Chapter 42: (a deep-water bonus update from a certain someone): legs are a little sore

Xie Li lowered her head and kissed Jin Zhaoye.

The tip of her tongue traced the shape of Jin Zhaoye's lips — nibbling a little, grinding slowly, unhurried and gentle.

At first, Xie Li hadn't intended anything; the kiss carried no particular desire.

Then Jin Zhaoye reached up and rested her hand on the back of Xie Li's neck, fingertips lightly grazing the sensitive skin around her gland.

An Alpha's gland is like a switch — one touch, and it ignites the other person's passion.

Xie Li's kiss turned scorching. Her tongue pried open Jin Zhaoye's lips and teeth, slipped inside, stirring and chasing after that other soft tongue.

Jin Zhaoye was so thoroughly tangled up in her that her breathing grew ragged, and from the narrow seam where their lips pressed together, a soft, ambiguous moan escaped.

The fire was lit. The thin blanket had slid to the foot of the bed at some point, and their clothes were being tossed to the floor one by one.

Only when Jin Zhaoye's cheeks were flushed crimson and she was weakly slapping at Xie Li's wrists with a boneless waist did Xie Li finally stop.

Stop — but not withdraw her hands.

Xie Li gathered Jin Zhaoye into her arms, resting her chin on Jin Zhaoye's shoulder, breathing softly.

Jin Zhaoye was breathing even harder than she was — like someone who had just sprinted eight hundred meters — the skin of her chest trembling faintly with every breath.

'Have you rested enough?' Xie Li murmured against her ear.

'Wait a... sec...'

Jin Zhaoye hadn't even finished refusing before Xie Li was at her again, teeth sinking in.

Alpha teeth pressed into her gland — a faint sting and a wave of intense pleasure crashed over her at the same time.

Jin Zhaoye clutched the bedsheet beneath her, her waist going taut, every muscle in her body straining.

The scent of lime and mint poured wildly from between Xie Li's teeth, flooding into Jin Zhaoye's gland without restraint — cool to the point of burning.

It was like a wildfire surging through her body; the Alpha's pheromones hit Jin Zhaoye so hard she was nearly tipping into heat.

Come to think of it, her heat was almost due.

She moved suddenly — seized Xie Li's wrists, pinned both her hands above her head, then flipped over and sat astride Xie Li's hips.

Her long legs locked around Xie Li's waist; her hair cascaded from her shoulders, veiling the view of her chest.

Her eyes were half-lidded, and the look she fixed on Xie Li below her was anything but gentle.

Xie Li stared up at that aggressively beautiful, utterly irresistible expression and couldn't help swallowing against her suddenly dry throat. 'Dr. Jin... what's gotten into you?'

Jin Zhaoye said nothing. One hand braced on Xie Li's shoulder, the other pressed over Xie Li's mouth, and she rolled her hips and began to move.

Her core strength was formidable — she could control the rhythm with perfect precision.

Now fast, now slow, like waves breaking against a reef, leaving a trail of glistening, drenched marks wherever they passed.

Xie Li's cheeks slowly flushed crimson beneath Jin Zhaoye's palm — not from breathlessness, but from sheer excitement.

She cooperated, wrapping her hands around Jin Zhaoye's waist, palms flush against her skin, feeling every rise and fall, every flex and release of the muscles beneath.

When Jin Zhaoye slowed, Xie Li helped her pick up the pace, guiding her up and down, rocking her side to side.

The firm, defined lines of muscle at Xie Li's hips gave Jin Zhaoye something exquisite to work against.

Those slightly raised ridges — every time they dragged against her, Jin Zhaoye would shiver.

Whenever she brushed against the swollen head that pushed forward to meet her, Jin Zhaoye would tilt her head back, a long, drawn-out sigh spilling from her throat.

Outside the window, the sky darkened by degrees, the room's evening glow dissolving into an impenetrable black.

All that remained in the room was the sound of two bodies breathing together, tangled and intertwined, and the thick, heady scent hanging in the air that nothing could dispel.

Xie Li lay spent on the bed; Jin Zhaoye draped herself over her, cheek pillowed on Xie Li's shoulder, the inner muscles of her thighs still twitching faintly.

'Tired?' Xie Li's palm rested on Jin Zhaoye's bare back, fingertips tracing inch by inch over the gentle ridge of her spine.

'Mm... my legs are a little sore...'

Jin Zhaoye didn't have the nerve to say that it was also a little sore there — and that things had gotten a bit out of hand toward the end, because now it felt hot and tender.

It was all Xie Li's fault, flooding her gland with that much pheromone. If not for that, she never would have lost control and done something like riding her.

'Do you want to get up and eat something? After we eat, come back to the room and I'll massage it for you.'

Jin Zhaoye murmured her agreement, climbed off her, and reached for her clothes to put them on — only for Xie Li to stop her.

Xie Li took out a pack of wet wipes and carefully cleaned her, then went over her again with a dry cotton cloth, thorough and unhurried, before finally picking up her underwear and helping her dress.

First the innermost layer — the small scrap of fabric threaded over Jin Zhaoye's pale, fine-boned feet, drawn slowly up her fair, slender calves, and finally settled perfectly into place.

Then the top — since they had both dressed for ease of movement, they were wearing sports bras. After Xie Li helped her into it, she reached inside to have a little feel, and was stopped by a single look from Jin Zhaoye.

'I'll do it myself. Go put your own clothes on — don't waste time.'

'Fine.' Xie Li withdrew her hand with obvious reluctance, turned around, and dealt with the pooled evidence on her lower abdomen.

That particular trace had already dried, pulling tight against her skin.

Xie Li raised a hand and touched it — a little stiff, and still carrying Jin Zhaoye's scent. Sweet and fragrant.

For a moment she couldn't quite bring herself to wipe it away. Maybe she'd just leave it?

Jin Zhaoye finished dressing and turned around to find Xie Li staring down at her own stomach in a daze. It wasn't hard to guess what was going through her head.

Annoyed, she grabbed the wet wipes, pulled out two sheets, and threw them over. 'Wipe it off!!!'

'Fine, fine, I'm wiping it — what's with the attitude.' Xie Li muttered under her breath.

By the time the two of them had tidied themselves up and emerged, another ten-odd minutes had passed.

Lan Ran gave Xie Li a magnificent eye-roll.

The reek of new love!!! It was suffocating her!!!

Absolutely insufferable! Were these two trying to do each other to death in that bed?

Not a shred of self-restraint between them — what was she, a single dog who'd been saddled with a baby ahead of schedule, supposed to do about it!?

For all her internal griping, Lan Ran still handed the two of them the porridge she'd ladled out earlier to cool: 'Eat up. Xiaobao and I already ate. There's more in the pot — help yourselves if it's not enough.'

Xie Li hunched over her bowl and began wolfing it down. She finished one bowl, ladled herself another of the hot porridge, and slowed to a more measured pace.

Jin Zhaoye finished one bowl and was full. She set down her bowl and walked at a leisurely pace toward the bathroom.

Lan Ran waited until Jin Zhaoye's figure had disappeared down the hallway, then quietly scooted closer to Xie Li and lowered her voice: 'The way you two are going at it — don't go making a life.'

Xie Li's mouth was full of porridge; she answered indistinctly: 'We're both girls, how would we ever...'

Lan Ran fixed her with the look reserved for shameless scoundrels — the kind that said: try playing dumb with me one more time and see if I don't knock your head clean off.

She stared at Xie Li and said, word by word: 'You marked her, didn't you?'

Xie Li swallowed her mouthful of porridge. 'It was a temporary mark.'

'Temporary mark my ass. I'm pretty sure there's been a deep mark by now — my goddess smells like you all over. The way you're carrying on, how could there not be consequences.'

Xie Li's expression shifted from confusion to alarm.

She kept forgetting about this world's particular nature — she and Jin Zhaoye weren't simply two ordinary girls; they had a second gender, and two girls like them together could, in fact, have children.

'Then... what do we do? How do we avoid getting pregnant? In an environment like this, getting pregnant and having a baby would be terrifying.' Xie Li said, tense.

Lan Ran looked at her and felt equal parts exasperated and amused. She hadn't thought about any of this while she was going at her goddess like an animal in that bed — and now she was scared.

'Just bite a little less next time,' Lan Ran said, softening her tone with a hint of reassurance. 'You're a B-rank Alpha — getting an SS-rank Omega pregnant isn't that easy. The rank gap is right there; your pheromone concentration isn't even in the same league...'

Before she could finish, Xie Li had already set down her bowl and scooted toward her, her expression peculiar — squirming, with something clearly on the tip of her tongue: 'I have a friend...'

Lan Ran smiled knowingly, crossed her arms over her chest, and settled into the posture of someone who was very much ready to be entertained.

'Go ahead. What's wrong with your friend?'

Xie Li avoided Lan Ran's teasing gaze, lowered her lashes, and fixed her eyes on the dancing flames in the fire bucket as she voiced her confusion.

'My friend recently started dating someone, but every time after she and her girlfriend are... intimate, she always feels completely drained. Like her body's been hollowed out — weak in the waist, weak in the legs, like everything's been wrung out of her.'

Lan Ran couldn't hold back a laugh. She turned her head away, shoulders shaking, and laughed for a good while before she recovered.

She dabbed at the corners of her eyes, turned back, and patted Xie Li on the shoulder. 'Ahem — tell your friend to watch herself. Show some restraint.'

'An Alpha's physical condition is closely tied to the pheromones stored in her gland. If you — if your friend drains her pheromones to empty every single day without giving them time to replenish, of course she's going to feel hollow. It's like a power bank: if you run it down to zero every day and never let it charge, then expect it to be full the next morning — do you think that's possible?'

Xie Li nodded thoughtfully. 'I see. Is there any way to replenish them faster?'

'No.' Lan Ran spread her hands with an expression of helpless sympathy. 'That's just how lower-rank Alphas are. Pheromone concentration and production rate are both tied to rank — if the rank doesn't go up, the output doesn't go up.'

'Unless your friend raises her rank. That's the only way to match an SS-rank Omega's pheromones — supply and demand in balance, and she won't be hollowed out anymore.'

Lan Ran finished speaking and gave Xie Li a long, meaningful look.

Xie Li shifted uncomfortably under the gaze and said stubbornly: 'Don't look at me like that. I told you, it's my friend.'

'Right, right, your friend.' Lan Ran watched her with undisguised amusement, her face the picture of someone who lived for this kind of drama. 'Your friend is so lucky to have a bestie as devoted as you — worrying about something like this on her behalf.'

Xie Li flushed with embarrassed indignation, shot to her feet, and was about to demonstrate exactly what maternal wrath looked like.

Lan Ran laughed and dodged backward, dropping her voice to a warning: 'I'd advise you to know when to stop — you might not actually win against me right now.'

'I'll give you one hand.' Xie Li rolled up her sleeve, baring half a pale forearm, chin tilting up with insufferable arrogance. 'One hand is all this big sister needs to take you down.'

Lan Ran laughed even harder. 'No, no, no — save that one hand for someone else.'

The two of them were in the middle of their cheerful scuffle, shoving and jostling, when Jin Zhaoye returned.

She took one look at the two of them tangled together and asked offhandedly: 'What are you two making a fuss about now? It's pitch dark out — you'll attract the mutants up here.'

Xiaobao licked a smear of milk from the corner of her mouth and said in her soft, babyish voice: 'They were talking about pheromones, and then something about being hollowed out, and feeling really drained...'