The showerhead was turned off again, and the sound of running water that Su Heng had endured for so long finally stopped.
He heard her stepping through the still-wet bathroom floor, fumbling to grab the towel hanging nearby. Then came the soft sounds of the towel against skin, towel wrapped around hair, and her getting dressed.
Su Heng held his breath, trying to ignore them.
He knew he should leave immediately, but he couldn’t take a step until she pushed open the bathroom door and came out.
Jiang Ying didn’t notice him outside the door.
From the bathroom to the bedroom, this path she had walked countless times, she didn’t need to feel along the wall anymore. She passed right by him, and when she lifted the hair tucked at her neck, her hand brushed against him, and only then did she sense his presence.
Her half-damp hair ends swept over his arm. Su Heng lowered his eyes, one of his beast ears twitching slightly.
“Eh…” Jiang Ying stopped. “Su Heng? You’re here.”
She didn’t question his behavior.
She had long heard that little cats and dogs wait outside the bathroom when their owners are showering, guarding them almost without moving an inch. She didn’t find it strange at all; she thought it was rather cute.
The feeling of being worried about and protected by a small animal was truly wonderful, and nothing made a pet owner happier.
She liked him even more now.
“Do you want to take a shower too?” She paused, remembering something. “Ah, I forgot, I didn’t prepare a change of clothes for you. But it’s fine, you don’t have to wear—”
“I have a change of clothes,” Su Heng said quickly.
Afraid she might be upset about being interrupted, he watched her facial expression intently.
Jiang Ying wasn’t angry. She just thought it would be fine if the little dog didn’t wear clothes, but she didn’t mind Su Heng’s insistence either.
“Mm-hmm.” She took a few steps toward the bedroom, then suddenly stopped, hesitated with some indecision, and turned back to face him. “Do you need me to bathe you?”
Little dogs probably need their owners to help bathe them, right?
Was it the same for canine beastmen?
Jiang Ying thought about it and didn’t see anything wrong with that.
She waited for the doggy’s response.
After a long moment, Su Heng said hoarsely, “…No need.”
“Aww.” Her disappointment was obvious as she took two steps toward him, as if still hoping to persuade him.
But no matter what, Su Heng could never compromise on something like this.
He firmly refused again: “I can wash myself.”
“Alright.”
Jiang Ying finally let it go. She twirled a strand of hair, remembering. “There’s a new towel in the cabinet next to the sink. Help yourself. I’ll go back to the room and wait for you. You remember the way, right?”
He seemed to be treated like a newborn puppy that needed care for everything.
Su Heng’s gaze flickered at the drop of water falling from her hair ends, and he sighed inwardly.
In the end, he obediently replied, “I remember.”
After making sure she was gone, he took his luggage from the living room and entered the bathroom.
The room was still filled with steam.
Beyond that, the scent of her pheromones lingered. Now spread through every corner of the bathroom, made even more enticing by the residual heat.
He covered his heart, which had started beating wildly again, and went to find the cabinet she mentioned.
The mirror on the vanity was covered in water mist, with no handprints to wipe it away.
The mirror… at this moment, Su Heng clearly realized that this was something she no longer needed.
He stood there for a while before reaching out to open the cabinet door next to it.
Inside were some daily necessities, not very neatly arranged, but still organized in an orderly manner by category.
He immediately spotted the new towel she mentioned—also pink.
He glanced down at the pink slippers on his feet and smiled helplessly.
He pulled the glass door shut and stepped into the shower stall.
The hot steam saturated with her scent made it impossible for him to think clearly, and coupled with the restless urges of his rut, he urgently needed cold water to cool himself down.
Su Heng turned the shower handle all the way to the right. The cold water pouring down from above finally dispersed some of that catnip smell in the bathroom.
But using cold water to calm the desires of the rut was simply impossible.
He spent a long time taking a cold shower before he cooled down slightly.
After changing clothes and returning to the room, Jiang Ying was sitting crookedly on the bed he had made for her, leaning against the bedside with her eyes closed, seemingly already drowsy and half-asleep.
Su Heng walked over, wanting to pick her up and put her on the bed.
But as soon as he crouched down, she opened her eyes in a daze.
In her sleepy state, the hollowness in her eyes seemed much reduced. By the time Su Heng realized it, he had been staring into her eyes for quite a while.
And in the few seconds that his movements froze, Jiang Ying recognized the person in front of her by touching his heated skin.
It seemed like she had momentarily forgotten she had brought a beastman home. She took a moment to react, then clumsily reached out her arms and hugged him back, the man who had intended to carry her.
“Good dog.”
She took the chance to stroke the short hair at the nape of his neck, then leaned in to nuzzle his face and said to him, “Kiss.”
“…What?”
He didn’t react.
She had been working overtime all week, and Jiang Ying was really tired.
She didn’t notice the doggy’s bewilderment, and half-asleep, she repeated, “Kiss.”
This time he heard clearly.
It was a command.
But she wasn’t purposely training a dog, nor was this a purposeful obedience test. Her expression was pure and sincere, the kind any dog would willingly submit to.
Su Heng froze in place, not responding for a long time.
Jiang Ying was puzzled that he didn’t take the initiative to kiss her, but then she thought, an untrained dog probably doesn’t know how to provide emotional value to humans.
She naturally wouldn’t hold it against a dog that didn’t understand anything, so a cheerful kiss landed directly.
This time it wasn’t off target.
Warm, soft lips landed precisely on the tip of his nose.
Only then did Jiang Ying hum contentedly, “Time to sleep, good night.”
After she climbed onto the bed and curled up under the covers on her own, Su Heng still remained half-kneeling in place.
That cold shower earlier seemed to have been for nothing.
He might need to buy some rut suppressants.
And, probably, only the maximum dosage would work.
Su Heng silently watched her for a while before lying down and pulling the blanket over himself.
It was indeed comfortable.
He had thought he would feel out of place, that too much comfort would make him feel unreal and uneasy. But when he actually wrapped himself in the bedding that still faintly carried her scent, he realized none of his expectations came true.
His body’s natural relaxation made him belatedly realize that, deep down, he genuinely felt at ease here.
He didn’t resist being by her side at all.
Even when she turned over, facing away from him, he felt so disappointed he wanted to get closer.
“…” Su Heng had no choice but to turn to the other side as well, to resist those messy thoughts.
And sleeping together with a human was something he had never imagined.
Before this, he had prepared himself for difficulty falling asleep, for lying awake until dawn. But when he closed his eyes, he unknowingly slipped into deep sleep in that reassuring scent.
The next day, they were both jolted awake by the doorbell.
Su Heng was shocked that he had slept so soundly, well past his usual waking time.
And when he opened his eyes, Jiang Ying was also rubbing her eyes by the bedside.
“It should be…” She picked up a water glass from the nightstand, took a sip, and once her dry throat was moistened, continued, “It should be the takeout I ordered last night.”
Takeout?
Before he could guess, she explained to him on her own: “I’ve been busy with work lately, so I haven’t cooked for a while. But don’t worry, I’ll look into what kind of nutritional balance dog food requires later.”
“…” He wasn’t worried about that.
But discussing these things with someone with Beastman Cognitive Disorder really was pointless. For such harmless trivialities, he simply chose to go along with her.
“So sleepy.” Jiang Ying struggled out of the blankets, felt her way to the wardrobe, and picked out some clothes. “Let’s get up and have breakfast.”
Then, right in front of him, she began to lift her pajama top.
Su Heng’s breath caught. “Wait.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Ying’s movement was interrupted, her hands still holding the hem of her top, suspended just above her waist.
He quickly stood up, turned his back to her. “I’ll go out first.”
She still didn’t seem to realize.
People don’t usually avoid their pets in such situations, and in Jiang Ying’s eyes, he wasn’t essentially different from those little animals.
And because he fled too fast, she didn’t have time to think much.
After breakfast, the two set off for the mall.
The Federation’s call for humans and beastmen to live together harmoniously had only been going on for about two years. Due to the many radicals in the Extreme Resistance Faction, beastman-friendly shopping areas struggled to develop.
So much so that even now, facilities matching the promotional slogans were still scarce.
Last night, while Su Heng was showering, Jiang Ying searched for a long time and finally found a mall not too far away. Conveniently, the mall also had a furniture section, saving a lot of trouble.
She decided to take Su Heng to pick out a bed first, so it could be delivered home sooner.
What she didn’t know, however, was that humans who brought beastmen here to buy furniture all had some kind of ambiguous relationship with them.
The sales clerk here knew this well.
The moment she saw the tall canine beastman leading Jiang Ying, she gave a knowing look.
The trend of dating beastmen was popular among the pro-beastman faction, and she herself was one of them—nothing unusual about that.
And besides,
A blind person and her guide dog.
What a lovely ship to ship.
The sales clerk enthusiastically approached: “Your beastman is so tall and handsome, so enviable.”
The clerk’s self-assumed friendly, suggestive greeting left Jiang Ying confused. She thought about it for a few seconds and assumed the clerk was just complimenting her doggy’s good looks.
“Thank you.”
She turned toward the sales clerk’s voice and responded seriously.
Su Heng, understanding the implication, silently looked down at her, and swallowed the explanation at her innocent expression.
She and the sales clerk were on completely different wavelengths. After a bit of aimless chatting, the clerk finally got to the point.
“What kind of furniture are you looking to buy?”
“A bed.” This time she didn’t mean a dog bed.
“Considering this beastman gentleman’s size and strength, a regular bed might not support enough weight.” The sales clerk winked ambiguously. “Let me recommend a suitable one for you.”
Jiang Ying didn’t catch the double meaning in her words.
Just looking at the literal statement, it seemed to make some sense.
She nodded. “Alright.”
Hearing the sales clerk’s footsteps, Su Heng, who was beside her leading the way, still didn’t move.
She tilted her head strangely and called him, “A Heng? Follow her.”
Just as she said, outside she switched to calling him by his “nickname.”
Su Heng looked at her with complicated eyes, then helplessly led her to follow the sales clerk.
“You can let your beastman sir take a look for you.” The sales clerk thoughtfully described the bed’s appearance and size to her. “Whether in size or weight resistance, it’s custom-made for large beastmen, surely meeting your needs as a couple. I assure you, this bed will be fine no matter how you sleep on it, and it will provide the most comfortable experience for you both.”
Missing that particular wire, Jiang Ying completely failed to pick up on the clerk’s hints.
She did seriously consider the bed’s dimensions. If she cleared out the study, it should fit.
Having settled that, she handed the decision to the one who would sleep on the bed.
“A Heng, what do you think? Do you like it?”
“…”
While suppressing the impulses of his rut, the sales clerk’s words made it hard for Su Heng not to imagine certain scenes.
He didn’t dare meet her “gaze” and just wanted to end this conversation quickly.
“This one,” he decided rapidly, then said briefly, “Here’s the address, please deliver it there.”
Such a good doggy.
Within a certain scope, he could make his own decisions, wasn’t picky, and even helped share his owner’s burdens.
Jiang Ying liked him more and more.
A little dog that pleased its owner deserved a reward.
When the sales clerk walked away to get the payment machine, Jiang Ying held his hand and swung it back and forth, signaling him to lean down.
Su Heng leaned down in puzzlement, not expecting her to suddenly stand on tiptoe and kiss his earlobe, whispering close to his ear, “Good dog.”
The cool scent of catnip prickled finely against his ear.
That tingling, numbing sensation shot through his entire body like an electric current. He felt his mechanical arm affected, rising uncontrollably, wanting to touch her.
In a public place.
With people coming and going around.
It was as if exposing his secret thoughts to the light of day.
And her “blindness” became his greatest advantage for reckless behavior.
This secret sense of moral transgression brought unprecedented thrill; he almost couldn’t stop the sound threatening to escape his throat.
But he was a beastman, a “person,” not an unrestrained beast.
He shouldn’t, and must not, go into rut in front of her as if no one else were there.
The hand holding hers trembled uncontrollably under his gradually unfocused gaze. Su Heng clearly realized that he had to buy suppressants right now. Otherwise, he didn’t know what he might do.
Immediately. Right away.
Had to be careful. Couldn’t let her find out.
Neither the item he needed to buy, nor the feelings he had developed for her, could ever be discovered by her.
Ab-so-lute-ly
must
not.