For various reasons, she was fixated on confirming her dog’s fondness for her.
Even work partners needed compatibility. With a relationship like that of a guide dog—one requiring the trust to be entirely handed over—if one party was reluctant, it wasn’t good for either of them.
She liked Su Heng very much, but if he didn’t like her—she thought sadly, she would try to negotiate ending the contract and set him free.
Su Heng was quiet for a long while. In the end, he relented.
With their relationship as it currently stood, they absolutely shouldn’t sleep together.
Dealing with her, with her cognitive disorder, was a thoroughly disorienting experience. She fooled around, and all he could do was play along. She couldn’t tell the difference, but he could see clearly—yet he still had to convince himself it was because he couldn’t win against her stubbornness.
As long as it wasn’t too excessive a request.
Just simply sleeping together.
If this could put her at ease, it would also be more convenient for him to stay by her side.
Su Heng tried his best to ignore his body’s longing, analyzing pros and cons with reason. After weighing things, he arrived at an answer that wasn’t actually rational.
Having gained her dog’s consent, Jiang Ying stepped closer, delighted.
“Then do you like me hugging you?” she asked again.
“…I don’t dislike it.”
“Oh.” Jiang Ying hugged him. “Then can I kiss you?”
“…Mm.”
She stood on her tiptoes, tilted her face up, and barely managed to kiss his chin: “Then the reason you agreed to sleep with me… is it because you like me?”
It wasn’t like.
He just felt it was impossible to reason with someone with her cognitive disorder; explaining would be too troublesome.
It was just because of the restless agitation of his body during his rut.
And because he was experiencing this state for the first time, he couldn’t control his desire for her.
Su Heng’s gaze darted away. He opened his mouth to breathe, and murmured vaguely, “Yes.”
“I like Su Heng too.” Jiang Ying leaned in, mimicking the way he’d licked her on the sofa earlier, and licked his Adam’s apple. “I… Ah!”
Before she could finish speaking, the world spun.
She was suddenly pinned onto the bed by the Beastman beside her.
As her body was fixed in place, his hot palm covered her mouth.
The rough skin of his palm rubbed against her lips, a bit uncomfortable.
His other mechanical arm braced beside her face. In his hurried rush to press her down, it had accidentally bumped her earlobe.
So cold it made her whole body shiver.
Jiang Ying felt the sheets beneath her pull where he was bracing himself, sinking down beside her cheek.
Su Heng covered her lips with one hand, his mechanical arm gripping the sheet beside her cheek tightly. His pupils flickered, his voice trembling: “Don’t…”
“Mmph? (What?)”
“…Don’t move. Don’t speak.”
Jiang Ying was very confused.
She could kiss him, could hug him, could sleep with him. But she couldn’t lick his neck the way he’d licked hers?
So Su Heng licking her wasn’t an expression of affection.
Then what was it? Did it mean something else?
So strange. She couldn’t understand it again.
And besides, he was starting to make that purring sound again. She hadn’t even gotten to ask what that meant.
This one-sided restraint lasted for quite a while.
Finally, he let her go and lay to the side, raising his arm to cover his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Sorry… let’s sleep.”
Jiang Ying didn’t sleep: “Are you angry again?”
Why “again”? Su Heng lifted his hand slightly, turning his head a fraction toward her: “…No.”
“Really?”
“Mm. Let’s sleep.” Instinctively, he reached out to help tuck her in. His hand had already extended, but the moment it touched the blanket, he jerked it back as if suddenly awakening. In the end, he only managed to squeeze out the two words he’d been mulling over in his throat: “…Good night.”
Jiang Ying lay on her side beside him. Just a little closer, and she would touch the mechanical arm he had deliberately tucked close to his side.
His lost arm, and this prosthetic he was unwilling to show anyone—both were former “masterpieces” of the Federation.
Yet now, he was letting her sleep right beside him, exposing the pain and vulnerability of his past right under her nose.
Fortunately, she couldn’t see.
He flexed his metal fingers. This hand could take her life at any moment.
But right now, aside from the hand stripped of its leather glove and the exposed inch of wrist, the cold metal was mostly hidden beneath the adorable pajamas she had bought him. Even its terrifying, frigid gleam seemed to have softened.
And the gaze that had only just turned cold unconsciously warmed again.
He lifted his eyes once more to look at the girl beside him.
She still hadn’t fallen asleep, her eyes still open, her vacant gaze staring straight ahead. Unintentionally, her unfocused sight landed on his Adam’s apple.
His Adam’s apple, where her tongue had swept across just moments ago, warm and cool.
Now, with her “staring” at it, he felt that same sensation again.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he almost couldn’t suppress another purring sound from escaping his throat.
He abruptly averted his gaze, steadying his breathing.
His eyes fell on her earlobe.
The one he’d bitten earlier. It was still a little red, but the fang marks were no longer visible.
At that moment, Jiang Ying suddenly spoke, her tone earnest, serious, and carrying a hint of grievance: “Su Heng, it hurt a little when you bit me just now.”
“…!”
He was startled. She could see? She’d noticed his gaze?
No. It must be a coincidence.
Although it wasn’t strange for a human to say such things when talking to a pet dog, he wasn’t a little dog in her eyes. For her to say it to him so directly… Su Heng felt unbearably ashamed, as if the bestial nature and lust he wanted to hide were being paraded under public scrutiny for harsh judgment.
“Sorry.” It was indeed his lapse in control. “It won’t happen again.”
Jiang Ying’s stern face immediately relaxed. The corners of her lips lifted, and her eyes curved with a smile.
She snuggled closer, burrowing into his arms and hugging his waist as she said, “Good dog. You have to behave from now on, okay.”
With this movement, the top of her head was against his chin, her hair brushing his neck, a few strands slipping into his collar.
Her breath also spilled onto his collarbone, sweeping over it lightly, again and again.
Su Heng endured it without moving, making a small whimpering sound like a puppy, unconsciously tilting his neck back.
Jiang Ying couldn’t see his unusual reaction; she just thought it was pretty cute.
She nuzzled into his embrace again: “Good night.”
This time she actually closed her eyes. Su Heng breathed a sigh of relief, but he himself couldn’t fall asleep at all.
Just one night.
He just had to get through this one night.
But he soon regretted it.
She was anything but a still sleeper. Scared of the cold, she’d unconsciously press up against anything warm. When she felt hot, she’d roll to the edge of the bed with the blankets, her hands and feet restlessly poking out.
Before Su Heng could react, her hand, stretched toward the side of the bed, had already touched the row of switches there.
Su Heng’s breath stopped completely.
He shouldn’t have let her sleep on this bed. Even more, he shouldn’t have let her sleep on the side with the buttons.
—This was his first mistake tonight.
The bed beneath them began to make mechanical sounds. Something suddenly burst from the frame on all sides, rushing toward them both. Su Heng instantly flipped over to shield the girl beneath him, covering her protectively.
And at the same time, shackles made of a special material designed for Beastmen bound his wrists, arms, and ankles, fixing him rigidly above her.
On top of that, a collar locked around his neck, releasing some kind of gas that catalyzed emotion.
His thoughts stalled for a moment under this sudden turn of events.
Belatedly, he realized this was one of the special functions written about in the bed’s manual.
Designed for humans with Beastman partners, a means to control the other half in certain situations.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t break free, but struggling against restraints specifically designed for Beastmen could very well injure her beside him.
And.
Right now, more urgent than freeing himself was escaping the rutting impulse—gradually stirring, on the verge of making him lose control—under the influence of that catalyzing gas.
Worse yet, the girl beneath him had woken up amid the strange noises of the bed.
Jiang Ying’s sleep wasn’t particularly good, nor did she sleep deeply. The considerable commotion was trying to pull her out of her fragmented dreams.
Her dreams had images.
She was back at the Beastman Employment Agency that day, seeing the faces of various Beastmen through the window, startled by the snake clan Beastman’s cold, gleaming golden slit pupils. She also saw the other dogs’ faces, every single one full of expectation and enthusiasm.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make out Su Heng’s face.
Groggily, she reached out, wanting to touch his cheek.
A sharply defined contour, rising and falling with his breath. How strange. Why was it so rapid?
Her fingertips followed his jawline downward, touching two thin lips.
In his current state, Su Heng only wanted to distance himself from her. Even the slightest physical contact was unbearable. Amid his chaotic breathing, he exhausted all his willpower and reason just to only close his lips around her finger, not biting with his fangs, and suppressing any other impulses.
That purring, courtship sound vibrated through his Adam’s apple again.
She’d woken up a little more.
But it didn’t take much effort to pull her finger back.
With that movement, a low, hoarse sound escaped his throat.
Jiang Ying couldn’t see Su Heng’s current state, only faintly hearing something above her.
His rapid, fiercely restrained breath puffed down onto her face from above. Fortunately, there was still some distance; it dissipated in the air before reaching her lips.
“Good dog, what’s wrong?”
She wasn’t fully awake. Her opened eyes were bleary and dazed, her voice slurred and hard to make out.
Su Heng trembled; the chains and shackles on his body clanked crisply.
He wanted to tell her it was nothing, to tell her to go back to sleep if she was tired. But his throat was unbearably parched. He opened his mouth, but his voice was so hoarse, nothing came out. He probably needed some water. While drinking water, she wouldn’t notice the purring sounds rolling from his throat like a little cat or dog.
Receiving no response, Jiang Ying grew more and more puzzled.
She followed his profile downward, touching the cold, smooth metal around his neck. It moved as his Adam’s apple bobbed.
What was this… seemed like a collar.
As her fingertip traced over it, the collar slowly rubbed against Su Heng’s Adam’s apple. He turned his head away, his neck and the tips of his ears flushing red: “…Don’t touch here.”
“Ah.” Jiang Ying was a little bewildered. “Su Heng? What are you doing? What’s that on your neck?”
“…”
Su Heng found the current situation too embarrassing to speak of. Not because it was unpleasant, but because it felt too good.
For the first time, he learned that being bound to a bed was something he didn’t resist at all. Not only did he not resist, he was even anticipating more.
The rutting pheromones were stimulating his brain, giving him the illusion that she had him completely under her control—perhaps this was simply canine instinct. Dogs enjoyed the feeling of being tamed by their owner; obedience gave them dependence and belonging. Through play and training, their bond with their owner deepened. They longed for their owner’s commands, anticipated the moment the collar would be fastened around their neck.
He was furious and ashamed at himself for having such thoughts.
“It’s nothing. Just… some… functions of this bed.”
Su Heng spoke with difficulty, his voice hoarse to an unprecedented degree, suppressing the excitement he didn’t want her to notice. After barely a few words, he had to clench his hands and hold his breath to keep strange sounds from slipping out of his throat.
Jiang Ying was even more puzzled: “What function?”
One that would bind his neck like this?
And from the sound of it, even his hands and legs were restrained by something.
She kept her eyes open, her vacant “gaze” naturally falling on him.
This sensation of being continuously watched by her, knowing she couldn’t see, yet fearing she would discover something, only made it harder for him to bear.
A secret, perverse thrill—defying common sense, challenging morals and boundaries—kept stirring wave after wave of shame within him.
Su Heng stiffly changed the subject, trying to brush past her question.
“Can you… look for the button on the side of the bed? It’s on your side.” He struggled to open his mouth and breathe. “There’s one pressed down… turn it off.”
“Oh.” She was still groggy, her mind sluggish. Half-asleep, she wasn’t so fixated on the strangeness of the moment. “Just press it again to turn it off, right? Hold on.”
Jiang Ying sat halfway up, scooted toward the edge of the bed, and reached out to feel along the side.
He had the fleeting illusion that the person beneath him was trying to escape.