will lose him.”
"Does this feeling of fear of loss seem familiar?"
Yuezhi's fingertips trembled slightly.
A familiar sense of fear gripped her heart instantly, her voice choked with emotion, and a fleeting image flashed through her mind: a raging fire, thick smoke, and Pei Heng covered in blood lying under a burning roof beam.
“When the fire broke out at the orphanage, I thought he was going to die. I didn’t know what to do… He was all I had left.”
Yuezhi listened in a daze.
“But you are no longer that helpless child in the fire,” the doctor said gently. “To re-establish clear boundaries, you may need to look back and clearly understand the trauma of that year in order to examine your current relationships with more stable values.”
When Yuezhi left the treatment room, her steps were somewhat unsteady.
This idea prompted her to walk into the archives management room.
The air was thick with the smell of old paper and dust. Under the category of "Major Copy Disaster," she found the yellowed file.
My fingers traced the pages, my gaze lingering on one particular page. On the list of survivors and their subsequent resettlement records, several names were completely crossed out with black lines, and next to them was a red stamp that read "Information Sealed".
Yuezhi practically fled back home.
She rummaged through drawers and cabinets, finding a few meager old items she had brought from the orphanage. She then opened her personal terminal and searched for all news reports and online traces related to the fire from that year.
The more fragmented information she found, the colder the chill ran down her spine. Some of the blurry pictures in the reports seemed to show the figures of children she had never seen before.
In the chaos, someone dialed her communication terminal.
Su Jingyun asked her why she took the day off, and Yuezhi said she wasn't feeling well, trying to cover it up.
Su Jingyun understood: "Is it because your younger brother is putting too much pressure on you? The difference in your levels is too great, and you can only do some superficial contact and guidance. You will definitely get tired after a while."
He comforted you with his usual mechanical engineer's analogy: "Judging from your tone, you seem to be in low spirits. If you ask me, people are similar to precision machines. You are tired now, probably because you have been working for too long, or it may be that there is a small bug in some low-level program. Check it out and fix it. Since you have taken the day off, you should get some rest."
"Program bug..."
Su Jingyun's intention was to reassure her, but this concept was like a blinding lightning bolt, cleaving through the chaotic fog in Yue Zhi's mind.
If her memory doesn't match the information in her files or her old belongings, the mistake might not be hers.
Just like a machine, if the results of its operation don't match the log records, the problem might not be with the user, nor with the logs themselves, but rather...
The problem lies with the "core program" that was being observed.
Who is Pei Heng?
*
After hiding in the laboratory building where Su Jingyun worked for three days, Pei Heng only sent a few perfunctory greetings and did not actually come to his door.
Yuezhi's tense nerves relaxed slightly, and she thought that she was probably overthinking it. After all, after their parents died, the two of them were left with no one to rely on. Perhaps the orphanage fabricated the information that the two of them were not related by blood so that they could be adopted as soon as possible.
The kinship test between her and Pei Heng was conducted by the Tower's official gene bank after the orphanage fire, and the result should be more authoritative.
A few days later, she returned to work inside the tower as usual, carrying a stack of documents to be submitted as she walked down the empty corridor.
As she turned a corner, a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a dimly lit, empty room.
In a dizzying moment, the door slammed shut, and she was pressed against the cold door panel, nearly dropping the documents in her arms.
The young man braced his arms on either side of her body, trapping her firmly between him and the door. A familiar, intensely oppressive aura instantly enveloped her.
"Sister." His voice was deep and close.
Yuezhi's heart pounded, and she instinctively clutched the documents to her chest. "Aheng, I still have documents to deliver."
"Are you avoiding me?" Pei Heng ignored her protests, his deep eyes fixed on her.
"I didn't." Yue Zhi denied it outright, turning her head away to avoid his sharp gaze. "I just... after I did two mucosal massages for you before, my mental state was a bit unstable, and I needed to be alone for a while and take a break."
"Is that so?" Pei Heng chuckled softly, his laughter devoid of warmth, only filled with a chilling insight into everything.
"But your heartbeat tells me that you're nervous, that you're... rejecting me."
His palm, burning hot, slowly pressed against her neck, controlling the slender, stubborn curve in his hand. His fingertips caressed her delicate skin, moving upwards little by little, until finally he pinched her chin, forcing her to turn her head and look at him.
The sensation on Pei Heng's fingertips at this moment was so similar to the sensation of the black, sticky substance that had enveloped her fingers during that great fire in her memory, protecting her from the flames and leaving her mind blank!
"Sis, my pollution level is about to explode."
Pei Heng's eyes darkened, like the sea before a storm. He leaned closer to her, his nose almost touching hers, his deep, magnetic voice seductive, "Let's clear things up a bit, just to tide us over, hmm?"
Just as his lips were about to touch hers, Yuezhi snapped back to reality, turned her head away, and placed her hands against his pressing chest, her voice trembling with fear and determination.
"No! Ah Heng, we can't go on like this!"
Pei Heng paused, his eyes instantly darkening.
Taking advantage of his pause, Yuezhi said urgently, "I'm already experiencing mental problems! My memories are confused, and my thinking is unclear! If this continues, I'll break down before your pollution level explodes!"
She looked at him almost pleadingly, "Why don't you go for medication therapy? We need to keep our distance!"
"Distance?" Pei Heng chewed on the word, his eyes turning sinister. The fingers gripping her chin tightened, causing a slight pain. "Between us, we don't need that kind of thing."
He had clearly lost patience and no longer gave her a chance to refuse, forcefully lowering his head to kiss her.
The crisp sound of the slap was particularly jarring in the silence.
Yuezhi was stunned. She looked at her slightly numb palm, then at Pei Heng's profile as he turned away, where clear red fingerprints quickly appeared on his fair skin.
She actually hit him...
Pei Heng slowly turned his head, pressed his tongue against his numb cheek, and looked into her eyes with disappointed indifference and helpless sadness.
Yuezhi shivered at the chill in his eyes, and a familiar sense of fear and pressure subsided in her heart.
Without bothering to pick up the scattered documents, she turned abruptly, turned the doorknob, and ran away without looking back.
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