After getting Yunyang’s permission, Pei Wenye immediately carried her toward his room.
First, he helped Yunyang take a bath.
The Black Flood Dragon was nowhere near as well-behaved as the little fox. The bath alone lasted two hours.
Yunyang felt that her stamina had improved yet again after her ability leveled up. Even after two hours, she still had enough strength to walk on her own.
But at times like this, she didn’t feel like moving herself, so she sat in the bathroom chair and let Pei Wenye dry her body.
Once he was done, Pei Wenye planned to carry her out of the bathroom.
Yunyang raised an eyebrow. “Where are my pajamas?”
Although it seemed a little unnecessary, she was still accustomed to putting on pajamas before leaving the bathroom.
Pei Wenye’s expression shifted. He lowered his eyes guiltily. “Mistress, do I really have to put them on?”
Normally, whether she wore them or not made little difference.
But seeing Pei Wenye’s reaction, Yunyang suddenly felt contrary and nodded firmly.
Pei Wenye rubbed the tip of his nose and reluctantly took the pajamas from the transparent storage basket.
“I’m sorry, Mistress. I got too excited earlier and accidentally tore your pajamas…”
He held up the torn section for Yunyang to see.
Yunyang fell silent for a moment.
Forget it. It wasn’t as though this was the first day she knew her own beast-husband was strong.
Fortunately, the tear in the pajamas wasn’t too large, and it was located at the waist. She put them on as best she could and said, “I’ll go get a new set.”
She wasn’t used to sleeping naked. Even if she wouldn’t have much use for them later, she still had to put on pajamas afterward.
At that, the culprit eagerly volunteered. “Mistress, which set do you want to wear? I’ll go get it for you!”
“Forget it.” Yunyang glanced at Little Ye, who was still visibly excited.
Following her gaze, Pei Wenye looked down and immediately became embarrassed. “Then I’ll wait here for you to come back.”
Yunyang nodded. She pulled her pajama pants up a little to cover the tear and headed toward her own room.
Her other beast-husbands had already returned to their rooms, so she didn’t run into anyone in the hallway.
But the moment she opened the door to her room, she caught a very faint scent.
After her ability leveled up, Yunyang’s senses had become sharper as well. She sniffed twice, then looked toward the closed bathroom door.
Had she closed it when she got up yesterday?
Yunyang couldn’t remember, but she was certain that the scent was coming from the bathroom.
When the room was unoccupied, the air circulation system turned on automatically, so it was rare for any smell to linger.
Yunyang turned on the lights, first sending Pei Wenye a private message. Then she headed toward the closed bathroom door.
She lightened her steps. With her right hand, she quietly took out the gene-destroying agent You Lu had given her back on Planet T01.
When she reached the bathroom door, she raised her hand and pulled it open as quickly as possible.
In the darkness, she met a pair of eyes filled with desire.
Yunyang immediately tapped the light on her wrist communicator, turning on the bathroom lights.
The sudden brightness made the other person uncomfortable. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, they were filled with panic.
“M-Mistress…”
The merfolk in the bathtub curled in on himself, instinctively trying to find something to cover his body. But in his panic, he found nothing and could only submerge himself completely in the water.
The transparent water concealed nothing.
Yunyang saw him clearly and silently put away the gene-destroying agent.
Unlike his usual appearance, Fuyuan’s upper body was now covered in oddly colored scales. Even his neck was covered with them.
His fish tail, however, remained a beautiful blue, and his features had not changed.
Yunyang opened her mouth, just about to say something, when she heard footsteps coming from the hallway.
It was Pei Wenye.
Meeting Fuyuan’s blue eyes, she turned around and closed the bathroom door. Then she sent Pei Wenye another message.
[Don’t come over. It’s nothing.]
But Pei Wenye was still worried after receiving the message and continued toward her room.
The bedroom door wasn’t closed, so he walked straight in. He didn’t see Yunyang, only the tightly shut bathroom door.
Pei Wenye stepped forward and knocked. “Mistress, are you in there?”
Inside the bathroom, the moment Fuyuan saw his reflection in Yunyang’s eyes, he knew that no matter how much he tried to hide, it was useless.
He rose from the bathtub. His fish tail transformed into a pair of legs, but the strange scales still covered his body.
“Mistress…”
He pulled a towel around his lower body, then walked over and knelt before Yunyang.
The merfolk tilted his head up to look at her, his eyes glistening with tears. “The scales will all disappear once my rutting period is over.”
“Please don’t hate me, all right?”
“I’m begging you…”
Fuyuan knew that the scales covering his body were ugly—frightening, even.
But there was nothing he could do.
He had long since grown used to the scales occasionally appearing on his body. Back then, he had only ever had to face them alone. But now Yunyang had seen him clearly.
He was afraid that she would hate him because of them, that she would abandon him.
In truth, Yunyang wasn’t particularly bothered.
The scales were a little strange in color, but they weren’t highly saturated. They weren’t the kind of fluorescent green or fluorescent pink that would be impossible to look at. Instead, they possessed a kind of grotesque beauty.
She had simply been caught off guard for a moment.
Now, after hearing Fuyuan’s words, she sent another message to Pei Wenye outside the door before asking, “Are these scales the result of the human experiments?”
Fuyuan nodded.
The human experiments had altered his ability, but they had also left him with many irreversible injuries.
These strange scales were one of them.
“Do they appear every time you enter your rutting period?”
Fuyuan nodded again.
“Is there any way to make them disappear?”
Fuyuan hesitated, then slowly shook his head. “No…”
In truth, there was a way. Since the scales only appeared during his rutting period, they would disappear as long as he mated with a female.
But in his current state, he didn’t dare say that.
Yunyang instinctively sensed that Fuyuan was lying.
She looked up and studied her bathroom. Although everything around them was spotless, the scent in the air still hadn’t faded.
She knew exactly what that scent was.
Yunyang looked back at Fuyuan. “Do you want to spend tonight with Pei Wenye, or participate in the selection tomorrow?”
Fuyuan stared at her in disbelief.
“Mistress, you don’t hate me like this?”
“I don’t hate you.”
They were only scales with mismatched colors. In her previous life, she had even seen people covered from head to toe in tattoos. Compared with that, Fuyuan’s scales were hardly intimidating.
She wasn’t going to reject him simply because of them.
The light slowly returned to Fuyuan’s deep blue eyes. He took Yunyang’s hand and pressed his face against it.
“I want to spend tonight with you… Is that all right?”
He sounded extremely nervous as he said it.
Yunyang had already tried it with the wolf cub and Little Sparrow together, so she was quite accepting of this sort of thing.
Once Fuyuan had made his choice, she held out her hand. “Your token?”
Since Fuyuan wanted to spend tonight with Pei Wenye, he wouldn’t be able to participate in the selection for the next few days. She was a fair mistress, after all.
Fuyuan hurriedly took out his merfolk jade token from his spatial clasp and placed it in Yunyang’s hand.
After confiscating the merfolk’s jade token, Yunyang turned around and opened the bathroom door.
Pei Wenye stayed right outside the door. Although Yunyang had messaged him to say he shouldn’t worry, he still couldn’t bring himself to leave.
Only when he saw Yunyang appear before him, safe and sound, did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
Pei Wenye strode forward, just about to ask what had happened, when he noticed Fuyuan standing beside her.
