Even Jiang Ying, as slow on the uptake as she was, could sense something off about Su Heng’s state.
Yet she still never seemed to understand a beastman’s expressions.
Just like how she could never tell whether a puppy’s bark was out of boredom, fear, intimidation, or something else entirely, Jiang Ying only felt he was deliberately suppressing some emotion, exposed solely by the hand currently pressing down on her shoulder.
Misinterpreting yet again, she mistook his excited trembling for fright.
Had he been startled? Perhaps cowering before strength was instinct for a canine beastman?
Was this his way of expressing worry?
So she sat up, lifting her arms to hook them around his neck.
The faint dark red subtly surfacing in his smoky-gray eyes halted. Su Heng stopped his movement to press further toward her and dropped his gaze, staring intently at her lips as they opened and closed.
She stroked the back of his neck, but her fingertips brushed against the gland there. Su Heng let out a stifled grunt, completely off-guard—a sound Jiang Ying, intent on soothing him, entirely missed.
She thought for a long while, still unable to figure out how to answer this hypothetical she had never once considered.
Instead, Su Heng, having received no response for quite some time, grew impatient.
“He’s the strongest beastman in the Empire. Perhaps even no one in the Federation could match him. A man like that kills countless enemies on the battlefield, his hands steeped in their blood. And you’re a human, the kind Empire beastmen despise—aren’t you afraid?”
The more indifferent she was now, the more the irrepressible excitement in his heart made him yearn for the day his identity would be exposed. If she knew that he was that “very bad beastman” she spoke of, what expression would she wear?
Jiang Ying truly hadn’t considered that question.
Reminding Su Heng to avoid that beastman had only been an impulse after hearing the broadcast interview. On closer thought, she had little sense of reality about that boss character, who seemed to exist only in the anime’s hidden storylines and the follow-up manga, let alone felt any fear.
It was like a setting within a worldview—too distant and abstract. And she, as a passerby extra not even qualifying as a side character in the manga, truly couldn’t forge any connection to such a major figure.
But from her perspective, Su Heng was scared precisely because of this matter, so she couldn’t act too indifferent or nonchalant in front of him either.
At a time like this, she thought empathizing with a dog’s mindset, then comforting him with praise, would work better than expressing her own honest feelings.
After pondering carefully, she continued petting the back of his neck while coaxing, “Of course, I’m afraid. But it’s okay—isn’t Su Heng here to protect me?”
Her words for coaxing her dog lacked any logic, aiming only to provide a bit of emotional comfort. But Su Heng was not a dog, and this approach had no effect on him whatsoever.
“You seem to have misunderstood.” Su Heng caught her hands that were groping everywhere to prevent her from touching his sensitive spots again. “I am merely your guide dog, not a guard dog.”
“Eh…”
Such an un-cute doggy.
But then again, what she’d fancied about him in the first place was precisely his steady and principled nature.
“Mm-hmm.”
Finding reasons to coax the doggy clearly wasn’t working, so Jiang Ying gave up entirely. His grip on her hands wasn’t too strong, and she pulled them free with ease, good-naturedly patting his back in consolation. “My doggy just needs to stay by my side. There’s no need to be so strong just to protect me. Isn’t there still A Lan? He’s a commander in the Federal Beastman Army—he should be pretty strong too, right? A Lan is a good dog as well. He’ll surely protect us.”
“…”
Su Heng’s gaze instantly turned cold.
The excitement only just drawn out by his predatory urge ground to an abrupt halt, a drastic swing as intense as yesterday’s fleeting fever.
He propped one hand on the sofa back beside her face, putting a little distance between them, and looked down to observe her expression. It wasn’t a particularly serious or earnest look; she just seemed to be half-heartedly coaxing him again. Yet her words didn’t sound false.
So that was how she viewed A Lanyin? He clearly wasn’t her dog, yet her opinion of him was this high.
Su Heng’s gaze dropped from her body and fell upon his own right hand.
That mechanical arm hung limp and powerless at his side. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t lift it even an inch.
“You think so?” he said coldly. “Because A Lanyin has an intact arm?”
Jiang Ying was given a start by his sudden mention of his right hand and recalled the words she had just spoken. Though she hadn’t meant them that way at all, her doggy had misunderstood.
She hugged him self-reproachfully. “Of course not! Don’t overthink it. No matter what you’re like, you’re still my most favorite doggy! And I promised you, I’ll definitely cure your arm.”
“…”
Su Heng fell silent.
That arm was something he had once lost. Losing it again couldn’t harm him in the slightest.
Even he himself didn’t know why he had subconsciously misinterpreted her meaning, subconsciously compared who he was in her mind to A Lanyin.
In front of her, afflicted as she was with cognitive disorder, every one of his serious thoughts seemed doomed to turn into a farcical joke.
He didn’t want to argue with her about this matter anymore.
The interview had also reached its end, capped off by Jin Congmin’s composed closing statement and the reporter’s unwilling expression.
Su Heng dodged Jiang Ying’s hand as she tried to pat his head and also ignored the vacant gaze she earnestly “looked” toward him with.
“Rest early.”
He pulled his knee off the sofa and stood up. “You still have work tomorrow—I’ll escort you.”
“Eh? But you’ve only just recovered. Shouldn’t you rest a few more days?”
“No need. It would violate the contract.”
He deliberately acted cold, but Jiang Ying seemed unable to pick up on his distant attitude.
“Wait!”
Jiang Ying grabbed randomly through the air. Her hand happened to catch the hem of his clothes sweeping past as he turned away. “We haven’t done today’s injection yet! The doctor said you need a stabilizer shot every day until the prosthetic body is removed.”
“…”
Su Heng stood still, debating whether to heed her or carry out this coldness to the end.
In those few seconds of hesitation, Jiang Ying had already let go of his hem and gotten up to get the medical kit.
She didn’t use the kit often, so her path to get it and her motion to reach for it were both exceedingly clumsy. As she fumbled, she figured she’d just place it on the coffee table where it would be easy to grab later and never put it away again. That way, her doggy could see it the very moment he returned each day and remember the stabilizer shot.
Of course, if she had to remind him every day, she’d be very happy to do so. If only she weren’t blind, she’d personally help him with the injection.
Jiang Ying set the medical kit down on the coffee table but had somewhat forgotten which direction Su Heng had just been standing in. Waiting two seconds without any movement, unsure which way to “look,” she had no choice but to ask the empty air, “Su Heng, are you still here?”
She hadn’t heard him leave just now, but on second thought, her doggy sometimes did walk a bit too silently.
She was a little worried. He might still be angry about her saying the wrong thing earlier by not noticing his mood, angry even now to the point of refusing his shot.
Thankfully, the doggy’s voice sounded from very close by.
“I’m here.”
Su Heng had already silently walked right in front of her.
Concealing his footsteps was key to a beastman surviving long on the battlefield and successfully killing the enemy. After the suppressant took effect, the pheromone scent, previously doubled by his heat, could also no longer be smelled by her. If he wished, she wouldn’t notice him at all.
At any moment, while she was utterly defenseless, he could snap her neck.
But Jiang Ying persistently believed he was her good doggy.
This sudden approach, brimming with uncertainty and pressure, an act that could be called a threat, didn’t strike her as offensive in the slightest.
She opened the medical kit, took out the box of needles she’d set aside separately the day before, and sat down on the sofa. As usual, she patted the spot beside her, signaling him to come over.
“I can’t see, so I can’t help you inject it. Yesterday I specifically asked the doctor how to do it. My doggy is so smart; I’m sure you’ll get it just from hearing it once!” After her praise, she asked uncertainly, “Su Heng, you’re not afraid of needles, right?”
“…” Su Heng sighed inwardly and obediently sat down beside her. “I’ll do it myself.”
So that was a no to being afraid.
Jiang Ying’s lips curved up, revealing two tiny dimples. “I just knew it—my doggy is the bravest of all.”
Su Heng no longer responded to her puppy-praising words and took the stabilizer from her hand.
She repeated Wenren Xu’s injection instructions from the day before, word for word. She’d put some thought into memorizing them, so they were crystal clear. Not a single word was missed.
This concerned the doggy’s health; she wouldn’t allow herself even a trace of carelessness.
Su Heng gave an “Mm” and quietly took another syringe out of his pocket.
It was about time to renew the estrus suppressant as well.
With this shot, perhaps he could thoroughly and completely break free from this state of being affected by her every word and deed.
In earlier years, he’d injected many such shots on his own. He really didn’t need any kind of instruction manual.
The stabilizer needed to go into the shoulder connected to the mechanical prosthetic body. He’d given himself injections at this spot countless times before, to maintain that arm of slaughter without letting himself succumb to a frenzy-induced berserk state.
And the estrus suppressant needed to go into the gland at the back of his neck. On the battlefield, when he needed to completely hide his pheromones, he’d also inject pheromone suppressant there.
Such actions were too familiar, to the point of having become muscle memory. He didn’t need to look to accurately plunge the needle in and push those drugs into his body.
Su Heng picked up the stabilizer with his intact left hand. As he pierced it into his shoulder and pushed the drug, he turned his head to look at Jiang Ying.
She was focused on “watching” him.
Encouragement was earnestly expressed in her empty gaze. She was biting her lip, using that small sting to balance the nervousness in her heart.
Was she worried about him? Under such a gaze, Su Heng’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The pad of his finger pressing on the syringe plunger applied force. The liquid in the tube was pushed into his blood vessels bit by bit, a bone-chilling cold instantly spreading through his limbs.
He didn’t pause his motion. Staring fixedly into her eyes just like this, he plunged the estrus suppressant into the gland at the back of his neck.
This shot was scorching hot. Clashing with the cold just prior, it made him shudder uncontrollably with excitement again.
Every cell in his body was screaming: Devour her, devour her, and she will belong entirely to you.
—In that instant, it was as if some unspeakable psychology had conjured an illusion of being satisfied.
And after the extreme emotions subsided, he felt, with genuine clarity, the grueling overlap of both drugs’ side effects and a tranquility within his heart that was no more than a mirage.
He thought he should confirm whether he still harbored any improper feelings toward her.
Yet Jiang Ying had no idea that she was tightly locked within his line of sight.
She heard him emit a pained sound from his throat, followed by broken, extremely heavy panting.
Her doggy seemed to be in great pain.
“Su Heng, did you finish the injection?” She was a bit anxious. “Does it hurt badly?”
“Yeah. It hurts badly.” Su Heng intentionally leaned closer to her. “Can you hold me?”
Jiang Ying didn’t hesitate for even a moment. She followed the sound of his voice and hugged him, stroking his back over and over again to soothe him. She also felt his forehead and was relieved only after confirming he didn’t have a fever again.
Just recovering from a serious illness, this was exactly the time to be vulnerable. She coaxed him with words like “obedient doggy is the best,” then cupped his face and planted a “smack” of a kiss on his forehead.
This time, Su Heng didn’t make a purring sound.
As she was still wondering why it was different from before, her doggy licked the side of her neck. Very light, but it quickly turned into a sucking pressure, so heavy that spot on her neck felt a stinging ache.
While she was puzzled by his subtle change, Su Heng arrived at his experimental conclusion.
He was no longer uncontrollably going into heat because of her.
Every action he was performing toward her right now stemmed from his own rational will.