Early in the morning, Wang Luan deliberately went far away from the bathing area to scoop water and wash her face.
During the day, especially at noon, this water was very cool, but in the early morning it carried a hint of comfortable warmth.
Strolling past the entrance of the small hut, she saw Yan Qiongyu lying on the airbed, still not up yet, and she relaxed.
Walking to the other side, she saw the Fifth Prince lying on the ground without moving, not making a sound either.
To prevent him from suddenly going mad again, he was still tied up, only there was just a single rope on him now, binding his hands. Wang Luan walked over, wanting to see if something had happened to him.
As she came closer, the Fifth Prince suddenly turned his head to look at her, and on his face, which had gradually lost its swelling, there appeared a trace of the flustered look of a child who had done something bad and been caught by their parents.
Wang Luan looked at this big guy in confusion as he nervously moved his cheeks, as if chewing something, and very clearly swallowed once.
“What are you eating?” Wang Luan looked at the stone beside him and guessed, “Are you eating stones?”
She was not about to pry his mouth open to see clearly, so she could only say, “Stop eating stones. That thing can’t be eaten.”
The Fifth Prince didn’t know whether he understood or not, but he opened his mouth and shouted, “Mom, water!”
Wang Luan was speechless. “I’m not your mom. There’s so much water over there. Can you stand up yourself and go over there to drink, okay?”
She didn’t bother with him, but after a while, when Wang Luan passed by the Fifth Prince again, she discovered that he had put something else into his mouth and bitten it.
“You’re eating stones again?” Wang Luan wanted him to spit it out, but the Fifth Prince stubbornly refused, and as if throwing a tantrum, he even chewed the thing in his mouth once more. This time Wang Luan saw it clearly—the black thing in his mouth had burst with juice after being bitten.
Burst with juice?
Wang Luan squatted on the ground, flipped over stones for a long time, and finally discovered a nest of black-shelled insects that looked like little stones.
As soon as she flipped the stone over, the little insects drilled into the soil and the cracks between the rocks, quickly disappearing without a trace.
Upon seeing these little insects, Wang Luan’s first reaction was actually: if they’re alive, can they be eaten?
Only after that came: damn ahhh ahhh they’re bugs!
With a stiff face, she asked the Fifth Prince beside her, “You were… eating… this stuff?”
Seeing her flipping stones, the Fifth Prince didn’t bother to catch them himself anymore, directly opening his mouth to eat, acting as if he were a little bird in a nest begging for food.
That robust physique had nothing to do with a little bird at all—more like a bear, not cute in the slightest.
Wang Luan sat to the side and observed the Fifth Prince, discovering that he might have already started looking for and eating little insects here since last night. No wonder she hadn’t brought him into the hut all night and he hadn’t shouted—so he had been looking for food.
Since he had eaten so many, it was probably not poisonous, but did that mean she also had to eat this stuff?
Her heart was torn in a battle between heaven and man. In the end, Wang Luan still lost to hunger. She was really hungry. Nutrient solution only supplemented a bit of the necessary nutrients; it could temporarily stave off hunger, but it was no match for food in filling the stomach.
When Yan Qiongyu woke from another bout of painful torment, he saw Wang Luan carrying a homemade small bucket with a lid, holding a pair of long tongs with an extended handle, searching for something in the cracks of stones in the shade.
The small bucket was placed in front of Yan Qiongyu. When the lid was opened, inside was a dense layer of crawling black-shelled insects.
“If there’s no other way, we can only eat this.” Wang Luan said, propping up her bug-catching tool.
Wang Luan thought Yan Qiongyu would be even more unable to stand these kinds of bugs than she was. Who knew that after taking two looks, he nodded and said, “Quite good. We have food now.”
That meant he was going to eat them. Wang Luan resigned herself to fate and carried the small bucket to continue catching bugs.
After she turned around, Yan Qiongyu regretfully glanced at the Fifth Prince rolling around by the stone cracks.
You’re lucky.
The bugs had been caught, but there was no way Wang Luan was going to eat them raw like the Fifth Prince, biting one and having it burst with juice. That was impossible. She absolutely had to cook them first before eating—this was her final bottom line.
So she caught about half a bucket of bugs, then went to rummage through the pile of materials nearby and made something similar to an air fryer.
She put the bugs into a sealed container, closed the lid, and could quickly cook them with electricity.
The machine hummed as it ran. Before long, Wang Luan smelled a waft of meaty aroma. Figuring it was about done, she turned the machine off. When she poured the bugs out and set them aside, their black shells had turned a dark red color.
Although they were giving off a faint, tempting fragrance, Wang Luan stared at them and just couldn’t bring herself to start.
Yan Qiongyu didn’t really want to eat, but seeing her like this, he reached out and picked one up to demonstrate for her.
Wang Luan stared at his movements, watching as he slowly peeled off the red shell on the outside, revealing the charred-yellow white flesh inside. The thumb-sized piece of white meat went into his mouth. He chewed for a while, then swallowed.
After finishing, he gestured to Wang Luan.
Seeing his fair fingers reddened from the heat, Wang Luan thought of last night and inexplicably felt a wave of awkwardness. She hurriedly took one of the bugs, imitated Yan Qiongyu, peeled off the shell, and ate it.
The tiny bit of bug meat slid into her stomach. There was no strange taste at all—on the contrary, it was a bit like lobster meat, tender and springy. The shell-peeling felt similar too; it was just a pity that there wasn’t much flavor.
Wang Luan hypnotized herself into thinking she was eating little lobsters, and sure enough, she felt much better. Yan Qiongyu sat to the side, like a companion who only eats peanuts without drinking alcohol, eating intermittently.
The Fifth Prince, having caught the scent, also moved over, rolling around and throwing a tantrum at the side, shouting “Mom” loud enough to shake the ground. Wang Luan was almost unable to withstand it. Seeing there were still some left, she asked Yan Qiongyu, “Are you still going to eat the rest? If not, can I give them to him?”
Yan Qiongyu said, “You caught them. Of course you can deal with them however you like.”
Wang Luan poked one and handed it to the Fifth Prince. He chewed it shell and all, making crunching sounds. When she was about to feed him a second one, Yan Qiongyu said coldly, “Let him eat it himself.”
Wang Luan withdrew her hand. Actually, she felt that just now she had been feeding some kind of large wild animal.
Over there, the Fifth Prince ate on his own with great gusto, banging the small basin holding the bugs with loud clanks.
Earlier, seeing that Yan Qiongyu had only eaten a few, Wang Luan had wanted to ask, “Do you not like eating this kind of bug? Even if you don’t like it, you should still eat more.”
Yan Qiongyu said, “No, I just feel unwell and don’t want to eat.”
His body was suffering due to intense reactions. Even if he ate, he wouldn’t be able to digest it. If this were the Imperial Capital Star, at this time he would inject himself with a nutrient shot.
Hearing him say this, Wang Luan’s expression grew even more serious, like the parents back in her hometown when they talked to rebellious adolescents about matters related to men and women—always having to appear extremely solemn and earnest.
She cleared her throat lightly and said, “You’re already this sick, so don’t do that kind of thing. It’s bad for your body.”
Yan Qiongyu: “…………Tsk.”
Wang Luan: Did he just tsk? Young people—talking to him about this is for the sake of his health, okay.
“You really didn’t see it,” Yan Qiongyu said bluntly, his tone calm. “I’m in my first heat.”
What heat? Wang Luan felt a “pop” sound go off in her head, as if a piece of paper had been poked through. After this hazy layer of paper was pierced, the memories on the other side became clear.
She thought of all of Yan Qiongyu’s various oddities, the pheromones he kept emitting, and suddenly felt that her behavior over the past few days had been downright stupid.
Everything that had happened these past few days, including what she had run into last night, washed through her mind like flowing water, making her so awkward she wanted to crawl all over the ground.
Yan Qiongyu asked her, “Do you need me to give you some science education about an omega’s heat?”
Wang Luan said weakly, “N-no need. I’ve read related knowledge.”
She had indeed read about it, but she had no sense of reality, so once she’d read it, that was that.
Objectively, she knew Yan Qiongyu was an omega, and she also knew that omegas had something called a heat period, but she had never once put these two things together. To her, it was as if there were an automatic barrier between those two words.
Wang Luan suddenly thought of something. “Then you weren’t sick with a fever—why did you say you were cold and wanted to hold me while sleeping?”
Yan Qiongyu answered calmly and directly, “Because that way I feel a bit better.”
Although textbooks said that omegas during this period would be more eager for their alpha’s touch, Yan Qiongyu really didn’t seem like someone who would have that kind of need.
The two of them had previously been very measured, a harmonious and friendly cooperative relationship, but within this single sentence, it was already on the verge of collapsing.
Yan Qiongyu looked open and forthright. Since the matter had been laid bare, he naturally posed the question. “Can you sleep with me? That way I’ll feel a bit better.”
Wang Luan knew that bodily fluid exchange could make an omega feel more comfortable during this period and alleviate pain, but she hadn’t known that hugging also worked.
She had more or less gotten used to sleeping while being held over the past couple of days. Now that she suddenly knew he wasn’t sick but reacting to a special period, being held again felt completely different, and her whole body started feeling off in every possible way.
She subconsciously paid attention to certain sensitive areas. Why was she only now realizing that Yan Qiongyu’s embrace was this hot? She felt like a pig roasted red-hot, or a roast duck.
The hand being held was damp, soft, and slippery, the palm full of sweat. So this counted as bodily fluid exchange too? But Wang Luan felt that if Yan Qiongyu kept sweating like this, sooner or later he’d get waterlogged from it.
What Wang Luan found most incomprehensible was this:
“I have a question.”
Yan Qiongyu gave a weary “mm” as a response.
Wang Luan said, “You’ve been sweating so much—why is there no sweat smell on you at all?”
Yan Qiongyu didn’t answer. He raised his hand and covered her mouth, using action to tell her to shut up.
At a time like this, he really had no energy to explain omega physiology to her. It had to do with the secretion of pheromones in their bodies.
Wang Luan pulled his hand down, but Yan Qiongyu caught her hand instead.
It was probably very hard to endure. From time to time he couldn’t help but grip tightly, then a moment later, as if coming back to himself, he would relax again.
Seeing her hand reddened from his grip, Wang Luan hesitated for a long time. “If you’re really feeling especially uncomfortable, I can…”
Yan Qiongyu: “…………” Based on his understanding of her, he didn’t think she could say anything pleasant.
Wang Luan said, “If it’s bodily fluid exchange, would you mind drinking my saliva?”
Yan Qiongyu revealed a look of surprise. He had seen how intense her stress reactions used to be—how could she possibly take the initiative to suggest something as intimate as kissing?
Wang Luan said, “I can spit it into a cup… mm.”
Yan Qiongyu once again covered her mouth.
This time, the force with which he covered her mouth seemed greater. Wang Luan muffledly said, “I’m joking.”
She’d only been trying to lighten the atmosphere just now, and to observe what kind of reaction he’d have to the suggestion.
He was very surprised, but she couldn’t see any rejection.
Wang Luan said, “Uh, using a different container works too.”
Before Yan Qiongyu could cover her mouth again, Wang Luan quickly blurted out the latter half of her sentence:
“Directly kissing works too.”
Yan Qiongyu’s hand paused, hovering in midair, then slowly settled down.
He didn’t move. The silence was so awkward that Wang Luan felt like she needed to suck in oxygen. Then Yan Qiongyu moved. He supported the back of Wang Luan’s head, leaned over, and touched her lips lightly, separating at once.
“All right,” Yan Qiongyu said in a low voice. “Thank you.”
Wang Luan froze, instinctively pointing out the flaw in this action. “But this way there won’t be any bodily fluid exchange?”
Yan Qiongyu let out a long breath. “Miss Wang Luan, at a time like this, please don’t talk anymore.”
