Both parties reached a consensus on the attitude that “different species absolutely will not develop feelings for each other.”
At least, that was what Jiang Ying believed.
She pressed her thumb down on the contract’s electronic fingerprint scanner.
Her phone received payment confirmation, and she completed the verification without the slightest hesitation. Before transmigrating, she hadn’t managed to buy a puppy. The moment the contract was established, it felt as if a lingering regret had finally been mended.
She could finally take her doggy home!
However, just like buying a puppy on impulse, she still had no idea how to interact with him.
As she turned, wanting to lead him out of the Beastman Occupation Reception Center, Jiang Ying instinctively raised her cane to probe for obstacles ahead.
Su Heng paused briefly, then let out a soft, amused laugh as he looked at her.
“I’ll guide you. ‘Becoming your eyes’ is my job.”
“Oh,” Jiang Ying responded, voicing her confusion earnestly. “How exactly should I do this?”
An ordinary animal guide dog led its owner by a leash, so what about a Beastman Guide Dog?
Su Heng hesitated for a second.
In the professional training curriculum of the Beastman Occupation Reception Center, the standard working posture for a Beastman Guide Dog involved slightly raising an arm, allowing the employer to link arms, thereby serving as support and guidance.
If the employer disliked physical contact, they could choose to hold onto the hem of his clothing, or both could grip an intermediary object.
Those were only the forms under normal circumstances.
A Beastman Guide Dog was a profession requiring constant, daily proximity with the employer. During their time together, it was easy for both sides to develop feelings of mutual dependence. Over time, the job had even spawned more intimate postures like hand-holding, shoulder-draping, and waist-embracing.
Of course, that was on the premise of an existing emotional bond.
He would absolutely never develop that kind of relationship with her.
Su Heng half-raised his arm, holding it level at his side, his elbow pointing towards Jiang Ying, extending it slightly outward.
“You can…”
He had barely gotten the words out.
Jiang Ying walked towards him, her hands fumbling to find his other hand hanging at his side, gently wrapping her two small palms around it.
Leather gloves.
Because they encased the metal of the mechanical arm, they were icy cold, hard, and rough.
She had originally prepared for the searing heat of a beastman’s skin, and was suddenly startled by this unexpected sensation.
Su Heng froze stiff on the spot.
The sensors in the mechanical arm were even more sensitive than his original skin. The girl’s body temperature and the sensation of her fingers seemed to pass directly through the gloves into his brain.
As if a secret had been glimpsed, his first instinct was to shake her hand off.
Years of practiced restraint allowed him to suppress that impulse.
Using his other hand, Su Heng gently grasped her wrist and guided her hand away from his mechanical arm. Then, using the mechanical hand still clad in the glove, he gripped hers in return and led it to rest on his other arm, now bent upwards again.
“Here.” He observed her expression at that moment.
She merely looked slightly puzzled for a second, raising no objections. She followed his guidance with a compliant “Oh.”
Other than that.
No curiosity. No probing. No disdain. No pity either.
Had she simply not noticed his mechanical arm? Or did she just not mind?
Su Heng let out a deep, heavy breath.
During this period since returning to the Federation, he hadn’t failed to notice that Federation citizens had already accepted prosthetic body transplants, even treating exposed metal components as a trendy fashion statement.
It was just… he himself couldn’t get past that hurdle.
He inconspicuously pressed that mechanical arm tightly against his side, wrapping it completely within his sleeve.
The girl’s residual warmth still lingered on the arm’s sensors.
The throbbing pulse at her fingertips left a lingering echo.
And what also remained was her trust, devoid of any malice.
Anyone likes the feeling of being trusted. Su Heng was startled to realize that he couldn’t resist it either.
Under such swelling goodwill, aside from that instant of subconscious shock, having her touch his secret hadn’t actually disgusted him.
He flexed his hanging fingers slightly.
The leather glove, taut over his knuckles, pulled at the metal surface beneath, and his heart tangled with her every movement.
Her palm, resting on his forearm, tightened briefly, then relaxed, causing a slight wrinkle in his sleeve. She tilted her head up, silently “looking” at him, a faint bewilderment seeping from her empty eyes. Unconsciously, the small hand resting on his arm crept backwards until it reached the crook of his elbow. As if finding a comfortable spot, it finally stopped moving.
Yet even though her fingers merely rested quietly in the hollow of his elbow, Su Heng still felt the tip of his heart being scratched, itchy and trembling.
This version of himself was too strange.
It was like something inside him had broken.
He increasingly couldn’t believe this state was solely a result of pheromone stimulation.
Yet he was certain the prosthetic chip that had once tormented him had long since been removed from his brain. It couldn’t possibly control or influence him anymore.
“What’s wrong?”
Jiang Ying couldn’t help but ask him.
Weren’t they leaving yet?
“Sorry.” Su Heng averted his gaze, offering no explanation for his oddness.
He couldn’t quite utter the word “home” either. In the end, he just squeezed out two dry words from his throat. “Let’s go.”
Jiang Ying accepted his evasion very naturally.
It’s very hard for humans to understand what a little dog is thinking at any given moment.
Furthermore, she had only just gotten her little dog and hadn’t built much affection with him yet. Naturally, she didn’t have excessive curiosity about his current thoughts.
As he started walking, she cautiously kept pace beside him, a hint of nervousness finally creeping into her heart.
The fingers resting on Su Heng’s arm clutched tightly at his clothing, but even so, her hand still felt suspended in mid-air. A wave of insecurity swept over her, and Jiang Ying instinctively wanted to walk on the tactile paving.
It was as if only by stepping on those uneven blocks could she feel the grounded reality of the earth beneath her feet.
The cane in her other hand also flailed nervously, accidentally bumping into Su Heng’s shin.
“Ah, I’m sorry.” Amidst her fluster, she apologized hastily.
She actually didn’t need to say sorry to him.
Or maybe, she was the type of owner who would specifically crouch down to apologize to a puppy after stepping on its tail.
But thinking about it more carefully, her apology just now had been too rushed, too reflexive.
As if… she had once said sorry like that to countless strangers.
Su Heng didn’t understand the world of the visually impaired, but he could never forget his own helplessness after losing that arm.
He couldn’t quite put a name to the feeling at this moment—was it heartache, or something else? And before he knew it, he had already gripped her slightly trembling hand firmly in his own.
That unknown emotion drove Su Heng to lower his gaze.
He looked at the tip of her nose, reddening as she unconsciously shrank back slightly. His gaze shifted awkwardly to the whorl of hair at the top of her head. His voice softened, though its tone remained steady.
“I’m here.”
Jiang Ying stiffened for a moment, and actually felt a sense of reassurance in those words.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t strange. Dogs were naturally protective of their owners. She had also heard before that small animals could sense their owner’s emotions and exhibit behaviors akin to comfort and companionship.
A beastman was probably the same, right?
So, had he acted that way because he sensed her fear?
The hand enveloped by Su Heng’s palm continuously transmitted warmth to her heart and brain.
Jiang Ying took a deep breath, trying to ignore the unease of leaving the tactile paving. She also tried… to trust a little more.
Taking a few steps under his guidance, after leaving the reception room, she realized that walking without the aid she hadn’t left for three years wasn’t as difficult as she initially feared.
Passing through the corridor on their way in, Jiang Ying suddenly remembered the snake-type beastman in the glass display case.
Though her hesitation was only brief, Su Heng still noticed her subtle reaction.
Without drawing attention to it, he adjusted his position, completely shielding her from view and blocking the snake beastman’s line of sight.
She seemed only to be simply afraid of snakes, not perceiving the other party’s naked stare.
Su Heng, however, knew exactly what intentions were on that creature’s mind.
His purpose in coming to the Federation was the future of the beastman race, but not all beastmen were virtuous, just as not all humans were devious and selfish.
Su Heng harbored complex feelings towards snake-type beastmen.
As a fellow beastman, he was supposed to treat them equally.
But personally, he truly held little goodwill towards them.
It was a treacherous nature engraved in their genes.
They lacked any sense of loyalty; most were cold-blooded and cunning, willing to betray their own kind for personal gain.
Years ago, the Empire’s Beastman Army had suffered a crushing defeat against the Bayer Empire, the Federation’s predecessor, precisely because a high-ranking snake beastman had turned against them. And the irony was, they simultaneously loathed humans.
The gaze from within the display case, fixated on Jiang Ying, seemed filled with venom.
Getting no response from her, the snake beastman turned to Su Heng and sneered in the common language of the beastman race: 【Still inside this building, and already in a hurry to be a human’s dog!】
Su Heng turned his face, meeting the other’s gaze directly.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and warned: 【She is my person. Don’t entertain thoughts you shouldn’t have.】
The snake beastman was intimidated by the fathomless, dark undercurrents hidden in Su Heng’s eyes. A commanding presence, majestic without anger, pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him to stumble backward until he bumped into the wall behind him. He knew he lacked the capital to contend against Su Heng.
He could only stand behind the transparent display window, hissing furiously under this protective barrier, spitting venomous indignation.
Su Heng shifted his gaze away indifferently.
He hadn’t come here to be anyone’s dog. But he didn’t refute the insult, nor did he feel the need to explain his true intentions to the other.
What he sought was never just to prove himself a hero, or to deny being a devil in human eyes. What he wanted had always been a true future for the beastmen.
His arm suddenly tightened.
The girl beside him tugged at his sleeve.
“What were you two just saying?”
She looked up at him curiously, though the angle of her raised head was still a little low. The distance wasn’t that close, yet Su Heng’s heart skipped a beat. He had the distinct feeling those gently fluttering eyelashes were about to brush against his lips.
He composed himself and looked away. “He was congratulating me on signing the contract.”
A mocking sound immediately came from the beastman behind the display window. Su Heng took the blind cane from her hand, diverting her attention away from the malice behind her.
His voice and tone were far too persuasive, making her overlook any other sense of dissonance.
The reception center’s exit was right ahead; she had no time to focus on anything else.
The door opened.
Su Heng held her hand and stepped out, matching his pace to hers.
The cold outdoor air rushed into her neck. Jiang Ying had already braced herself to resist the chill, but she found that the warmth from the beastman beside her, transmitted from their palms, spread continuously into her very bones.
The thermo-regulating clothing slowly began adapting to the outside temperature, but her entire body had long since been toasty warm.
Her feet touched the sidewalk.
Jiang Ying flexed her fingers slightly, cautiously, and held that hand a little tighter.
One step.
Another step.
The warm, firm guidance from Su Heng finally dispelled the last trace of her anxiety.
For the first time in three years, she tried stepping off the bumpy tactile paving and onto the ordinary, flat ground where crowds of people came and went.