“Time to get up.” Wei Shu moved Li Yuanxi’s arm and sat up. Li Yuanxi didn’t want to get up. She rolled over and continued to lie there. Wei Shu let her be.
They had slept for a long time, and Wei Shu was worried the fire had gone out. She got up and went over to the stove, where she saw the weak, flickering flames. She quickly added more wood to keep the embers alive. She didn’t want Li Yuanxi to have to go through the ordeal of rubbing sticks together to make fire again.
Dinner was very simple, just as Wei Shu had said. Worried that Li Yuanxi might get hungry in the middle of the night, she left some food out as a late-night snack. If she got hungry, she could just reheat it.
Li Yuanxi sat on the stool. Wei Shu stood in front of her. When Li Yuanxi looked up, she could see…
Li Yuanxi frowned. She didn’t know what was wrong with her today. She kept instinctively wanting to be close to Wei Shu. She kept wanting to smell her. Her gaze kept falling on Wei Shu.
She seemed to have unconsciously developed a greater dependence on Wei Shu. She didn’t want to—at least, she didn’t want to add any unnecessary emotional burden to Wei Shu.
She thought maybe it was because Wei Shu had bitten her so much the day before. She felt resentful, so she kept hovering around Wei Shu, making sure she remembered what she had done.
Thinking about that, Li Yuanxi’s thoughts began to wander again. Wei Shu removed the bandage that had been on all day and prepared to apply fresh medicine. After disinfecting with iodine, she began to clean the wound.
She had just started when Li Yuanxi spoke. “Do you think I’ll have a scar? I’m going to get married someday. If I have a scar, do you think my future partner will be disgusted by me?”
Li Yuanxi’s worried words made Wei Shu lose focus. Her finger slipped, pressing down hard. “OWWW~~ It hurts~~” Li Yuanxi’s face contorted. She grabbed Wei Shu’s shirt and howled.
“Oh, sorry. You were talking too much, and I got distracted.” Wei Shu apologized perfunctorily and went back to treating the wound. Li Yuanxi pouted, thinking Wei Shu was being unfair.
She wasn’t offering any compensation. Was she planning to get away with biting her for free?
That wasn’t good enough. Li Yuanxi licked her lips, her eyes shifting. She looked up at Wei Shu’s cool profile. “I’ve never even been in a relationship, and you’ve already damaged my pheromone gland. Don’t you think…”
Li Yuanxi was carefully choosing her words. Wei Shu blew a soft breath on the gland, trying to soothe the wound. Li Yuanxi shuddered and blurted out, “I think you should compensate me.”
“What?” Wei Shu moved back, her black eyes fixed on her. “I’ve never been in a relationship,” Li Yuanxi said, her head down as she fidgeted with her pants. Her heart was pounding in her chest.
Hearing this, Wei Shu felt a knot in her stomach. She had a feeling that whatever Li Yuanxi said next would make her uncomfortable. She quickly said, “When we get back, I’ll give you a few projects to work on.”
Afraid that Li Yuanxi would say something she couldn’t refuse, something she was afraid to hear, Wei Shu deliberately avoided Li Yuanxi’s eyes and focused intently on the wound.
“What? I don’t need money.” Li Yuanxi’s expression was a little strange. The compensation Wei Shu had offered made her feel uncomfortable. In the past, she would have immediately seized the opportunity to ask for some good projects.
“Then you…” Wei Shu finished applying the medicine, but before she could finish her sentence, Li Yuanxi interrupted. “Then you can’t date anyone until I’m in a relationship!” Li Yuanxi’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly as she made her demand. She just didn’t look Wei Shu in the eye.
“Alright.” Wei Shu wrapped the wound in clean gauze. The bite on Li Yuanxi’s gland had already begun to scab over.
Li Yuanxi didn’t see the fleeting look of disappointment in Wei Shu’s eyes. But she did hear Wei Shu let out a breath of relief. She was glad she hadn’t said anything else.
The two of them were like snails entering a new world, carrying their thick shells, tentatively extending their antennae to explore.
One of them was eager to rush headlong into this new world, but at the first sign of trouble, the antennae would retract, taking their feelings with them.
“I’d rather marry an omega than an alpha.” Wei Shu’s firm words stabbed into Li Yuanxi’s heart. She had been about to ask something. But whatever she had wanted to ask, she no longer felt like it after Wei Shu had offered her projects as compensation.
“The wound is healing. It should be fine in a couple of days. It probably won’t leave a scar.” Wei Shu finished applying the medicine and told Li Yuanxi to put her shirt back on.
Li Yuanxi nodded, a blissful smile spreading across her face as she imagined the future. “That’s good to hear. I’m planning on finding a nice beta to marry anyway.”
“If we can get back, I’ll ask my second sister to introduce you to someone suitable.” Wei Shu turned her back, putting away the remaining gauze. Something flickered in her eyes, but she deliberately ignored it.
“Then I’ll have to thank you.” Li Yuanxi’s face was beaming with genuine happiness. The earlier tension had disappeared, and the atmosphere in the cave became pleasant.
But something had changed, something neither of them had noticed.
Wei Shu washed up and put on clean clothes. The scent of burning mint filled the cave. Li Yuanxi sat by the fire. As night fell, the temperature on the island dropped by several degrees.
“I’m planning to go out tomorrow and make a table. The cave really needs one.” Li Yuanxi remembered her plan for a table and began to tell Wei Shu about it.
Seeing Li Yuanxi returning to her old self, Wei Shu felt the knot in her chest loosen. She began to interact with her naturally, just like before.
But in the days that followed, every time she woke up, she found that she and Li Yuanxi were keeping a distance.
Sometimes, Li Yuanxi would be sleeping on the very edge of the bed, not rolling back in.
Wei Shu belatedly realized that Li Yuanxi had changed. She had just chosen to ignore it again.
The small table Li Yuanxi wanted to build took her five days and three attempts to finally get it standing. It was sturdy enough for someone to sit on. As long as you didn’t pull or yank at it, it would hold.
After so many days, the wound on Li Yuanxi’s gland had healed, though it had left a scar. Wei Shu felt very guilty about that.
Li Yuanxi just comforted her, “It’s okay. My gland doesn’t work anyway.”
Wei Shu frowned at the indifference in Li Yuanxi’s expression. When she frowned, her whole demeanor changed. Her gaze was sharp and held a hint of anger.
What angered her the most was Li Yuanxi’s pretense of not caring. On the inside, she cared deeply, but on the surface, she always acted like she was fine.
Wei Shu clenched her fists as she looked at Li Yuanxi’s back. Li Yuanxi was an idiot. She had always been one.
She was always playing dumb, too scared to say what she really felt, pretending to be cool and collected.
The more Wei Shu thought about it, the angrier she got. Over the past few days, Li Yuanxi had been deliberately avoiding physical contact with her. She knew it.
She just didn’t want to force them into a passive situation before they had resolved their issues.
That arrogant, self-righteous fool. The marriage alliance… she had even agreed to it. But Li Yuanxi had refused and run off overseas.
Wei Shu took a deep breath, looking at Li Yuanxi’s back with disappointment. She was truly angry. She turned and walked away.
“Wow! Wei Shu, look! A whale!” Li Yuanxi was standing on a rock, staring in amazement at a whale breaching the surface. It was the first time she had seen a humpback whale spouting water.
The beautiful, massive whale crashed back into the sea. Beside it, a young calf spouted a tall jet of water into the air.
They were a mother and child. They stayed on the surface for an hour before swimming away. Li Yuanxi stood on the rock, watching them leave with a distant look in her eyes, her heart full of blessings.
This was the second beautiful sight she had seen in all these days. A sight worth remembering for a lifetime. The sight of the mother and calf whale swimming away in the sunset would keep her mood lifted for days.
But when she turned around, Wei Shu was gone. “Hey! Where is she?” Li Yuanxi jumped off the rock, looking around. She picked up her shoes and chased after her.
Over the past few days, Li Yuanxi had been avoiding Wei Shu. Not in a physical sense, but emotionally. They had been living together for almost a month now.
They were too dependent on each other. She had almost fallen into that trap again.
Being just friends with Wei Shu wasn’t so bad, she thought, as she walked with her hands behind her head, a carefree look on her face.
After a few days of psychological adjustment, she felt she was back to her old self. But she would never let Wei Shu bite her gland again.
Li Yuanxi’s hand came to rest on the uneven surface of her gland. Wei Shu’s next heat was months away. By that time, they might already be rescued.
There were over six hundred people on their plane. Even if the search teams couldn’t find them yet, the airline would be looking for the black box. Within a year or two, they would find them.
A few months from now, Li Yuanxi would tell herself that she had been worrying for nothing.
She would be bitten again. But this time, she would bite back.
