To suppress an estrus state, the first step was to collect pheromones for medicine through close physical contact with her.
This was, in truth, a paradox that tormented him.
What was more, he didn’t want to pretend at intimate gestures toward her because of something like this.
Under Su Heng’s barely restrained look of displeasure, Wenren Xu awkwardly scratched his head. “Sorry, sorry. What I mean is, it’s essentially scent covering through close-range contact. The way a kitten rubs its head against its owner. As long as the duration isn’t long, we can extract the other party’s pheromones.”
Scent covering through close-range contact?
Su Heng remembered that last night, she had stayed by his side the entire time, sleeping on the sofa right next to his arm.
She had even undressed him.
When he was groggy and his consciousness was hazy, she had stroked him, held him, kissed him.
Was there any contact more intimate than that?
“We can try collecting.”
After pondering for a moment, Su Heng looked up and explained seriously, giving Wenren Xu no chance to misunderstand. “Last night, she was taking care of me the entire time.”
His hidden joy, belonging only to him alone, was concealed beneath his cold, stern brows. His calm and unruffled words eliminated any possibility of ambiguity.
Under his serious expression, Wenren Xu dismissed that faint hint of romantic possibility as well.
“With close-range scent covering, there’s a high success rate.” He thought for a moment. “We can try making a trial batch first. Come with me.”
In the collection room, Jiang Ying’s pheromones were successfully extracted from Su Heng’s gland.
Wenren Xu, who usually seemed unreliable, was exceptionally dependable when it came to work.
He sent the extracted pheromones to the pharmaceutical R&D department for urgent processing. “At the earliest, we’ll have a trial batch of the medication today. The quantity will be limited, and the effect will be relatively mild. It’s only to see if it works on you.”
Perhaps he could make it before she got off work.
Su Heng thought that after getting the injection, he could still go pick her up.
“Mhm.” He paused. “What do you mean by mild effect?”
“It means it at least won’t cause you any overly awkward reactions. But if you’re aiming for a state of absolute serenity, it still falls a little short.”
The speaker was completely casual, but the listener’s ears quietly turned red.
Su Heng nodded with feigned calm. “That’s enough.”
“For now, it is. And considering you’re already showing symptoms of estrus delirium, you’ll need a supplementary shot when you go back tonight. The medication needs time to take full effect. If this one works for you without side effects, subsequent development will be adjusted according to your real-time condition.”
Wenren Xu wagged his index finger in front of his face as a reminder. “—The next estrus cycle will be even more severe.”
By the time Su Heng got the trial medication, received one injection, and passed the observation period, it was already time for Jiang Ying’s company to let out for the day.
Given that she always worked a bit of overtime, he might still make it.
From Wenren Xu’s Beastman Clinic to her company took half an hour. Su Heng hailed a cab, but nearing the destination, they hit the tech park’s rush hour. The entire road was completely gridlocked, not moving an inch.
Su Heng got out when the car pulled over mid-route and walked quickly toward his destination.
It wasn’t that he was missing her like crazy.
Just half a day without seeing her—how could that possibly make him anxious and unsettled?
He told himself this was just the symptoms of estrus. His symptoms were severe. It was entirely reasonable and logical for such psychology to appear.
And of course, he wasn’t eagerly impatient to see her.
This was simply what was clearly written in the contract. He needed to be responsible for escorting her to and from work, to be her eyes.
If she went back on her own, it would probably take more than twice as long. Once she got home, she’d push open the door and immediately complain about being hungry.
In summary, Su Heng reached a rational conclusion.
He had to get to her side as quickly as possible.
Her company was just ahead.
Su Heng quickened his pace. Right at the street corner, he saw her stepping out through the office tower’s glass door.
As for the joy that immediately bubbled up in his heart—the kind a little dog feels when its owner comes home—he struggled to ignore it, but ultimately failed.
“Jiang—”
He had only just made a sound.
His gaze froze. Seeing the man walking out behind her, he swallowed the name before it could leave his mouth.
Jin Chuyun followed behind Jiang Ying, maintaining a polite distance. A fitting smile hung on his face. His attire was formal but wouldn’t make the person facing him feel overly restrained—a refined and courteous gentleman.
With the social distance he maintained, whether intentionally or not, it was even difficult to associate any hint of ambiguous connection with these two faces that looked so perfectly matched. Anyone would see it as nothing more than a casual friendship at best. Just acquaintances. Nothing more.
And yet, Su Heng still felt extremely uncomfortable.
There was no rain at the moment, but it felt as if a torrential downpour had drenched him from head to toe.
The sweet bubbles that had just been swelling inside his chest with a purring sound were abruptly popped by the scene before him.
His mind went blank for a few seconds, as if the ability to breathe had been stolen from him. His heart tightened without reason, a fine, dense pain beginning to sting. His right hand, already lost, suddenly began to ache with phantom pain from something that no longer existed.
He didn’t understand why it was like this.
A beastman’s hearing was excellent, able to capture every sound nearby. But at this moment, it was as if he could only hear the conversation between those two.
“I didn’t expect to run into you here, Doctor Jin.”
Jiang Ying held her unused folding umbrella in one hand and leaned on her blind cane with the other. She tilted her face slightly toward the man. “Are you looking for Chuchu? She just got off work and left already.”
“Chuyu?” Jin Chuyun showed a helpless expression. “I’m not looking for her. She’s probably mentioned to you that our relationship isn’t very good.”
Jiang Ying had always thought this was just Jin Chuyu’s one-sided feeling. She hadn’t expected Jin Chuyun to admit it so bluntly as well.
She felt a bit awkward, unsure how to respond.
Jin Chuyun smiled, not letting her discomfort linger for more than a few seconds, and immediately moved past the topic.
“I’m here as a consultant for a team developing a serious medical game. I didn’t expect your company to be here.”
It seemed Jin Chuyu hadn’t told him the office location.
Jiang Ying caught his implied meaning. But stepping outside the consultation room, it was as if an extra layer of boundary had been added between her and Jin Chuyun, making her feel distant to the point of being completely ill at ease.
She didn’t ask further, racking her brains to find something agreeable to say. “Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, there really are a lot of game companies around here.”
Jin Chuyun took in her reaction.
“Heading home from work now?” he asked, as if casually. “That beastman friend of yours didn’t come to pick you up?”
“Ah, A Heng has a bit of a cold and fever. I let him rest at home.”
She remembered Jin Chuyu’s instructions from yesterday and glossed over Su Heng’s real condition.
Jin Chuyun seized the opportunity to invite. “My driver will be here soon. Where do you live? I can give you a ride home.”
“Huh?” Going from her company to her home and then to Jin Chuyun’s clinic didn’t seem very convenient. Hesitating, she gave a rough area. “It doesn’t seem like it’s on the way.”
As if seeing through her thoughts, Jin Chuyun explained, “It’s not on the way to the clinic, true. But if I’m going home, I do pass through that area.”
Jiang Ying made an “oh” sound, as if she couldn’t find a reason to refuse.
Su Heng was still sick. He was home alone, and she had no idea what condition he was in. She was a bit worried and wanted to hurry back. If Jin Chuyun gave her a ride, it would certainly save a lot of time. As for the doctor-patient relationship that shouldn’t have too much private contact, it wasn’t as if one ride would make them that much closer.
After weighing it for a moment, Jiang Ying finally agreed. “Then thank you, Doctor Jin.”
Su Heng hid in a blind spot neither of them could see, subconsciously clenching his hands at his sides.
His right hand had no strength. It was only then he remembered, belatedly, that he had already lost that prosthetic body. Yet the bandages wrapped tightly around his mechanical arm seemed to bring a genuine sense of binding. Even the bow she had tied rubbed against the fabric of his shoulder, making him aware of a foreign sensation.
Why did what was lost still feel pain?
It was as if something that belonged to him also gave him the illusion that it could be lost at any moment.
Watching Jiang Ying and Jin Chuyun get into the car, that nameless feeling surged into his chest with even greater intensity, suffocating him.
…Was this also one of the symptoms of estrus?
But… he could feel that the estrus suppressant was already taking effect.
The rush hour traffic jam instead allowed Su Heng to arrive home ahead of time.
As if possessed by some ghost, he took off all his clothes and lay back down on the sofa, restoring everything in the home to how it had been last night.
In her eyes, he would not have gone out at all, but would have been in a dazed sleep on the sofa all day.
With a click, the front door opened.
Su Heng wrapped himself in the thin blanket that still carried a faint hint of catnip scent and closed his eyes.
Just as expected, she came straight to the sofa the moment she entered. She crouched in front of him and reached out to probe tentatively, touching the tip of his nose to confirm he was still there.
Then, her cool palm pressed against his forehead.
“No more fever. That’s great,” she murmured quietly, rubbing his beast ears. “Poor doggy, still not awake?”
Su Heng held back and didn’t move. Only when her fingertips left did that beast ear twitch happily, unable to restrain itself.
He pretended to be just waking up, letting out a groggy sound and “instinctively” nuzzling the back of her hand, which had lingered nearby.
“You’re awake?”
Just about to leave to get a wet wipe to clean his face, Jiang Ying “looked” at him with pleasant surprise. “Good Dog, how are you feeling?”
Su Heng hesitated. “My right hand…”
Her tone sank instantly, as if it were her own hand that had been lost. “This prosthetic body has reached its usage limit. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely find a way to cure you.”
She paused, stepped forward, and embraced him. Seriously, she said, “I will protect you.”
She really did know.
His past. His secrets.
But she was a human, a citizen of the Federation. With what could she protect him? When interests diverged, after war broke out, they would ultimately become enemies crossing blades.
And at this moment, he was being held by her, feeling the warmth of her body.
“My clothes…?”
“Ah! You got soaked yesterday, and you sweated a lot from the fever, so that’s why I helped you take them off. It’s fine, what does it matter for a doggy? I wanted to use a towel to wipe your body, but I was afraid of making you uncomfortable or waking you up. Are you feeling a bit better now? If you have the strength, go take a shower and change into clean clothes—”
She pulled out her phone with meticulous seriousness. “Let me ask the doctor if you can shower today.”
“…”
Su Heng’s mood sank again.
She really did treat him like a dog. She spoke about things like undressing and bathing with such frank ease, without even the slightest hint of feminine shyness.
Yet it was completely different when she faced that man.
Even for something like him offering to take her home, she had to “hesitate” for ages.
He felt stifled.
Belatedly, he realized that he seemed to be angry with her.
…He seemed to be going a little crazy.
Su Heng closed his eyes and buried his face into the crook of her neck. Banking on the fact that the estrus suppressant had started to take a little effect, he breathed calmly, sniffing the scent that belonged to her.
This time, there was no more purring sound. What replaced the mating call was his rationality, finally able to function normally.
She and her friends already knew about his past. Before his identity was fully exposed, he needed to accomplish the real task he had come to the Federation for.
He needed to quickly use Jiang Ying to get close to Jin Chuyun and A Lanyin, to figure out the reason for the massive increase in the Federation beastmen’s combat power, and the reason why so many human-beastman pairs with high mental power compatibility were appearing.
And the day he figured all that out would be the day Erga’s Beastman Army razed the Federation to the ground.
On that day.
He would completely, totally, and thoroughly excise her from his world.