Human-Shaped Body Pillow

Beneath her hand was a lean, powerful body. His skin felt soft, with just the right amount of spring.

His pectorals were full and rounded. Farther down, his sharply defined abs and Adonis belt looked as though they had been carefully sculpted by the heavens, partly visible through his half-open shirt.

Liu Sui was the one who had placed her hand there.

Yet now he lowered his eyes, not daring to lift his gaze even a little.

So innocent?

A mischievous thought crossed Luo Ruzhuo's mind. She deliberately tightened her fingers and gave him two gentle squeezes.

The young man drew a couple of shallow breaths, his chest rising and falling more noticeably.

"I don't need you to purify me." The tips of his ears were bright red, but his voice remained calm and controlled. "May I stay by your side tonight?"

"Do you want me to give you a temporary marking?"

The young man nodded.

But Luo Ruzhuo's mind wandered just then. She recalled what Anna had taught her: after a temporary marking, the change in pheromones made sentinels highly prone to entering a susceptible period for a while.

If the sentinel wasn't comforted, he would very likely come looking for her to demand an official relationship.

Making things official and all that... what a hassle.

Luo Ruzhuo didn't resist romantic encounters that came to her, but her attitude was clear: she wouldn't pursue, refuse, or take responsibility.

Sleeping with a beauty was great, but if it meant getting caught up in a dispute over bonding with a permanent sentinel afterward, she wasn't very interested.

She withdrew her hand, looking unmoved. "Sorry, I refuse."

The person before her seemed shattered by those words. The light faded from his aloof face in an instant, and he looked utterly dejected.

Unable to help herself, she added, "But if you want purification, I can do that."

The trip hadn't been for nothing. After all, Liu Sui's pecs really were impressive, and Luo Ruzhuo still missed the way they had felt.

"You can stay, but I won't mark you tonight." She turned sideways, yawned, and patted the empty spot beside her, giving him half the bed. She thought she had made her position perfectly clear.

"Since you're being my body pillow, I can purify you."

After saying that, she felt like a complete scumbag.

Yet when Liu Sui heard her, he froze, as though he had heard something unbelievable. Then an extraordinarily lovely smile blossomed on his face.

"Thank you for your generosity." He straightened up, and Luo Ruzhuo immediately felt a shadow fall over her. The young man took off his shirt completely and draped it gently over the clothes rack beside him.

With his clothes fully removed, his body was even sexier. He seemed to have bathed before coming, and a faint, delicate fragrance clung to him.

Now he was careful, as though he had mistakenly taken an invitation to a young woman's secret garden and, upon entering, moved cautiously and reverently, afraid to touch any of its lovely flowers.

Their breaths mingled at close range. Liu Sui could almost feel her warm breath against his chest. Then a gentle strand of mental power entered his mental domain, and his body felt weightless. Before long, he was lost in the garden, unable to find his way.

Just as Luo Ruzhuo had guessed, the twins could share a mental domain, and Liu Sui also had a double mental barrier.

Perhaps because of the two mental barriers, his pollution level wasn't very high.

Liu Sui's mental domain was a lush primeval forest, with a tranquil lake at its very center.

A black swan and a white swan were swimming leisurely in the lake.

When the white swan saw her, it came flapping over on its great wings. The black swan had its eyes closed and seemed to be resting. Luo Ruzhuo didn't ignore it, greeting the black swan too.

Then she focused on purifying the pollution there.

After about half an hour, the purification was more or less complete. Luo Ruzhuo emerged from the mental domain, and the moment she opened her eyes, she found herself facing those full, pale pecs.

Who could resist that?

She had worked hard to purify him. Surely it wasn't too much to collect a little interest?

So Luo Ruzhuo placed her hand over his chest with a clear conscience and carefully felt him.

The young man had his eyes closed and seemed to be asleep. But the redness spreading from his ears to his neck and the faint, uncontrollable gasps in his throat gave him away.

He curved his back, his fingers resting lightly on the young woman's rounded shoulder, and passed a long, sweet night that was difficult to endure.

Luo Ruzhuo slept soundly, and when she woke the next day, the person beside her had already left.

When she got up to wash, she found a basket of steamed buns and a cup of red date soy milk on the table. A warming mat had been placed underneath, and when she opened the basket, the buns were still steaming.

Captain Xianzhu was still a dragon today. When Luo Ruzhuo arrived, he was eating breakfast too.

There were fish in the lake at the center of the island. Luo Ruzhuo knew that much, but she had never caught any. Xianzhu, who had turned into a dragon, used his tail as a fishing rod and flicked several big fish ashore in quick succession.

As he chewed the fish, he crossed his eyes to stare at Luo Ruzhuo through the glass.

Luo Ruzhuo had eaten very well both last night and that morning, and she was in an excellent mood. She obligingly gave him a round of applause.

"Impressive," she said. "Could you catch a few for me too?"

She could have Liu Sui make fish with pickled mustard greens.

The dragon's tail dipped into the river again, and when he flicked it back up, several fish came with it, their tails flopping wildly and slapping the ground.

A dragon claw grabbed one and tried to push it through the narrow window to Luo Ruzhuo. But the window was too small, and the fish got stuck halfway through, with only its head on her side. Belly up and staring with its dead fish eyes, it found itself face-to-face with Luo Ruzhuo.

"It's all right. Take it back." Luo Ruzhuo had only been joking; she hadn't intended to have the dragon catch fish for her to eat.

Only an arm could fit through the communication window, but the door it was set into was big enough for a person to pass through. A few fish would have been no problem at all.

Luo Ruzhuo held the keys to both the window and the door.

But she wasn't ready to open the door yet.

The enormous dragon only looked docile. The pain he had caused her in the mental domain had been very real. By this world's standards for mental domain rampages, it was a miracle that he could remain rational at all.

Who knew whether he was pretending?

The dragon pulled the fish out of the window and lowered his huge head. He prodded the fish on the ground back and forth with his claw several times, but in the end he didn't eat it. Instead, he tossed it in an arc back into the river.

Then he turned and trotted away, returning to the little corner farthest from her and lying down.

For some reason, Luo Ruzhuo somehow saw disappointment and hurt in that series of movements.

But she had recently been following a serial drama on the Star Network and had just reached the climax.

Naturally, she had no extra time to spare for the dragon. She only glanced at him and offered some perfunctory comfort. "This window really is too small. I know you're wonderful. If there's a chance next time, I'll definitely eat the fish you catch for me."

The young woman's voice wasn't loud, but it carried inside. The dragon's ears twitched in the corner, and his whiskers lifted involuntarily.

After spending an uneventful day slacking off, she received the guide element processed by the testing agency at the purification room shortly before it was time to leave.

Lin Sheng brought several sentinels from the logistics department and stopped Luo Ruzhuo as she hurried to get off work.

"Don't leave yet. We're going to inject the captain with guide element. If possible, could I trouble you to soothe him for a while longer? Just a few minutes."