“…So the setting for this kind of suppressant drug has to serve the smut. We need to make sure that after the male lead takes the suppressant, he can still have effective interactions with the player, not actually turn frigid!”
“I think I get it. So it suppresses, but the suppression is meant to drive things even wilder!”
“Yes, exactly! Like making the male lead develop some kind of dependency on the player, separation anxiety, lovesickness that turns into an obsession…”
When Jiang Ying brought Su Heng to the company, head copywriter Jin Chuyu was discussing the plot setting for a new card with the colleague next to her.
The moment everyone saw her arrive, all conversation came to an abrupt halt.
Almost every eye in the office turned toward the two of them.
After a few seconds of silence, Jin Chuyu looked at their clasped hands and, before she could even get a clear look at Su Heng’s appearance, stood up in surprise. “Who’s this? Who’s this? Your beastman boyfriend? Wait, Yingying, is your condition cured?”
Jiang Ying frowned. “How could he possibly be my boyfriend?”
The instant she frowned, Su Heng realized he had been staring down at her.
To the point that this tiny motion felt like a sudden downpour.
And he was the little dog left on the street by its owner, drenched from head to paw.
Maybe the shock and the intent to refute in her tone were just too obvious, because Su Heng could even pick up a trace of resistance in her words.
Even though she was still holding his hand right now, relying on him to guide her, she was pushing him away at the same time.
Though he knew they weren’t in that kind of relationship, he still felt a sense of abandonment welling up inside him.
And when he tried to shake off this bizarre feeling, he couldn’t stop himself from recalling the comfort and peace of the previous night. The more he tried, the thicker the haze gathered in his chest became.
The others in the office, however, all wore expressions of sudden understanding, as if Jiang Ying’s reaction wasn’t the least bit surprising.
Jin Chuyu could tell at a glance that her condition definitely hadn’t gotten any better, so her excitement had been for nothing. “Alright, I get it. So he’s the Beastman Guide Dog you hired?”
Jiang Ying felt like the word “hired” was a bit weird.
She didn’t directly refute it, instead rephrasing her response. “Mmhmm, he’s the doggy I just went and bought.”
Just went and bought a doggy…
Jin Chuyu exchanged looks with the colleagues next to her.
Had Jiang Ying’s hesitation to hire a Beastman Guide Dog all these years really just been because of what they’d exclaimed during the meeting last week?
If so, was her goal to make her own life more convenient, or to treat her cognitive disorder?
“Weren’t we supposed to have a meeting?”
Seeing that no one was moving, Jiang Ying asked, then swung Su Heng’s hand lightly. “A Heng, you can go wait in the small conference room in a bit. Be good and wait for me to get off work, okay?”
Jin Chuyu shot her a “you’re hopeless” look.
She then glanced at the beastman behind Jiang Ying, her original intention being to offer him a sympathetic look. But the moment her eyes met that cold, stern face of his, her heart started to tremble.
This man was dangerous.
Anyone who saw him would absolutely have that as their first impression.
Anyone except Jiang Ying.
She really seemed to treat him like nothing more than a completely harmless, adorable big dog. Even if he suddenly pounced and knocked her to the ground, she’d just think the doggy was playing, laugh while patting his head and scratching his chin.
Although all the other colleagues in the company were Pro-Beastman, especially the girls in the copywriting and art departments—who were brimming with curiosity and goodwill toward beastmen because one of the male leads in their project was one—
When a beastman this tall and imposing actually stood right in front of them, even his silence transformed into a wordless pressure.
Too bad Jiang Ying couldn’t see it.
Since they’d established a pet-friendly policy when they founded the company, she didn’t feel like bringing a beastman to work was strange at all.
Everyone carefully stole glances back and forth between Jiang Ying and Su Heng.
Watching her treat a beastman who looked so unapproachable with such intimate gestures and a doting tone filled them with intense curiosity, but no one dared to ask right in front of Su Heng.
“What’s everyone spacing out for? Meeting time, meeting time!”
Jin Chuyu took the lead in breaking the delicate atmosphere.
The entire copywriting and original art teams trooped off in a grand procession toward the conference room, while Jiang Ying led Su Heng to the small conference room on the other side.
Through the still-open door of the conference room, the colleagues watched from across the entire company.
The blinds were only half-open, obscuring a full view of what was inside.
Jiang Ying tugged at the hem of Su Heng’s shirt, signaling him to lean down.
Then, she stood on her tiptoes and touched his head.
“Good doggy, be a good boy, alright.”
The space here wasn’t very big.
The lights were off, the curtains were drawn, and it was drizzling outside, dark and dim.
The half-open blinds let a sliver of the fluorescent light from outside spill in, but kept all those curious gazes out.
Half-exposed, half-hidden.
An environment like this was even more heart-stirring than a fully enclosed space.
Even though the urges of his rut had been eased the night before, a vague, taboo emotion was secretly stirring deep in his heart.
His beast genes began clamoring again, egging him on to push her against those half-open blinds.
People would only see their overlapping silhouettes. No one would truly know what they were doing.
Su Heng struggled to take a step back, retreating from both her and the voice in his head. “Mm. Go to the meeting.”
She really did leave immediately then, without an ounce of reluctance.
The small conference room fell completely silent, leaving only his own breathing and heartbeat.
The words he’d heard when they first walked into the company surfaced in his mind.
It seemed… he really had gotten addicted to the feeling of last night.
Even though she’d just left, even though they were so close.
He was already starting to feel anxious.
Su Heng pulled the blinds shut completely and stood there silently.
He closed his eyes, wanting to see if he could hear her voice. But these conference rooms seemed to be soundproofed, and even with the exceptional hearing of a beastman, he couldn’t hear what was being said in the meeting room all the way on the other side.
He missed her.
He really wanted to see her.
…Was this a side effect?
“So? Now that you’ve actually interacted with a beastman, any signs of improvement with your cognitive disorder?”
Before the meeting officially started, Jin Chuyu connected her laptop to the big screen and dragged the necessary files out of various work group chats.
Jiang Ying sat at the very end, farthest from the screen.
Since she couldn’t see the screen, she mostly relied on the content of everyone’s conversation and the AI-powered image detection on her phone to guess what was currently on display.
“Honestly, I still feel like there’s no fundamental difference between beastmen and regular cats or dogs.”
She was holding a pen, and as she spoke, she subconsciously doodled on the notepad in front of her.
Even though she didn’t really need a tool like this, it was a habit she’d kept from before she’d transmigrated. Whenever Jiang Ying was thinking, she always wanted to be writing something down on paper.
“I still can’t accept humans and beastmen being together.”
She paused, then added, “Sub-Beastmen aren’t okay either.”
“But… wasn’t our beastman male lead designed by Yingying?” asked the Little Copywriter who had joined recently.
“That was before she got Beastman Cognitive Disorder.” Jin Chuyu sighed.
A character she’d designed herself, and now she could no longer understand her original concept.
In every plot and setting discussion, she had to endure the pain and try to explain things to herself using her distorted perception.
Perhaps what was even more painful than being unable to accept a beastman male lead being with a human player was the fact that she could no longer control the character she’d written herself; a character she’d poured her heart and soul into, and yet she was unable to pen his story with her own hand.
Although Jiang Ying never showed her regrets, Jin Chuyu knew that deep down, she had to be grieving.
Even if she didn’t say it out loud this time, hiring a beastman must have involved at least some glimmer of hope that he could help her recover her correct perception of beastmen.
And as her friend, Jin Chuyu would of course support any decision she made.
“Alright, let’s not dwell on that.”
Jiang Ying waved her hand dismissively. “Even if I can’t write, we still have all of you, don’t we? Chuchu can take charge of the beastman male lead’s various designs, and I’ll oversee the other male leads’ parts. That’s perfectly fine too.”
Jin Chuyu put an end to the topic. “Alright, alright, let’s start the meeting. I don’t want to be stuck here all through lunch break.”
She suddenly switched gears. “So, Yingying, did you get the condoms?”
“…”
Jiang Ying choked for a second. “I was going to, I was going to buy them.”
“Too embarrassed to buy them?”
The Head Artist pulled out a small bag and poured its contents onto the conference table. “I knew it. Here you go, I’ve got them all prepared for you. Take them home and study them slowly.”
The entire copywriting and art teams were all women, and the veteran employees had almost no inhibitions about topics like this smutty stuff. Only a handful of newer hires who weren’t social butterflies sat off to the side, giggling bashfully.
The most enthusiastic of all were the artists who had proposed the idea in the first place. They were already itching to start, wishing the copywriters would hand over the settings right then and there so they could begin drawing right away.
As she watched Jiang Ying’s hands tremble while she silently and blindly stuffed the little plastic packets into her pockets, Jin Chuyu shook her head with a helpless sigh.
So it’s true that only people who’ve never been in a relationship can write fantasies about love that sweet?
“Let’s start by looking at the scene sketches.”
The Head Artist opened up the card drafts. “We have some initial ideas for where the condoms will be hidden. Or if the copywriters have any ideas that fit the settings, they can pitch them in. As for what the specific items look like, that’ll have to wait for your settings.”
“Um, I think Akkad’s scene shouldn’t be this subtle!”
One Little Copywriter shyly raised a hand.
“He’s the one among the five male leads with the most overt sexual tension, and he never hides his love for the player. While his beastman tribe may be eternally loyal to a single mate, they’re not conservative when it comes to sex. Instead, showing his passion to the player completely and unreservedly is much more in character for him. When it comes to this, he would definitely be sincere and bold, not prim and hesitant like the Lord Commander, trying to hide his desires.”
After she finished speaking, the Little Copywriter instinctively looked at Jiang Ying, hoping for her approval.
But when she saw no reaction on her face, and even a slight frown of resistance between her brows, she remembered Jiang Ying’s cognitive disorder.
The Little Copywriter glanced at Jin Chuyu for help, and the latter gave her an approving smile.
“You’re absolutely right. Akkad is more on the flamboyant side. Alright, we’ll get the specific supplemental settings to you this week—Yingying, make sure you take those home and study them properly, okay. The PM is breathing down our necks.”
“…”
Jiang Ying’s motion of stuffing her pockets froze. “Got it.”
For the rest of the meeting, the art team brought out several sets of character sketches, showing everyone the male-female lead interaction poses they’d been conceptualizing.
The conference room immediately erupted with squeal after squeal—
“Ahhhhh!”
“Akkad is just too much!”
“Yes, that restrained desire is exactly it! The Lord Commander is this sexy even in a sketch!”
“So lewd… I can’t…”
Jiang Ying couldn’t see anything and felt too awkward to hold up the meeting’s progress, so she just listened quietly at the side, occasionally offering up some suggestions based on the images she could piece together in her mind.
However, being able to hear but not see was honestly pretty dry.
And the text descriptions her phone’s AI analyzed really didn’t have any visual flair at all, so this time she just didn’t bother using it.
Once she got home, she’d have Su Heng describe them for her.
After all, he was her eyes now, wasn’t he?
With that thought, Jiang Ying blindly typed out a string of text in her chat window with Jin Chuyu, telling her to send over a zip file of all those steamy pictures once the meeting was over.