Vicious Cannon Fodder? No, He’s a Darling Wife! - Chapter 12

Mo Lian found the meal ash-like in her mouth. After forcing down a few bites, she headed straight for the surveillance room. She was desperate to find a breakthrough via Yuan Su.

No matter how powerful a virus is, it requires a transmission vector, and Yuan Su was the only person who had been in close proximity to the little girl. Perhaps he was already infected, a ticking time bomb waiting for the right trigger to transform into a monster.

To gather more intel, Mo Lian knew she had to interrogate him immediately. Every detail of the incident no matter how small could be the key. She couldn’t afford to ignore anything. But what if it’s all for nothing?

That flicker of doubt rooted her to the spot for a second. She took a deep breath, composed herself, and pushed forward.

Entering the monitor room, Mo Lian handed her colleague a cup of water. “How is he?”

“Thanks,” the colleague replied, nodding toward the screen. “He’s been quiet. Fell asleep a while ago sleeping like a log, actually.”

Mo Lian turned her gaze to the monitor. Even through the low-resolution feed, the youth’s slender silhouette was captivating. The glimpse of pale skin peeking from his sleeves looked like fine jade; the slight distortion of the camera only added a layer of fragile vulnerability that screamed for protection.

Her colleague seemed to share the sentiment, letting out a regretful sigh. “No wonder. No wonder Qin Zhao married a man.”

Mo Lian didn’t respond. She stared at the motionless youth on the screen before saying, “You’ve worked hard. Go grab some dinner; I’ll take over. I’ll notify the Colonel immediately if anything changes.”

The colleague didn’t argue and left the room. Once the door clicked shut, Mo Lian activated the intercom. As the camera lens zoomed in, her cold voice echoed in the cell:

“Wake up.”

It was impossible to reject such a soft, fragrant embrace.

The tentacles had initially intended to drag the youth out from where he was buried against “his” body, but the moment they touched him, they acted against the host’s will. They coiled around Yuan Su with predatory affection, clinging tightly.

The tips of the suckers even tried to prick his soft skin, seeking to “root” themselves like plants to siphon the sweetness that drove them into a frenzy.

The pleasure born of hunger surged, yet as the youth made his affectionate move, a bizarre new emotion bled into the mix. To the monster, Yuan Su was both a delicious meal and a treacherous, hypocritical wife.

Ordinarily, a “wife” meant nothing to a creature of this scale, but right now, Yuan Su smelled so divine that “he” was trembling. Every vein beneath the monster’s skin throbbed, screaming to possess him at any cost.

This strange exhilaration was something “he” had never felt before not even the act of consuming other organisms could compare.

Qin Zhao or what remained of him couldn’t refuse. Greed took hold. He wanted to crush the person in his arms, to squeeze every drop of essence from him in a bloody, intimate display.

But the youth pressed against him was so tiny, so frail. A single over-excited squeeze from a tentacle would snap his life away.

If Yuan Su became infected, his “frequency” would be tainted by the monster’s own, and that intoxicating scent would vanish. One of the few things capable of sparking the monster’s interest would be gone but the “weakness” he represented would also disappear.

Two wills tore at each other in the dark.

Infect him. Make him part of the whole.  Protect him. Greedily savor his sweetness forever.

The youth was curled up now, or rather, he was so thoroughly cocooned by the tentacles that he was forced to nestle against the main body like a kitten. His skin was slick with sweat, and his cheeks were flushed from crying. Hot, damp tears stained the face that even Qin Zhao’s lingering human aesthetics deemed flawless.

Disheveled and helpless, he looked like a delicate flower that had been violently handled crinkled and pitiful, leaking fragrance with nowhere to hide. He could only huddle there, trembling, at the monster’s mercy.

And all the while, he murmured “Husband” under his breath, each call softer and more aggrieved than the last.

Slowly, the human side of his consciousness gained the upper hand. In the boundless darkness, the man’s lips curved into a sliver of a satisfied smile.

Crying was exhausting work. Combined with the thorny grip of the tentacles, Yuan Su felt waves of suffocating dizziness. His skin felt feverish until a cool, large hand tilted his chin up.

The touch was like a cold, slick snake. Yuan Su shivered instinctively, but he craved the chill, nuzzling his soft, flushed cheek against the hand.

His jaw was held firm by cold, pale fingers. Yuan Su’s mind cleared slightly, and his wet lashes fluttered open.

Finally, he saw his “dead-ghost” husband’s face clearly.

It was a face of extreme, inhuman beauty too sharp and sculpted to be real. Countless tentacles writhed around the man like living spores or a nest of serpents. The scene was so macabre that even the prepared Yuan Su held his breath.

“Husband…” he whispered, his voice shaking.

Qin Zhao lacked any “human” warmth; he radiated a bone-chilling, ghostly aura. His eyes, a haunting mix of deep blue and violet, fixed onto Yuan Su the moment he heard the title. His pupils were like jagged abysses, threatening to swallow a person’s soul whole.

Like a vibrant, venomous serpent, a single look was enough to drag someone into a vivid, hallucinogenic nightmare. Yuan Su froze, his vision blurring into a chaotic mess of colors. His soul and body felt forcibly separated as his consciousness began to be eroded by that single gaze.

He was like a clean, fragile sheet of paper, moments away from being stained.

But Qin Zhao had no intention of polluting him yet. If Yuan Su stayed any longer, he would be absorbed into the creature’s mass by default. The man reached out and covered the youth’s eyes.

“Time to wake up.”

But the youth let out a heartbroken sob, his voice thick with tears. “No!”

Yuan Su wailed, throwing his arms recklessly around the man’s lean waist. “If I wake up, I won’t see you anymore… I don’t want that! I can’t let you go!”

“Husband… while you were gone, I was so scared. Everyone bullied me because I was alone. They’ve even locked me up now…”

The youth panted for air, his shoulders shaking. The tears flowed like an open dam as he looked up at Qin Zhao, pouring his heart out. “I miss you every day. I miss you so much… please don’t abandon me…”

He sobbed for a long time, but received no response. The weight of his “grievances” finally broke him; his face went pale, and he didn’t even dare to cry out loud anymore.

“Why… why won’t you talk to me? Are you just going to let them treat me like this?”

Qin Zhao watched the beautiful youth the one who had poisoned him and caused his human death weeping as if he had lost his true soulmate. Every tear felt searingly real, hot and sincere.

The youth trembled, his full, rosy lips parted like overripe fruit, exuding a heavy sweetness.

“Do you…”

The scent—that inner, biological nectar—suddenly intensified. It was rich, heady…

Yuan Su lowered his lashes, a single tear rolling from his reddened eyes. “…not love me anymore?”

Fragrant. So fragrant it was maddening.

It was a thousand times more delicious than the taste of “fear.” Just smelling him made the monster’s entire body tingle. It made Qin Zhao realize that every “prey” he had devoured over the years had tasted like dry straw.

Only this sobbing, fragile little liar was a true delicacy.

Mo Lian called out several times through the intercom, but Yuan Su remained unresponsive. The slender figure remained pinned in place, as silent as a corpse.

Something was wrong.

“Check the room, now!”

Fearing the worst, she scrambled a security team and patrol guards. But when they threw the door open, the entire squad froze in their tracks.

The completely sealed, suicide-proof room was empty.

Yuan Su had vanished into thin air.

Simultaneously, in the monitor room, the feed for Yuan Su’s cell flickered with static for a split second. When the image returned, the person lying on the floor was gone.

When Yuan Su woke up again, he was in his own apartment. He was tucked into his bed, the covers pulled up neatly as if by a considerate hand.

He rolled out of bed and stretched luxuriously. As he stripped off his pajamas, the shadow beneath his feet bubbled like a swamp or a boiling pot of soup—vibrating with excitement.

Unaware, Yuan Su asked the system while changing, “How long was I out?”

[You only slept for the night.] 341 had figured out Yuan Su’s true colors by now and couldn’t help but snark: [You sure are quick to call him “Husband.” I thought you hated gays?]

“I hate you too,” Yuan Su shot back effortlessly, not missing a beat as he added, “Besides, he’s not even human.”

And neither are you, he thought.

[…I heard that.]

Yuan Su played dumb, widening his clear, amber eyes like a startled cat. “What? Oh, right when is Qu Zhilan coming back?”

[ . ]

Finally, the protagonist and the love interest were about to meet. The plot had been a mess so far, but the climax was approaching.

[How did you think of using Qin Zhao to get you out?]

“I’m a picky sleeper. I can’t get any rest if I’m not in my own bed,” the youth replied earnestly.

341 said coldly: [Haha.]

Qin Zhao had been harassing him in dreams and reality ever since he died. Yuan Su figured Qin Zhao knew about the poison and intended to torture him to death. Everything he had endured so far felt like psychological warfare designed to break his mind and turn him into a lunatic… but for now, it seemed his “dead husband” had changed his mind.

Qin Zhao’s form was fluid; he wasn’t restricted to three-dimensional space and could enter higher or lower dimensions even create independent pockets of space. Yuan Su had gambled that the creature had a way to extract him.

“See? It worked!” Yuan Su twirled happily around the room. Not only had he escaped an airtight military cell, but he had been delivered directly to his front door.

[I have good news and bad news,] 341 said. [Which first?]

“You decide,” Yuan Su said sweetly. “I’ll follow your lead.”

341 was shamefully charmed by the honeyed words for a few seconds. It cleared its throat and said: [The good news is that Qu Zhilan is coming back early. He’s worried about you and has probably reached the base gates by now. He’s also seen your photo.]

Yuan Su wondered if he was still half-asleep. He didn’t quite follow. “Wait, wait. What photo?”

[That would be the bad news.]

[Congratulations. You are now the most wanted man in the entire base.]

What a play! Yuan Su had successfully “cried” his way out of a high-security lockup, only to become a fugitive.

How do you think Qu Zhilan will react when he sees that “Missing/Wanted” poster? Will he play the part of the cold investigator, or will he give in to that protective streak and hide you away?

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