No Pampering the Vicious Cannon Fodder! [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 17

This kiss lasted for a very long time.

Until finally, it became a dull pressing of lips against lips. It wasn’t that anyone intended to delay, but rather that both parties involved were so stunned they forgot to move.

The first to snap back to reality was Xin Rong.

He staggered back a step, his gaze unfocused as he looked into the void. His entire being seemed to have lost its soul. The moist redness at the corners of his eyes had not yet faded, and his eyelashes were brimming with undried moisture.

He had stopped crying long ago, but a few meandering tear stains remained on his porcelain-white cheeks. The suspicious glistening at the corner of his mouth was no longer distinguishable as either tears or the silver threads left behind from the recent entanglement.

Jing Yue only dared to steal a hurried glance before quickly averting his eyes. His heart was crashing frantically against his chest, nearly vibrating enough to shatter his ribs.

He simply did not dare to look directly at Xin Rong, and even less did he dare to face the bastardly thing he had just done.

After a long while, Xin Rong raised his hand and touched his own lips. His expression held a kind of innocent confusion, like a newborn cub opening its eyes to see a strange world for the first time.

Then, he looked up.

His eyes, black as ink, were startlingly clear, filled with pure incomprehension.

“You…” His voice was muffled and dull, carrying the sandy hoarseness that follows a crying fit. “What did you bite me for?”

To be honest, Jing Yue had imagined countless reactions from Xin Rong.

Perhaps Xin Rong would be happy, since he was already deeply in love with him.

Perhaps Xin Rong would be ashamed and angry, since the two had not yet established a relationship and he had crossed the line without permission.

He had even prepared for the worst-case scenario: that Xin Rong would be disappointed, discovering that the person he had always been enamored with was actually a lustful, flighty, and frivolous bastard.

But he never imagined that Xin Rong’s reaction would be so simple, so… ignorant of the ways of the world.

It made all the pre-rehearsed justifications in Jing Yue’s mind feel like a desecration of that purity.

His brain was a complete blank, but his legs moved forward by instinct.

“Xin Rong, I—”

“Don’t… Don’t come over here!!”

Xin Rong instinctively backed away. Seeing Jing Yue approaching step by step, he nimbly ducked behind a tree, hugging the trunk tightly and hiding himself away completely.

In truth, he was terrified.

It was too strange.

All of this was too strange.

He touched his lips again, the sensation from moments ago still lingered there.

It was hard to imagine how such a strange feeling could exist in this world.

Jing Yue’s lips… were soft.

They were actually soft!

He had always thought that a cold and heartless person like Jing Yue should be hard all over.

But that softness was wrapped in an irresistible force, stubborn and fierce, nearly crushing his lips.

And that scent…

Although it was covered by the strong smell of gunpowder, he had clearly smelled a hint of a scent unique to Jing Yue. In its clean base, there was a faint metallic smell of rust, sharp and dangerous, like a blade drawn from its sheath.

Of course, the most baffling part was: why on earth did Jing Yue suddenly bite someone?!

Could it be that he was the type of monster that transformed during a full moon, and that was just a moment where his beastly nature erupted?

How could such an important setting not be written in the script!

As he was thinking wildly, Jing Yue approached once again.

Xin Rong startled and shrank his body back, but his foot accidentally got stuck in the mud, causing him to fall backward.

Jing Yue was quick to react. With a stretch of his long arm, he caught him.

In these desolate outskirts, the ground was covered in mud. He couldn’t play hide-and-seek with Xin Rong here, so he immediately clasped the boy’s wrist.

“Stop messing around.” his tone was low and brook no argument. “It’s not safe here, you’ll get hurt from a fall.”

Xin Rong avoided his eyes. In his panic, he instinctively wanted to bite his lip, but at the thought that these lips had just been bitten by Jing Yue, he unexpectedly didn’t quite dare to.

It was as if the lips bitten by Jing Yue no longer belonged to himself.

“But…” Xin Rong spoke blankly, his eyelashes trembling slightly like butterfly wings battered by rain, trying hard to suppress the urge to bite his lip. His voice was soaked in a moist grievance. “But you bit me.”

Jing Yue: “…”

Avoiding this thorny topic, he said instead: “Where do you live? I’ll take you back and treat your wounds.”

“Treat my wounds?” Xin Rong looked up abruptly, as if his ears had pricked up in alarm. “You?”

The memory of Jing Yue’s bandage technique—which was comparable to suicide—flashed quickly through his mind. He blurted out a deafening question: “Are you trying to murder me?”

Jing Yue was choked by this undisguised disdain. He helplessly changed his words: “Then are you hungry? I’ll make you something to eat.”

Xin Rong pursed his lips.

He had to admit, he was wavering.

Ever since learning Jing Yue had been taken away, he had been uneasy, even skipping dinner. His stomach had long since been empty.

But he was still wary, so he stiffened his neck and demanded righteously: “Then you must swear first that you won’t take advantage of me and bite me again when I’m not looking!”

Jing Yue didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Under the boy’s strict requirement, he held three fingers together by his ear and gave a formal, ‘may-heaven-strike-me-down’ poison oath. Only then did Xin Rong grudgingly believe that he wouldn’t bite people randomly again.

On the way back to Xin Rong’s apartment, they passed a clinic and stopped in for a full-body checkup.

Xin Rong hadn’t stayed in the fire for long and had worn a smoke mask, so he hadn’t inhaled much smoke or dust; his body was fine.

As for Jing Yue, when the doctor heard he had been in thick smoke for so long yet all his indicators were normal, the doctor looked as if he couldn’t believe someone could have such a superior constitution and confirmed it with him several times.

Fortunately, both were physically unharmed in the end and returned together to Xin Rong’s apartment.

Since coming to this world, Xin Rong had never cooked in the apartment. His three meals a day relied entirely on redeeming prepared food from the item mall.

The reason was simple: he didn’t know how to cook.

According to 050, this likely had nothing to do with amnesia. Even with amnesia, a task-taker wouldn’t lose basic life skills.

It only proved that Xin Rong had never set foot in a kitchen in his past life.

Jing Yue was not at all surprised by his pampered nature. He glanced in the fridge and saw it was indeed empty, so while Xin Rong was showering, he went to the convenience store downstairs.

By the time Xin Rong finished his shower and changed into pajamas, Jing Yue was already busy at the stove.

Xin Rong’s pajamas were something he had picked out while shopping in the uptown district—fluffy fleece fabric, with a pair of small deer ears sewn onto the hood. His slippers were the same deer design, with plum blossom paw prints on the soles.

He didn’t quite understand why he always felt a natural affinity for deer-related things.

Jing Yue heard the movement and looked back to see Xin Rong wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. His slender white arms and legs were exposed, his thin frame appearing faintly under the loose fabric.

His throat tightened, and he almost failed to steady the spatula in his hand. He gave a light cough to hide his fluster: “Done washing?”

Xin Rong leaned over and looked into the pot, frowning suspiciously: “What is this?”

“Tomato and egg noodles.”

Xin Rong pouted: “It doesn’t look like much.”

The red and yellow mushy mixture in the pot was bubbling. To be honest, its appearance was indeed hard to describe.

Jing Yue said patiently: “It’s too late. The supermarket had no fresh meat, and you won’t eat canned food, so there are only eggs.”

This explanation was reasonable; Xin Rong couldn’t find any more fault.

Furthermore, he was truly hungry.

Strange to say, though the noodles looked unremarkable in the pot, once they were on the table, the aroma was mouth-watering.

Xin Rong sat at the dining table, muttering complaints for a while before reluctantly taking a bite—then he fell silent.

Jing Yue thought he was dissatisfied. He was neither surprised nor angry, only coaxing him warmly: “Make do with it.”

Xin Rong lowered his head and began to eat, one forkful after another, unable to stop.

Jing Yue sat across from him, staring silently at the tabletop.

The atmosphere was eerily quiet.

As Xin Rong ate, he sensed something was wrong. He looked up and asked: “Aren’t you eating?”

Jing Yue shook his head: “You eat. I’m not hungry.”

Xin Rong lowered his head again.

He felt Jing Yue was a bit off, as if he had words bottled up inside. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and several times he seemed about to speak but stopped.

However, he was too hungry to care much. He could only eat slowly while waiting for Jing Yue to speak.

Finally, Jing Yue turned around to face him directly.

His knuckles tapped lightly on the table. His lead-gray pupils were covered by a thick fog, his emotions so deep they were unreadable.

“Xin Rong.”

Xin Rong looked up at the sound, the fluffy deer ears on his hood trembling. He specifically put down his fork and widened his eyes, signaling he was listening seriously.

“You should be aware of my situation.” Jing Yue lowered his eyes, his brow carrying a gravity it had never held before. “But I don’t know exactly how much you understand.”

Xin Rong blinked, giving a blank “Huh?” before asking, “What?”

Jing Yue took a long, deep breath.

He had been avoiding this conversation for a long time.

On one hand, he hadn’t figured it out himself. Ever since Xin Rong barged into his world, everything had been thrown into chaos. Several times he even felt that living in this muddled way wasn’t so bad.

But today, he saw with his own eyes Xin Rong taking risks for him.

He realized that Xin Rong’s feelings for him… were serious.

So he could no longer avoid it. He couldn’t delay such a sincere heart because of his own cowardice.

But now that the words were at the tip of his tongue, he found this conversation even harder than he had imagined.

Jing Yue was silent for a long time, his gaze wandering. Eventually, he closed his eyes again.

Xin Rong had been waiting patiently, but he couldn’t resist the fact that the noodles in front of him were just too fragrant. He finally couldn’t help himself and picked up the fork again.

Just as he was about to take another bite, Jing Yue spoke.

“I am a cripple, Xin Rong.”

Xin Rong’s hand froze in mid-air. The fork hit the edge of the plate with a clang.

Jing Yue, having said those words, looked as if half his life had been forcibly drained from him. His chest heaved violently and his breathing was rapid, yet it could not fill the tearing void inside him.

This was the first time he had ever admitted this to anyone—or even to himself—with his own mouth.

In the past, if anyone dared to say those words in front of him, he would surely use his fists to teach them a lesson, making them understand that even a cripple in their eyes could beat them until they looked for their teeth on the floor.

But in front of Xin Rong, he couldn’t find that same confidence.

He was a cripple; this made him forever unable to hold his head high before Xin Rong.

Xin Rong was stunned for a long while, his eyes full of shock.

Jing Yue suppressed the stabbing pain in his heart and continued to explain, tearing open his own scars: “I don’t have a gland. It’s innate, I can’t differentiate. The doctors say it can’t be cured, and medicine is useless. I don’t know if you truly understand what this means.”

To tell the truth, Xin Rong didn’t understand.

Because he knew that Jing Yue wasn’t a cripple at all.

He had merely been injected with a differentiation delayer. Once the plot reached the designated point, he would awaken as an SSS-rank Alpha, powerful enough to subvert the entire world.

So, he had never felt that Jing Yue had a disability.

But he also knew how much Jing Yue cared about this matter, even getting into fights over it.

That was why Xin Rong was so shocked when those words were spoken so nonchalantly by Jing Yue.

“What does it… mean?” he asked cautiously.

In an instant, Jing Yue had too many things he wanted to say, but when they reached his lips, they all choked in his throat.

What did it mean?

It meant he couldn’t give Xin Rong the love of a normal person, couldn’t give him a healthy marriage.

It meant he couldn’t get Xin Rong pregnant and couldn’t give him a complete family.

It meant his physical condition would make things difficult for him in the job market, and he couldn’t provide Xin Rong with a wealthy and stable life.

It meant that no matter where they went, people would point fingers at them, and Xin Rong would have his back poked as well, with people questioning why he chose a crippled partner.

It meant… he could list hundreds of disadvantages, but he couldn’t think of a single good thing that being with a cripple like himself would bring to Xin Rong.

Ever since he sensed Xin Rong’s feelings, and ever since he realized his own heart had been moved, Jing Yue had been thinking.

Thinking every day, thinking every night.

Thinking so deeply it almost drove him mad.

But now that the moment was here, he couldn’t say it, nor did he want to say it.

In some dark corner of his heart, he even held a shred of selfish and despicable hope.

He hoped Xin Rong would never know these things.

He hoped the boy would just keep liking him innocently, just as he did now.

Never knowing what he would lose by choosing him.

Never knowing what kind of price must be paid to spend a lifetime with a cripple—when he could have had a healthy and illustrious romance.

Reason and desire battled in the depths of his heart. Finally, Jing Yue only said, glossing over the specifics: “It means the road ahead will be very hard to walk.”

The air quietly stagnated as silence spread boundlessly.

After a long while, Xin Rong said very softly: “I understand.”

Jing Yue’s heart tightened: “Really?”

Xin Rong nodded heavily.

He understood the true intention behind Jing Yue’s words today.

Jing Yue was repeatedly telling him that he was a cripple and that the road ahead would be very difficult.

He was reasoning with him and appealing to his emotions, trying to use humanitarianism to move him into not adding fuel to the fire of a disabled person anymore.

Clearly, Jing Yue had long known that he had been deliberately suppressing and bullying him.

And now, he was advising him to stop.