My wife

"Talk! Where did you hide the flash drive?!"

Li Rang struck the floor with a baseball bat.

Lou Yu sat slumped against the wall. "Gu Cheng, are you a fucking idiot? You're not my captain. You have no right to treat me like this!"

Hearing Lou Yu still swearing at them, Ye Ruan clenched his fists and started to charge forward.

Gu Cheng swept out an arm and scooped him up around the waist.

"Easy, baby. What if you hurt your hands again hitting him?"

Ye Ruan was so furious he couldn't keep his rabbit ears hidden. They stood fiercely upright on his head.

Lou Yu burst out laughing at the sight. "Ye Ruan, you haven't changed at all. Every time I piss you off, your ears stop listening to you."

"But..." Lou Yu's voice rose teasingly. "Rub those ears a little, and they behave again."

There was no way to hear that without picking up the innuendo.

Gu Cheng seemed to be smiling, but a sharp, savage hostility churned in his deep eyes. He looked at Lou Yu as though he were already a dead fox.

Sitting in his wheelchair, Fang Ci gave a cold laugh. His eyes gradually turned pale blue as he stared straight at Lou Yu.

The suppression built into their genes sent a chill down Lou Yu's back, and he immediately shut his mouth.

Yu Jingjing spat. "Shut up. Harassing someone and acting like you're in the right? Shameless!"

Gu Cheng licked one of his sharp teeth, feeling that the black cat's remark... had caught him in the crossfire.

Ye Ruan frowned and said earnestly, "During that year of missions abroad, I reported you to the organization five times for harassing me."

Li Rang let out a whistle, drew his gun, and pressed it against Lou Yu's forehead.

"Impressive, man. That must be a new record!"

Lou Yu's face darkened, but he said nothing.

Lu Jiayi scoffed. "Let's just kill him. Toss him outside on a dark night, and the Headquarters Team won't know who did it."

Lou Yu protested, "I never got anywhere, okay! Out of ten times I tried to tease you, eight got me nowhere. The other two got my hand slashed and my leg broken by your kick."

Ye Ruan kicked the thermos beside the table flying, his fur practically standing on end.

"If you'd gotten anywhere, you'd be dead!"

Gu Cheng hurriedly tightened his hold. "Hey, hey, hey! Come here, good bunny. We're not sinking to this asshole's level."

Fang Ci sighed helplessly. "Where's the flash drive? Stay on topic."

"The flash drive?" Lou Yu drawled. "I handed it in. The Headquarters Team has already agreed to award me a merit."

Ye Ruan gradually calmed down, catching the impatience and worry on Lou Yu's face with perfect accuracy.

He asked quietly, "If you'd gotten what you wanted, you wouldn't have come to City H."

It was as if he'd struck a nerve, tearing away the facade Lou Yu had barely managed to maintain.

Lou Yu suddenly exploded. "Are you happy? Seeing me fucking married to someone I don't like must make you happy, right? Now there's nobody left to harass you, is that it?"

"You said you held out for three days and nights. So did I! From birth to adulthood, which of us hasn't been controlled by Headquarters?!"

Lou Yu's eyes reddened, his voice choking up. "I just fucking wanted to treat it as a one-time fling, but now that person has me trapped..."

Ye Ruan frowned. "Didn't you give him that ring?"

Lou Yu choked on his words for a long while before saying hoarsely, "No. Because of the 'heat' unique to our original forms, he and I ended up together by accident."

"Then our superiors forced me to marry him. Earning merit is the only way I can get out of all this."

The First Team members in the room exchanged looks, not expecting such a juicy revelation.

Lou Yu didn't seem embarrassed, but Ye Ruan didn't want to hear it.

"Enough."

Ye Ruan said softly, "Let's not talk about that. Since you beat me to handing in the flash drive, it's not as if I can kill you."

Wantonly killing a teammate carried the death penalty.

Lou Yu felt as though he'd punched cotton, and the gloom pent up inside him slowly dissipated.

"You're always like this. You don't hold grudges. Whoever upsets you, you beat them up and get over it."

Ye Ruan suddenly felt utterly drained.

"Lou Yu, stop acting like you know me so well. If you hadn't saved me twice, I really would want to kill you."

With that, Ye Ruan opened the door and walked out before anyone else could react.

Gu Cheng gave Yu Jingjing a meaningful look.

Yu Jingjing understood and hurried after him.

Once the others had left, only Lou Yu and Song Ting remained in the room.

Gu Cheng took out a dagger and walked toward the two of them.

Song Ting hurriedly threw herself in front of Lou Yu. "If you've got a problem, take it out on me!"

Lou Yu shouted, "Sis!"

"Tch." Gu Cheng sliced through the ropes binding their wrists.

Gu Cheng dragged over a chair with his foot and sat down. "Let's talk."

Lou Yu flexed his wrists. "About what?"

Gu Cheng felt around in his pockets, only then remembering that his little bunny had gone off wearing his jacket. His cigarettes were gone too.

"Why is Ye Ruan so determined to earn merit?"

Lou Yu looked puzzled. "You don't know?"

Gu Cheng snapped impatiently, "Why the fuck would I ask you if I knew?"

Seeing that he was as arrogant as ever, Song Ting said angrily, "Gu Cheng! Our Second Team isn't much worse than yours, is it? What's with that high-and-mighty attitude?"

"My attitude?" Gu Cheng drove his dagger backward, straight through the wooden table beside him.

"Ye Ruan is my wife now. What do you think?"

"You've got some fucking nerve teasing my wife right in front of me!"

Lou Yu froze. He hadn't expected Ye Ruan to actually get together with Gu Cheng.

"It's probably for Ms. Ye. Ye Ruan's mother."

"She's an incredible woman. Ms. Ye and a dozen or so other women have to undergo artificial... every two years. You know what I mean."

Lou Yu rubbed his nose. "It's an order from above. They can't disobey. But constantly giving birth to special people, like some kind of tool... nobody volunteers for that."

At this point, Song Ting abruptly stood up. "I'm going out. You two talk."

Once Song Ting had left, Lou Yu said quietly, "Song Ting signed the agreement too. When she leaves the service next year, she'll have to go as well."

Gu Cheng fell silent.

Lou Yu continued, "Ye Ruan wants to win Ms. Ye her freedom. But I'm sorry. Please apologize to him for me. I want my freedom too."

After a long silence, Gu Cheng sneered. "But you didn't succeed. Otherwise, you wouldn't have run to City H after handing in the flash drive."

A flash of hatred crossed Lou Yu's eyes. "I can't get away..."

Gu Cheng interrupted him. "Enough. I don't want to know about your problems. Tell me, did you come to City H to steal something from my wife again?"

After leaving the dormitory building, Ye Ruan went straight to the parking shelter in the rear courtyard. A row of small electric scooters stood there, along with a large, sleek motorcycle.

Ye Ruan swung a leg over it and deftly pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket to smoke.

As footsteps approached, Ye Ruan turned to look and hurriedly stubbed out his cigarette.

Yu Jingjing paused, then burst out laughing. "I knew you weren't as soft and sweet as you looked."

Ye Ruan smiled sheepishly. "Smoking keeps me awake. Back when I had to stay up all night on missions, this was all I could use."

"You don't need to stay up all night anymore, so stop smoking!"

Yu Jingjing hopped onto the motorcycle and draped an arm over Ye Ruan's shoulders.

"Don't be sad. If you want merit, we'll help you."

Yu Jingjing poked Ye Ruan's cheek.

"The captain dotes on you so much. If you asked for the stars, he'd probably take a rocket up there and dig up some soil to bring back."

Ye Ruan suddenly laughed. "Soil?"

Yu Jingjing thought for two seconds. "Or maybe he'd chip off a piece of meteorite?"

Even she thought that sounded a little ridiculous once she'd said it.

The rabbit and the cat looked at each other and laughed uncontrollably.

Ye Ruan had no idea which remark had tickled him so much, but he laughed for a long time, his shoulders shaking.

Yu Jingjing put on a stern face. "No more laughing."

Ye Ruan immediately mimed zipping his mouth shut.

"Hahahaha!" Yu Jingjing pinched his cheek. "How are you this adorable?!"