Human Body, Fish Tail

Chi Li frowned deeply in his sleep. His entire body began to burn, the temperature steadily rising. He jolted awake and opened his eyes.

The bedroom was empty; he was the only one there. His heavy breathing sounded especially distinct in the silent room. Si Jinyan had not returned yesterday, either.

Chi Li's pheromone scent was growing stronger and stronger throughout the room.

He opened the bedside drawer, hoping to find an inhibitor. His room had always been stocked with plenty of them in the past.

However, ordinary inhibitors had no effect on Si Jinyan, much less would they be found in Si Jinyan's residence.

Chi Li prepared to leave the bedroom and ask the butler to fetch him an inhibitor, or call Si Jinyan and ask him to come back and help him through his susceptible period.

When repeated attempts to open the bedroom door proved fruitless, Chi Li realized that it had been locked from the outside.

Chi Li put more force into twisting the lock, but it still would not open.

The susceptible period intensified the unease in Chi Li's heart. His heavy heartbeat hammered against his chest.

Chi Li's instincts screamed. Realizing something, he began knocking on the door, pressing his burning face against the cold panel in an attempt to hear movement outside. Yet the soundproofing was too good—or perhaps whoever was outside had no intention of opening the door at all. Chi Li heard nothing.

He called Yuan Ru's name.

"Uncle Yuan!"

"Uncle Yuan, are you outside?"

There was still no response.

Chi Li's limbs began to go weak.

Only then did he notice that his Neural Computer had been taken away as well. The doors and windows were locked tight, and there was nothing in the room that could be used to communicate.

Something must have happened on Si Jinyan's end, Chi Li thought.

Had Si Jinyan already discovered him?

Since when? It had seemed as though nothing was wrong when they returned from the Federation government that day...

A chill suddenly rose in Chi Li's heart.

Perhaps Si Jinyan had known all along?

Then when had Si Jinyan started to notice that something was wrong?

The fever, desire, swelling, and pain tormented Chi Li's body and mind, leaving him utterly unable to settle down and think.

To stay awake, Chi Li went to the bathroom and took a cold shower.

Chi Li stared at the person in the mirror. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, his eye sockets red, his chest heaving violently, and he had bitten his lips until they bled.

Chi Li lay on the bed. He had tried to break the window and escape, but the residence's military-grade defenses and materials had completely crushed that idea.

After an unknown amount of time, the sound of the bedroom door finally opening rang out.

The effects of his susceptible period had dulled all five of Chi Li's senses. By the time he raised his head, the butler had already approached him with food and placed it on the table.

The butler said, "Mr. Little Chi, you should..."

Chi Li did not catch what the butler said. He grabbed the hem of the butler's clothes, his voice terribly hoarse. "Give me an inhibitor..."

The unrelieved desire had become agony that squeezed his body. The unceasing fever left his eyes dry, his vision blurred, and his breathing painful. A constant buzzing filled his ears, and his entire body ached and swelled. Even lying on the softest sheets hurt like needles...

Only five hours had passed.

Chi Li could not relieve himself on his own. He had nearly rubbed himself raw, until only pain remained.

The butler pulled the hem of his clothes from Chi Li's grasp. "Mr. Little Chi, without the Marshal's orders, I cannot give you anything."

Yuan Ru's voice was clear and steady. Chi Li stared at him with dry, wide-open eyes, taking a moment to process those words.

Chi Li's voice was hoarse. "I'm in so much pain."

Yuan Ru lowered his head slightly. "Sorry, I cannot provide you with any help. Please finish your lunch first, Mr. Little Chi. Perhaps you will feel better."

The butler left after saying that.

Chi Li thought of Si Jinyan.

It was hard to imagine what awaited him. Chi Li could not eat anything; the burning sensation filled his stomach, and whatever he ate seemed likely to be irritated and vomited back up almost immediately.

But Chi Li knew that he could not go without eating now. The more critical the moment, the more important his strength was.

Chi Li forced himself to finish the meal through sheer willpower. Yet the moment he finished, the burning in his abdomen triggered a nauseating spasm, churning the food he had just swallowed inside his stomach.

Chi Li crouched before the toilet and vomited up everything he had eaten.

The side effects of the falsifying agent he had been injected with had multiplied the severity of his susceptible period severalfold.

Forcing himself through a susceptible period could, at best, cause parts of his body to fester and necrose; at worst, it could inflict irreversible damage on his nerves.

Chi Li filled the bathtub with cold water and sat in it. His overheated body shuddered when it touched the icy water.

Though he still felt awful as his body cooled, it was much better than before.

During a susceptible period, even the faintest emotions were often magnified. Chi Li looked at his trembling wrist. Si Jinyan would not even give him a single inhibitor...

Chi Li felt angry. His despair provoked an ever stronger desire to survive, mixed with a trace of grievance that even Chi Li himself did not notice.

Si Jinyan's face surfaced in Chi Li's mind again. During the time he had spent at Si Jinyan's side, he had come to understand Si Jinyan's temperament well.

A thought slowly formed in his mind. Was Si Jinyan planning to torture him to death, little by little, as punishment?

After ten long hours of fever, his bones and flesh felt as if they had been shattered and reforged in a furnace.

No matter how strong Chi Li's constitution was, by the time it neared midnight, he had completely slipped into a delirious half-conscious state.

When Si Jinyan returned, he asked the butler, "Did he eat everything?"

Yuan Ru reported truthfully, "He finished all of his lunch. When dinner was delivered in the afternoon, Mr. Chi was already asleep."

Chi Li did not know how much time had passed. At first, he could still get up and move around after sleeping, but now even moving a finger took effort.

When he opened his eyes, his vision was dark and blurred. Chi Li anxiously touched his eyes, thinking for an instant that his optic nerves had been burned as well.

Only after his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and he saw the vague outlines of the furniture did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

But immediately afterward, he heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom.

Someone was there.

Chi Li's heart suddenly began pounding violently.

Chi Li pushed himself up and headed toward the bathroom. "Marshal?"

No one answered him, but the sound of water grew clearer and clearer. He could even hear the dull sound of something slapping against the water's surface.

"Si Jinyan..."

Chi Li pushed open the door, but his voice cut off before he finished speaking.

In the spacious bathroom, Si Jinyan sat in a bathtub large enough to hold five adult men.

Yet what made Chi Li's heart race uncontrollably was—

A fish tail.

The exact same fish tail from the video appeared before him, carrying a visual and psychological impact far stronger than anything on a screen.

The silver-black fish tail filled the entire bathtub. Its tip, with translucent black fins, hung over one side of the tub and lightly stirred the water splashed across the floor.

The bathroom light fell over it, giving off a sinister, icy chill. Si Jinyan's upper body was human, but his lower half was like some monstrous evil born from hell.

The shock and shuddering terror of seeing it directly far surpassed what he had felt through the video.

Chi Li gripped the doorframe so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Having spent years hovering at the edge of life and death, Chi Li's nerves were exceptionally alert to danger. At this moment, they had tightened to their absolute limit, and he stepped half a pace back.