Jiang Nuan lowered her eyes, her heartbeat so loud it nearly drowned out the howling winter wind beyond the window.
He was right.
That thought really had flashed through her mind: If she could be purified without doing that, then did it mean she wouldn’t have to keep… doing that with them anymore?
The thought made her let out a long sigh of relief. But at the same time, there was another feeling—something vague and difficult to define, something… bitter.
She refused to think too deeply about where that bitterness came from. She abruptly dug her nails into her palm, forcibly pressing that strange, sour feeling back down into her stomach.
“We’re still teammates.” Jiang Nuan heard herself say, “We don’t have to keep doing this anymore… We can go back to having a normal relationship.”
“A normal relationship.” Shen Wu repeated the words slowly, lingering over them.
His lashes trembled. Then he took a step forward.
Shen Wu was slender, but his height made up for it. As his nearly six-foot-four frame leaned toward her, he blocked out most of the winter light from the window, and his shadow swallowed Jiang Nuan whole.
She instinctively backed away two steps, until the backs of her legs struck the edge of the bed.
Shen Wu lowered his head, his gaze settling on her face.
They were too close. Close enough for her to see the extremely fine golden patterns encircling his pupils deep within his eyes.
Like the fractured inner surface of amber.
Or like flames burning beneath the surface.
“Jiang Nuan, have you misunderstood something?”
He raised a hand, his fingers almost brushing her cheek.
But they stopped just a few centimeters away. His hand trembled faintly, then slowly curled into a fist and dropped back to his side.
“From the very beginning…” Shen Wu’s gaze held nothing back. Even his usual coldness and mockery had been stripped away completely. “I haven’t only been craving your purification.”
Jiang Nuan forgot to breathe.
What the hell was this man doing?
Was he setting a trap for her?
But then she looked into his eyes.
Those eyes, usually so cold and distant, were now churning with too many things, all of them too intense.
So intense they made it hard to breathe.
“I’ve always been craving you.”
“Jiang Nuan, the world I see is filled with nothing but hypocrisy, lies, and nauseating schemes.”
There was a faint weariness in his voice.
“What the Eye of Truth has shown me is that there isn’t a single clean place left in this world.”
“Only you are clean. Only you are alive.”
His voice wavered slightly, and his Adam’s apple bobbed.
“I crave that liveliness in you. I crave your cunning and your little schemes. I crave the way you act obedient on the surface while cursing me as a bastard in your head.”
The corner of his lips curved upward.
“I know you’ve done it many times.”
There was a hint of bitterness in that smile, carefully concealed with all his might.
“And I crave your body, too.”
He said it with such openness that there was no attempt to hide anything.
“Because it’s you, I crave every part of you.”
The room was so quiet that they could hear the faint sound of snow weighing down the branches outside.
The heater had dried and warmed the air, making Jiang Nuan’s cheeks burn even hotter.
The sincerity in Shen Wu’s eyes left her utterly at a loss.
At last, Shen Wu released the hand he had been holding at his side.
His fingers slowly settled against the side of her face. His palm was cool as it slid from her cheek to the corner of her eye,
gently rubbing the spot where she had nearly shed a tear.
Then that layer of cool detachment settled over him once more.
The ice closed back up, and the hidden fire beneath it burned even more fiercely, almost as if it might devour her whole.
“So, Jiang Nuan…”
“You think saying ‘a normal relationship’ is enough to send me away from you?”
He leaned forward slightly, his breath warm and dangerous against her forehead.
“Dream on.”
The two casually spoken words seemed to suck all the air from the room.
She turned her head, avoiding his fingers at the corner of her eye, and planted both hands against his chest to push him away. Through the fabric of his shirt, she could feel the chaotic pounding of his heart.
“Shen Wu, are you sick? What the hell are you doing…”
She gritted her teeth.
“Back off first…”
“Isn’t this a good thing?!” she said.
She had always thought this man was the most stable member of Team Zero—calm and rational, sharp-tongued but aware of boundaries. And yet? The deepest-hidden lunatic and pervert of them all was him?
What did he mean, “send me away for good”? What did he mean, “dream on”?
This was obviously a good thing. From now on, they could all be innocent, proper teammates. Wasn’t that better?
What right did he have to sound so self-righteous?
In his dreams!
But Shen Wu seemed to have truly shut off his mind-reading service, just as he had said.
He made no response to the thoughts surging through her mind.
He merely watched her in silence for several seconds.
Then he straightened and took half a step back.
The oppressive pressure eased somewhat with his movement, and Jiang Nuan’s tense shoulders relaxed a little.
“This is indeed a good thing.” Shen Wu’s tone returned to its usual coldness and meticulous composure. “So what are you planning to do next? Tell the captain?”
The abrupt shift in topic made her sense danger. It was a sign that Shen Wu’s calculating mind had begun to turn.
“Of course I’m going to tell the captain, and everyone else.” Jiang Nuan watched him warily. “This is good news. There’s no reason to keep it secret.”
“Of course?” Shen Wu let out a cold laugh. “Jiang Nuan, have you forgotten what kind of person Lu Shiyan is?”
Jiang Nuan frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Absolutely rational. Extremely controlling.” Shen Wu spoke in an unhurried manner. “He forcibly kept you by his side because you needed the team’s protection, while we needed your purification. That completely dependent, symbiotic relationship gave him an absolute sense of security.”
His voice dropped lower.
“Take a guess. If he found out that you had unilaterally changed the rules of that relationship, what would he do?”
Jiang Nuan frowned as she looked at him.
“Lu Shiyan is used to controlling every aspect of your life. Do you really think he would calmly accept you suddenly putting distance between you?” Shen Wu said.
He tilted his head, watching her reaction.
“And do you really think his personal motives consist solely of treating you as a source of purification?”
Jiang Nuan’s fingers curled into her palms. She drew several quick breaths. That was something she had faintly been worrying about as well.
Shen Wu gave her no time to catch her breath.
“The amount of corruption you purified just now was, at most, one-tenth of what you normally manage through contact purification.”
“Take a guess. Will the captain directly reject your new method on the perfectly legitimate grounds that its efficiency is unstable and unable to meet our needs?”
Jiang Nuan clenched her teeth.
She had used all her strength just now and could only manage that much, nowhere near enough to meet their needs in an emergency. If Lu Shiyan wanted to find an excuse to reject it… he had more than enough justification.
“Besides—” Shen Wu lowered his voice even further. “Once that perfectly legitimate reason disappears, and he still doesn’t want to let you go…”
His amber eyes, capable of seeing through everything, stared at her without blinking.
“Take a guess. Would that lunatic—would those lunatics—use even more extreme methods to lock you up for good?”
A chill crawled up her back, over the nape of her neck, and finally spread across the top of her head.
Damn Shen Wu.
Damn Lu Shiyan.
Damn… all these lunatics.
How could she possibly not have felt it?
Lately, they wanted more than just her powers. They wanted to devour her will, invade her personal space, and even… demand an emotional response from her.
All this time, she had been deceiving herself, insisting that it was nothing more than an equal exchange.
Her body in exchange for the right to survive.
Purification in exchange for protection.
A fair deal—payment rendered, debt settled.
But those lunatics wanted all of her.
And she had no way to give them what they wanted… or anything beyond that.
So she had kept pretending not to see it.
Damn it!
Those insatiable lunatics had never intended to leave her a way out!
And Shen Wu was the worst bastard among them all!
Jiang Nuan glared at him through gritted teeth. “You were the one who said I didn’t have to compromise myself anymore. So why are you using them to scare me now?”
“Caring about you is genuine.” Shen Wu lowered his eyes. “But, Jiang Nuan…”
“I’m one of those lunatics too.”
Her back pressed against the cold wall beside the bed as she glared at Shen Wu. “What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Offer you the optimal solution.”
Shen Wu closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the intensity in his gaze had been perfectly tucked back beneath that calm, rational façade.
“Now isn’t the right time. Especially not inside the restricted zone. Qi Sui hasn’t been found yet, and the captain can’t handle any additional variables right now.”
He softened his voice, as though trying to reassure her.
“You need to keep this from them for now. I’ll help cover for you.”
Logically speaking… his proposal was indeed the right one.
He leaned forward slightly, his fingers lightly catching the hem of her clothes. “But as your only accomplice and exclusive experimental subject…”
The greed in his eyes surfaced at that moment.
“Keeping this hidden and serving as your experimental subject comes at a steep price. The consolation you give me in private cannot be lacking in the slightest.”
Jiang Nuan stared at him, staring at the expression on that excessively refined face—the one that said, I’m only looking out for you.
Was that even something a human being would say? Jiang Nuan nearly rolled her eyes.
Only someone as shamelessly calculating as him could make taking advantage of a crisis sound so noble and refined. No wonder he was a tactical mastermind with a heart of stone!
She was so angry she almost laughed.
“You make it sound so high-minded.”
Jiang Nuan slapped his fingers away from her clothes, her voice edged with irritation.
“What ‘for the greater good,’ what ‘to keep up appearances’… Shen Wu, when you get right down to it, you just want to use this as an excuse to keep me all to yourself, don’t you?”
Exposed to his face, Shen Wu didn’t get angry.
“So what if I do?”
“This deal doesn’t put you at a disadvantage.”
Jiang Nuan drew a deep breath, suppressing the urge to punch him.
She rapidly ran through all the pros and cons in her mind.
She did need time to conduct repeated tests and stabilize her output, to practice this new method of purification until she could perform it flawlessly. That way, once she left the restricted zone, she would have the perfect bargaining chip to negotiate with Lu Shiyan.
By then, even Lu Shiyan—the tyrant—would have no legitimate excuse to demand that she continue this form of symbiotic relationship.
Before that happened, she absolutely could not let Lu Shiyan lock her away in some private cell at this critical juncture.
And to conduct the experiments, she needed a stable test subject.
Shen Wu was willing to be that subject—and to help her keep the experiment hidden.
That was the optimal solution for now.
“Fine.” Jiang Nuan glared at him through clenched teeth. “I’ll use you for the experiments.”
A glint of light flashed in Shen Wu’s eyes.
“But—”
Jiang Nuan raised one finger and jabbed it hard against his chest, forcing him back half a step.
“How I comfort you, and where the line is, will be entirely up to me. If you dare push your luck…”
“I can always go flip the table with Lu Shiyan. Worst case, we both go down together!”
Shen Wu looked at her.
At the girl before him—clearly backed into a corner, yet still able to regain her composure in an instant, bare her claws, and establish her rules.
The corners of her eyes were still faintly red from the anger she had been forced into, but her gaze had already turned cool and watchful as she kept her guard trained on him.
Like a bristling kitten, ready to give him a vicious scratch the instant he crossed the line.
The smile in Shen Wu’s eyes deepened.
It was the kind of smile that appeared only when he saw the most vivid, genuine version of her.
“Deal.”
His voice carried a hint of huskiness. He leaned forward, reclaiming the half-step of distance she had forced between them.
“So now… my lovely researcher, how are you planning to comfort me?”
Jiang Nuan stared at those eyes that practically shouted, I’ve already won. A lump of frustration lodged in her chest, impossible to swallow or spit out.
She lifted a hand and gave his face a light, perfunctory pat.
“Good boy.”
She arched a brow at him.
“That’s enough consolation for today.”
The smile on Shen Wu’s face froze.
In his eyes, the golden patterns seemed to have been stirred by an unseen hand.
For once, the intelligence officer who had always calculated every move looked… genuinely caught off guard.
Then he smiled.
“Jiang Nuan.”
Shen Wu caught the wrist of her still-raised hand and gently stroked it.
“Are you sure,” he murmured, bringing his cheek into her palm of his own accord, even tilting his head to nuzzle lightly against it, “that’s enough?”
