At the end of the wasteland was a vast expanse of black rocky mountain ranges; the undulating mountains were like black waves frozen upon the earth.
This stretch of mountains, like the wasteland, had no vegetation at all, but within the crevices of the rocks lived all kinds of insects, which were also the only edible things here.
The sun had just risen, the temperature cool and comfortable; it was at this time that those insects which spent most of their time hidden deep in the cracks would appear on the surface, making them relatively easy to catch.
Wang Luan did not stay inside the sinkhole all the time. She had already walked over several of the surrounding black stone mountains; setting other things aside, her skills at climbing mountains, rock climbing, drilling into holes, and catching insects had been fully exercised.
Yan Qiongyu lay quietly in the little hut, sleeping in a stupor. Wang Luan did not feel at ease leaving the foolish Fifth Prince alone in the sinkhole, worried that if he suddenly recovered his sanity he might do something to the fragile Little Yan classmate, so she could only bring him along when going out to look for food.
A long rope was tied to the Fifth Prince’s hand, with the other end held by Wang Luan. Whenever a powerful pulling force came from the other end, when Wang Luan could not tug at all the Fifth Prince who wanted to dig into the cracks to bite insects, she would have the illusion that she was walking a large dog.
“Come here, stop digging downward!” Wang Luan shouted.
The Fifth Prince turned a deaf ear, wholeheartedly digging for insects.
Wang Luan: “Ah! Ah, there are so many insects over here! So much to eat!”
The Fifth Prince immediately lifted his head.
Before lifting a large rock, one never knew what kind of bizarre-looking insects would appear.
Every single kind challenged the limits of Wang Luan’s aesthetics; out of sight, out of mind, she grabbed them all with tongs and stuffed them into a sealed bucket, absolutely refusing to look at them again until it was time to eat.
Stuffing the large insect the Fifth Prince had caught into the bucket, Wang Luan was speechless: “I’ve told you so many times, don’t eat them raw! Don’t eat them raw!”
The Fifth Prince, whose insect had been snatched away, sprawled in a big lump on the ground throwing a tantrum, letting out a bear-kid shriek: “Mom! Ah! Mom!”
“Stop calling mom, calling dad won’t help either.”
Although the Fifth Prince was not clear-headed, Wang Luan would occasionally have some meaningless exchanges with him; after all, there were only three people here.
Just a few days earlier, the Fifth Prince had been ferociously lifting her up and smashing her around, and later she had grabbed the Fifth Prince’s face and punched it hard; at that time, who could have imagined that today they would be crouching together digging for insects, calling each other mother and child.
The encounters of life really were—wonderful beyond words.
Hearing her say dad, the Fifth Prince suddenly quieted down, then squeezed out a sentence: “Stepdad!”
“Huh?” Wang Luan was surprised. “You have a stepdad too? Isn’t your birth mother His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire? Who’s your dad? Could it be that you were registered under the Queen since childhood, and he abused you?”
Wang Luan mentally filled in a whole series of palace-intrigue literature from ancient and modern times, Chinese and foreign alike.
She wasn’t very clear about matters of the royal family, and happily let her imagination run wild.
The Fifth Prince wouldn’t answer her anyway; he only muttered on about stepdad and the like. After returning to the sinkhole, the Fifth Prince suddenly pointed at the little hut and said to Wang Luan: “Stepdad!”
Wang Luan: “…………” So the stepdad you’re talking about is him!
Wang Luan: “If he hears that and beats you up, I won’t care.”
“I’ve already heard it.” A shadow sat up from the bed inside the hut; even without being able to see his expression clearly, there was a sense of danger lurking in the darkness. “What are you talking about, so happily.”
The Fifth Prince stood behind Wang Luan, pointing at Yan Qiongyu and fanning the flames: “Stepdad!”
Wang Luan gave him a smack: “Stop talking nonsense, not stepdad, original dad!”
Probably rendered speechless by her “original dad,” the shadowy figure in the hut lay back down again, no longer paying any attention to their foolish talk.
Wang Luan sent the rebellious foolish (Fifth Prince) off to play to the side, then walked to the doorway of the little hut, leaned in, and asked, “How is it, are you feeling okay now?”
“I won’t die.” Yan Qiongyu said. The final surge before it ended really was the hardest to endure.
He took out the last suppressant and injected himself; even his hand was trembling slightly.
Wang Luan: “What are you injecting?”
Yan Qiongyu: “Suppressant.”
Hearing this, Wang Luan said happily, “So you brought suppressants. You should have said so earlier.” That way she wouldn’t have had to worry about whether he would die in pain.
Yan Qiongyu: “The last one.” He only had three in total, and would only use them when he sensed his body was nearing the critical point.
Wang Luan: “…………”
She had been happy too early.
That made sense. Normally, something like suppressants was like emergency sanitary pads—who would carry so many around.
The concentration of free pheromones in the air rose again, especially inside the hut; smelling them made her whole person feel positive and uplifted, her emotions high, with a strong urge to do good deeds.
So she lay down on the other side of the air-cushion bed, preparing to catch up on some sleep.
Before long, Yan Qiongyu indeed reached out to hold her, leaning against her and taking deep breaths.
Wang Luan had smelled herself many times and was certain there was no pheromone scent on her body, so what exactly was he inhaling? Breathing in the happy pheromones, Wang Luan thought about this question.
These past few days, Yan Qiongyu had only occasionally replenished water and rarely eaten; the pain inside his body never ceased for a moment. He likely hadn’t rested well either—enduring like this, it was inevitable he would look haggard.
But his looks were simply too outstanding. Even haggard like this, he didn’t look ugly at all; instead, there was a kind of melancholy, decadent, fragile beauty, making people unable to resist feeling pity. In a certain sense, it was the kind of exquisite appeal that cut across genders.
The killing power of good looks was too great, even enough to gradually suppress psychological shadows.
Not long after Wang Luan closed her eyes, she suddenly felt as though she heard something.
She opened her eyes and found that Yan Qiongyu was also awake. He gazed into the void, then lowered his eyes and said, “The sound of a fleet landing.”
Wang Luan leapt over him and ran outside. In the clear daytime sky appeared conspicuous black dots, like a swarm of insects diving down from the heavens. Their landing site was not far from here.
If it had been two days earlier, seeing that someone had come, no matter which side it was, she would have been very happy. But now, she only felt worry—worry for Yan Qiongyu.
Yan Qiongyu’s heat hadn’t passed yet. He was a top-tier omega; although his pheromones didn’t have that kind of allure for her, they had extremely strong influence on normal alphas.
If it was the Fifth Prince’s legion that had come, that would be bad. That legion was full of alphas; when the time came, it would likely cause chaos.
If it was people from the Wang family, that went without saying—they would press her down and force her to complete a full mark on Yan Qiongyu.
When the disparity in rank was too great, the chances of a forced mark succeeding during an omega’s first heat were higher. Even she knew very well that the Wang family had always been waiting for the day Yan Qiongyu entered heat so that they could carry out a complete mark.
Having gone through the previous attempt, she also knew that a complete mark was not something Yan Qiongyu’s prior delaying tactics could achieve.
These people had come too quickly. If only it were two days later, waiting until Yan Qiongyu’s state had ended. Thinking this, Wang Luan quickened her pace and walked into the little hut.
Yan Qiongyu sat up, leaning against the bed. Just judging by his posture, probably no one would be able to tell what kind of pain he was enduring.
Only by touching his body could one sense that his entire body was spasming and trembling.
Wang Luan didn’t say much to him. She stepped forward, hoisted him onto her back, and walked outside.
The Fifth Prince was rummaging through her bucket of insects. Seeing her come out, he hugged the bucket and came over, asking her to help fry insects for him to eat.
Wang Luan glanced at him and said hurriedly, “You wanted to kill me before, and I beat you stupid too. We’re even. That’s it—don’t follow me.”
With that, she took Yan Qiongyu and entered the black stone mountain range.
When she searched for insects in the black stone mountains, she had once discovered many naturally formed tunnels within the range. She had gone in to take a look; inside they were intricate and crisscrossing. She hadn’t dared go too deep before retreating.
This time, carrying Yan Qiongyu on her back, she went in and kept walking deeper.
Yan Qiongyu raised no objections or questions to her series of actions. He looked at Wang Luan’s profile and even, in such circumstances, revealed a faint smile. What she was doing had once again exceeded his expectations.
“I’ll try to take you through these two days in hiding. After your estrus ends, we’ll go out again,” Wang Luan said. “Although at a time like this I should probably add something comforting like ‘don’t be afraid,’ I feel like you don’t seem afraid.”
Behind her, the speed of his heartbeat was steady and slow, not even faster than the last time he kissed her.
“Did you find this tunnel while looking for insects?” Yan Qiongyu brought up a topic completely unrelated to the situation outside.
Wang Luan: “Yes. Nature really is astonishing—tunnels like this are actually naturally formed.”
Yan Qiongyu was touching her hair. She felt her face itch, and his fingers slowly moved to her face.
Wang Luan: “…This isn’t really the time to be doing this, is it?”
Yan Qiongyu was very calm: “There are insects in your hair, on your face.”
Only then did Wang Luan suddenly understand what Yan Qiongyu meant earlier by “Did you find this tunnel while looking for insects”—he was saying there were a lot of insects in here.
Feeling his hand touch her neck, Wang Luan imagined insects on her neck. In an instant even her neck stiffened, and she murmured, “Save me.”
In the darkness, Yan Qiongyu laughed softly by her ear.
It would have been better if Yan Qiongyu hadn’t said anything. Once he did, Wang Luan began to feel that the dark tunnel was full of insects everywhere.
Something cool brushed her face, like an insect fluttering straight at her; her heart went cold with it. “You’re gloating again. Can’t we have even a little sense of sharing hardship together?”
As she spoke, her face hurt for a moment.
“Hiss…” Wang Luan shook her head hard, flinging the insect off her face.
“What happened?”
“An insect pounced onto my face and stung me.” Wang Luan frowned miserably.
Yan Qiongyu’s fever-warm fingertips touched her face, brushing past the wound.
He suddenly lifted Wang Luan’s chin, made her turn her face to the side, and licked her face once, licking away the tiny bead of blood seeping from the wound.
The tip of his tongue tasted a hint of metallic tang, then it was swallowed down his throat.
The wet, soft sensation on her face was far too vivid. Wang Luan almost crashed into the cave wall, only able to let out a flustered, overwhelmed sound: “Save me!”
Yan Qiongyu was amused again by her reaction.
Wang Luan was extremely puzzled: “The current situation should count as critical, right? Why are you so happy?!”
Yan Qiongyu: “Sorry. I just think that Miss Wang Luan is a bit…”
Wang Luan: “A bit stupid?”
Yan Qiongyu: “Cute.”
The last time something he found cute was a strain of meteorite virus that Doctor Hu Qingyu had once shown him.
