The physical fitness of sentinels had already evolved far beyond that of normal humans. On top of that, with long-term training, a 3S-level sentinel could mobilize all the bones and muscles in their bodies during combat. It was no exaggeration to say that they were like walls of steel.
When the two sentinels fought, all rationality was thrown aside. In a state of extreme rage, they were like males in the animal kingdom fighting over a mate, relying purely on beastly instinct.
Each punch was thrown with full force. The pain from torn wounds burned like fire, infused with each side’s fury.
The emotions in their eyes were so intense it looked like they were ready to kill, and every blow burst out with anger, even slicing through the air with an audible whoosh.
With a dull thud, splinters of wood and dust filled the air, clearly visible in the light.
Xin Hexue wasn’t sure whether the cracking sound he heard was a sentinel’s bone breaking, but it was unlikely. It was more likely that Wei Zhuo had crashed into the wall, and a chair caught between him and the wall had split apart under pressure.
Even with strong bodies, sentinels were still made of flesh and blood.
Yan Ji swiftly wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, and there was a clear smear of bright red blood.
He sucked in a sharp breath, but before he could even catch his breath, the sentinel by the wall had already closed in at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye, landing a sudden, heavy strike.
Yan Ji turned his head to the side and the other party’s hand pressed down hard, pinning his head to the white wall so he couldn’t move.
His skull buzzed with a concussion-like sensation.
He had no doubt that Wei Zhuo wanted to smash his head into the wall and cement him in.
Wei Zhuo pulled his hand back.
Yan Ji spat out a curse.
The taste of blood spread in his mouth.
Replacing the restraining hand was a cold barrel of a gun.
The muzzle of a firearm with massive destructive power pointed at Yan Ji’s head without hesitation.
Wei Zhuo’s expression was cold and stern. His pitch-black pupils locked onto the target, his tone full of threat. “Stay away from him.”
Yan Ji curled his lips, and blood trickled from the corner of his canine teeth as he sneered, “Why should I listen to you? Who are you to him? You don’t even have access to the villa permissions, so what right do you have to bark here?”
The smell of gunpowder silently spread.
In the silence, the sound of a bullet being loaded rang out in the air.
Although the sentinel holding the gun looked calm, his actions and the sudden storm in his eyes showed that Wei Zhuo’s reason had already gone.
Xin Hexue frowned. His voice was hoarse, like it had been pushed to the limit. “…Enough.”
“Wei Zhuo.”
Wei Zhuo was slightly stunned.
Finally, his mind was called back.
The young man gently pressed down the arm holding the gun.
Wei Zhuo saw Xin Hexue lower his eyelids, and his eyelashes trembled slightly as he took the weapon from Wei Zhuo’s hand.
“You’re being too impulsive.”
“What’s wrong with you today?” Xin Hexue’s voice was soft, and his eyes was filled with a hint of disappointment, as if he was looking at a strange and frightening sentinel.
Wei Zhuo seemed to finally realize he had done a series of outrageous things.
As long as he left the boundaries of the Folded Zone, he never used force outside the training hall.
Whether as a highly trained senior sentinel, or as the second son of the Wei family, his identity and upbringing never allowed him to get into fights.
But… the young sentinel across from him had already committed an unforgivable crime.
Just seeing the overlapping red marks all over Xin Hexue’s body, Wei Zhuo could vividly imagine how the sentinel had licked, kissed, and bitten like a beast, testing the young guide’s limits again and again.
A raging fire burned in Wei Zhuo’s chest, the pressure building with it. Anyone could see from his face just how gloomy his mood was.
“He should be”…be dragged to the Sentinel-guide Court and put on trial, and finally executed by firing squad in a dark prison.
This was the most fair and just outcome Wei Zhuo could think of.
Only, he didn’t finish saying it.
The young man took a step back, and after putting some distance between them, he took the hand of the sentinel across from him.
Wei Zhuo looked as though he had been struck hard over the head.
Yan Ji didn’t look much better than Wei Zhuo. He stood there in a daze, as if he had been lucky enough to be blessed by a pure white angel.
He let Xin Hexue hold his hand, lift it up, and interlock their fingersntimately before Wei Zhuo’s eyes.
Xin Hexue’s eyelashes trembled, as though he had made up his mind. Then he parted his lips, and Wei Zhuo heard his final declaration.
“I’m with him now,” Xin Hexue said.
The young man confessed to the best friend of his late fiancé, perhaps hoping to receive a blessing.
A pair of dark and quiet eyes looked at Wei Zhuo.
Wei Zhuo’s throat was so tight he could barely breathe, as if the air itself was being stripped away, suffocating him.
He felt as though something inside him had collapsed, crumbling into flowing sand.
Wei Zhuo’s gaze swept over Yan Ji’s features…those eyebrows and eyes bore a thirty to forty percent resemblance to his friend, stabbing painfully into his vision.
His lips stretched into a cold, hard line as he blurted out, “This is just you giving up on yourself.”
Even though he knew how much the name of the deceased affected the young man, Wei Zhuo still said coldly as he left, “He Botian wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
He didn’t look at the young man’s disappointed expression.
With heavy, hurried steps, he left the villa without looking back.
Yan Ji cursed him out eight hundred times in his heart, both with and without profanity, but he didn’t say a word out loud. He didn’t want Xin Hexue to think he was someone with a foul mouth.
He sat down on the sofa with Xin Hexue, and couldn’t hold back his indignation. “What does he mean, being with me is giving up on yourself?”
“I’m sorry…” Xin Hexue clenched a fistful of his home clothes, his hands resting on his thighs.
“I didn’t tell you in advance and just used you as an excuse.”
Of course Yan Ji knew that Xin Hexue’s declaration of being with him was really just to drive Wei Zhuo away.
He looked at Xin Hexue.
The thin shirt clung to the young man’s slender back, his tied-up hair soft and curled on his shoulders.
There were also marks that were impossible to ignore.
Even his collarbones were covered in them, like someone had repeatedly bitten down.
Yan Ji’s voice went hoarse. “These… what happened?”
Seeing that Xin Hexue seemed hesitant to speak, he handed him a cup of warm water.
Cool wind blew in through the sliding window, and Yan Ji went over to close it tightly.
When he turned back around, the documents and blueprints that had been pressed under the sealed file envelope fell to the floor one by one.
As Yan Ji crouched down to pick them up, his gaze suddenly stopped, and his fingers crumpled the paper.
It was an application for a sentinel-guide compatibility test. One of the signatories was Wei Zhuo.
Xin Hexue also noticed the abnormality on Yan Ji’s side. Emotions flickered in his eyes, and he finally pursed his lips together. Although it was hard to speak about his situation, he still said softly, “After He Botian… died, my health has been poor, and my mental power has weakened.”
“Whether it’s the military or the Black Tower, everyone has been suggesting I match with a new sentinel.”
Yan Ji suddenly looked up.
When Xin Hexue met his gaze, he turned his head away, trying to hide his slight embarrassment.
“Wei Zhuo…He started acting strange during the last mental riot.”
“But I never thought he’d actually do something like this.”
His long, dark eyelashes trembled slightly, like butterfly wings in the rain.
Yan Ji suddenly recalled the time Xin Hexue was unable to keep his appointment with him because he had to work overtime work, and it was because the person he was guiding suddenly went into a riot.
Maybe things had already gone wrong even before that.
Yan Ji didn’t dare imagine what Wei Zhuo had done to Xin Hexue during the seven days he had been preparing for his exam.
“That bastard!” He stepped forward and hugged Xin Hexue, gently comforting his thin back.
Xin Hexue’s cheek was slightly cool, buried in the crook of his neck.
His back, trembling with each breath, felt like a handful of snowflakes.
Yan Ji really regretted not beating that bastard to death earlier.
So Xin Hexue hadn’t been ignoring his messages on purpose, it was because he had gone through something very bad.
Xin Hexue said slowly, “Can I ask you for a favor?”
Yan Ji asked, “What is it?”
Xin Hexue looked him in the eye. “Can you pretend to be my boyfriend? That way, they won’t make things too hard for me.”
Yan Ji knew “they” referred to the military, the Black Tower forces, and even Wei Zhuo.
He was dazed by the surprise, “Of course! Definitely!”
Yan Ji added, “If it’s not pretend… that would be even better.”
He couldn’t hide his desire to rise up the ranks, just like a stray dog that had just entered a warm home and couldn’t stop its tail from wagging uncontrollably.
But Xin Hexue didn’t respond to the last part.
But Yan Ji was already content. Anyway, there was no rush for something like this.
……
Xin Hexue didn’t show any intention of pursuing the matter.
He asked Yan Ji to keep it a secret.
After all, Wei Zhuo had been a close friend for years, and also He Botian’s good brother. Outside, he was a lieutenant general of the Empire. If this incident got out and blew up, it would be bad for everyone.
Yan Ji could understand, but that didn’t stop him from hating Wei Zhuo so much his teeth nearly broke.
During lunch, Xin Hexue asked, “Can you stay tonight?”
Tonight was Christmas Eve.
Yan Ji’s heart pounded like a drum, but he tried to act nonchalant. “Of course.”
How could he let Xin Hexue, a guide, spend the holiday all alone in the villa?
As the boyfriend, that would be too incompetent.
Even though both of them knew it was just pretend, Yan Ji still mentally adjusted his position accordingly.
Xin Hexue “Tomorrow is Christmas. Everyone at the research institute should be off… After the holiday, I’ll go with you to do a few exams, and then submit the sentinel-guide compatibility test application. Is that okay?”
He patiently asked for Yan Ji’s opinion, even worried that the sentinel would refuse. It was like…if tomorrow weren’t a holiday, he would’ve already dragged Yan Ji to complete all the preliminary procedures and submit the application.
It was like skipping the whole dating phase and going straight to a premarital checkup. Yan Ji’s brain went completely blank.
He asked cautiously, “Isn’t this a little too fast?”
Even though he wanted to be with Xin Hexue urgently, Yan Ji didn’t want Xin Hexue to make such a hasty decision just because of external pressure.
Xin Hexue lowered his eyes. “Besides doing it for the sake of the military and Black Tower, the things you said over the communicator… I’ve thought seriously about them.”
Yan Ji suddenly remembered all the things he’d said to salvage his pride in those messages. “No, don’t take it seriously. Just pretend I was out of my mind and randomly typing nonsense!” He was worried Xin Hexue would use that as an excuse to draw a clear line between them.
Xin Hexue lifted his gaze and said, “But I think you were right.”
“I really shouldn’t have kept things vague and… dangled you along.”
He used the exact wording Yan Ji had used in their chat logs.
“After He Botian left, I couldn’t move on. My emotions were a mess… so I couldn’t give you a clear response.”
Xin Hexue let out a breath, his shoulders relaxing and dropping slightly, like he had just set down some invisible burden. “But maybe this opportunity can let me try to accept…”
Yan Ji met those calm, watery eyes.
Xin Hexue: “Do you want to give it a try with me? Start from pretending to be a couple, and see where it goes.”
Xin Hexue added, “If it doesn’t work out…the application can be withdrawn within the month before the compatibility test results come out.”
Yan Ji couldn’t even remember how he clumsily agreed to it.
After Xin Hexue said he was tired and went to wash up and sleep, Yan Ji walked out of the bedroom in a daze. While cleaning up the mess in the living room left behind from the fight, he’d suddenly break into foolish little chuckles now and then.
He busied himself back and forth, even going out to water the flowers in the garden.
In fact, it was so cold that there was nothing but dried grass stems in the garden.
Yan Ji found a shovel with some mud still clinging to it, picked it up, and put it back in the garden’s tool shed.
As he passed by the dark, pitch-black cellar, he paused.
He glanced at the strange place.
‘A basement?’
Yan Ji looked at the pitch-black space.
The door was wide open, like it had been broken open with force, and the stairs led down into a deep space without light.
For some reason, when he looked into the deep space, Yan Ji had a feeling that something evil and disturbing was lurking down there.
His communicator suddenly rang.
He answered the call from Xin Hexue.
Xin Hexue’s voice was a little hoarse, with a hint of panting. “Yan Ji, can you come up for a moment?”
………
He thought it was something urgent and rushed upstairs in a panic.
When no one responded, he anxiously turned the bathroom door handle.
Unexpectedly, the door wasn’t locked.
Yan Ji’s mind went completely blank with a loud buzz.
The young man had his back to him, his snow-white body fully exposed. He had just rinsed with hot water, and faint pink spread across his skin from the steam.
The red marks all over him could almost reconstruct the entire sex scenario.
‘…Back, back entry?’ Yan Ji couldn’t help but think of it.
The long, straight legs had exquisitely defined lines.
Because the sentinel didn’t even try to hide his gaze, those legs tensed and clamped tightly together.
Yan Ji noticed that the ointment seeping down from between those legs was the same kind of gel ointment that stained Xin Hexue’s fingers.
Xin Hexue turned back slightly, closed his eyes, and his eyelashes were still damp.
“Sorry, I might need your help…”
“I can’t reach inside to apply the ointment.”
Xin Hexue lowered his head, bit his lip and held back for a moment, then asked, “Can you help me…” His eyes shimmered, and the faintly rising tone at the end of his sentence was like a feather brushing by. “Boyfriend?”
Yan Ji’s nasal cavity suddenly felt hot. He instinctively covered his nose, but blood poured out from between his fingers.
