“It’s a pity the tub is too small, or we’d have a romantic bath together.”

Yu Sen’s voice was so soft, each word like feathers blown away by the wind, but it precisely touched Si Xuanyang’s heart, making his heartstrings ache and contract painfully with every slight movement.

The bloodshot look in Si Xuanyang’s eyes still reflected Yu Sen’s pale and weakened face.

His heart ached uncontrollably. He forced a bitter smile, “What’s the use of just talking? You always speak so boldly, but if I really undressed, you’d cover your eyes.”

Saying this, he lifted Yu Sen out of the tub.

The water had cooled quickly, barely dispelling the chill from his body’s surface. Soaking longer might make it worse, causing the cold to penetrate deeper.

He dressed Yu Sen in his inner clothing and placed him in the bed against the wall, wrapping him tightly in blankets.

Yu Sen was weak and allowed Si Xuanyang to move him as he wished. Once tucked in, he lazily lifted his eyelids and glanced at Si Xuanyang, murmuring drowsily, “You should take a hot shower too; you’re not made of iron. No need to be stubborn…”

Perhaps because he was in bed, his strength gave out, and his voice grew fainter. Si Xuanyang had to lean close to his lips to hear the last few words.

After giving him a deep kiss, Si Xuanyang brushed the hair from Yu Sen’s forehead and whispered, “Okay. You rest easy now.”

Afterward, Si Nan and Luo Yu returned to the room. Si Xuanyang quickly took a shower in the simple washroom, warming his body before quietly returning to the room and getting into the bed beside Yu Sen.

The temperature on Yu Sen’s side was predictably cool. Even after Si Xuanyang’s quick shower, the blanket couldn’t warm him up fully. Due to his slightly lower body temperature, his hands and feet unconsciously curled up, and he fidgeted in his sleep, seeming very uncomfortable.

Si Xuanyang stretched out his arms and pulled the person into his embrace, holding him tightly and perfectly aligned. Their legs intertwined, their breaths intermingled, and the warmth from their bodies continuously transferred.

To Yu Sen, the heat from Si Xuanyang was almost scalding. In his dream, it felt as if he were trapped by a ball of fire, forced to stretch his body, surrounded layer by layer, consumed and overtaken by the flames.

Yu Sen’s cool lips rested against Si Xuanyang’s neck, murmuring broken and weak dream talk.

The night was deep.

…

After an unknown amount of time, in a semi-conscious state, Yu Sen felt as if he were sinking into a quagmire with no support, unable to escape.

He struggled to get out, gradually realizing that he was in a dream. This struggle meant that his consciousness was on the edge of waking but unable to open his eyes.

He twisted his body in discomfort, but it seemed to sink deeper, his eyelids feeling as if they were weighed down by thousands of pounds, impossible to open.

“Hmm…”

Rapid breaths filled with scorching heat circulated through his mouth and nose. He coughed laboriously, his body seeming to turn into a puddle of mud, blending into the quagmire, sinking into darkness until he was suffocating.

In those few seconds of oxygen deprivation, Yu Sen even felt as if his soul had separated from his body and floated in mid-air.

Then, inexplicably, he heard the howling of the wind. His soul suddenly became heavy, plummeting rapidly, and with a ‘thump,’ as if a bell had sounded in his mind, forcing him to open his eyes wide.

“Cough cough cough—!”

He gasped for breath, suddenly feeling that something was wrong. Before he could discern the oddity, his gaze froze.

—By the moonlight streaming through the cabin window, he saw a shadow quietly floating in the dark corner at the foot of the bed.

It somewhat resembled a human figure.

He propped himself up slightly, staring solemnly at the shadow, and asked softly, “Who are you?”

A low laugh came from the corner, sounding somewhat eerie in the dead of night but not unpleasant. On the contrary, the sound was ethereal and pleasant, causing his body to involuntarily tingle for a moment.

Yu Sen averted his gaze, his pale fingers slowly gripping the sheets. Glancing to his side, Si Xuanyang and the others were still sound asleep. Even though he had just spoken, they were not disturbed and showed no signs of waking.

The shadow floated down softly, with barely audible footsteps, moving a few steps forward from the dark corner into the moonlight.

Yu Sen’s expression was momentarily stunned.

The shadow was not the monstrous ghost he had imagined but a woman with an exceptionally stunning appearance, almost breathtaking.

With bare toes touching the ground, a delicate figure draped in a thin veil, bathed in moonlight like a layer of silver radiance, she had deep-set eyes, with pupils a mysterious blue like the ocean. Her gaze was downward, her eyes shimmering with a touch of captivating allure amidst her pure charm.

The woman stared at him, suddenly laughing again. Her voice was like a tinkling bell, delightful and enchanting. She extended her body, gracefully swaying the veil with her delicate, seemingly boneless wrist. In Yu Sen’s dazed state, it felt as if the veil brushed across his face, and the gentle sensation was incredibly vivid.

But this woman was clearly standing at the foot of the bed, not close.

As he was lost in thought, he smelled the scent of seawater, different from the room’s dampness, calming and pleasant.

Suddenly, the woman moved.

She lifted her toes, rising like a soft cloud, weightless, and floated to Yu Sen’s face, almost touching his nose.

Just a little closer and they would have had an intimate encounter with no distance.

Yu Sen remained unmoved, eyes downcast, tilting his head slightly back, and coughed softly into his hand.

The woman’s brows furrowed in confusion, and she asked bluntly, “Don’t you like me?”

Yu Sen lowered his head in silence for a moment, then suddenly smiled strangely. Under the woman’s astonished gaze, he leaned over and kissed Si Xuanyang’s lips forcefully. Then turned back, pulling up his clothes and shyly said, “To be honest, I like men…”

“……”

The atmosphere became slightly awkward.

The woman stared at him for a moment, then suddenly frowned and said in a deep voice, “I can also be a man!”

Before the words had fully left her mouth, Yu Sen saw the person in front of him quickly change. The facial features were roughly the same, but now they were more rugged, with more pronounced angles, muscular physique typical of a male, with smooth and beautiful lines, and a significantly taller figure.

Most importantly, below the waist, there was a familiar… organ.

The organ was already erect without any foreplay.

Yu Sen: “…”

He didn’t mean it that way! That wasn’t his intention at all!!

Seeing a strange man’s naked body thrust in front of him so unexpectedly, Yu Sen’s face turned pale. He lay back on the bed like a corpse, coldly said, “Get away, I’m not interested in you!”

The man was slightly stunned, tilted his head in thought, seemed to understand something, and with sudden realization, slowly moved in front of Yu Sen. He turned around, pressing his firm white butt close to him.

Yu Sen: “…”

Fuck!!!

A surge of blood rushed to Yu Sen’s head, his face instantly turning blood-red. He grabbed the blanket tightly and shook it, flipping the man off the foot of the bed, but it made no sound.

“Are you crazy?! If you want to kill someone, can’t you do it in a normal way?!”

The man knelt on the ground, turned his head, no longer with the seductive expression. His face was now fierce, mouth slightly open, revealing sharp, white fangs, with muscles on his back and legs slowly twitching.

He stared at Yu Sen like a disobedient prey, his expression growing darker, turning into a sinister, vengeful glare because of Yu Sen’s words.

Yu Sen said, “This is an illusion, isn’t it?”

His expression was indifferent, his brows and eyes lowered. His black hair clung to his pale, fragile skin like a piece of cold and easily breakable porcelain. He spoke softly, and though his voice was not loud, the certainty in his tone seemed to ring through the room like a tolling bell.

“This is an illusion. I am in an illusion!”

The colorless air around him rippled outward from his center. A sudden sharp pain pierced his head. He had nowhere to hide, curled up and groaned, and abruptly opened his eyes.

— The room was still the same room, but the small window had somehow been opened, and a cold wind was blowing in. A large water stain appeared on the floor at the foot of the bed, as if something had stood there.

Yu Sen half-closed his eyes, breathing heavily. The heaviness and dullness in his head returned, and the soreness throughout his body was fed back to his brain.

He gave a wry smile. If it weren’t for the recurrent physical ailments he had become accustomed to recently, he might not have realized that it was an illusion while feeling so relaxed and comfortable earlier.

Now that he was out of the illusion and back to normal, the discomfort he felt struggling just now was enough to wake Si Xuanyang.

The person beside him first reflexively tightened their arms around him and then immediately opened their eyes, noticing Yu Sen’s distress.

Si Xuanyang leaned in, pressing his forehead against Yu Sen’s, feeling Yu Sen’s burning body. His tone was filled with burning worry and anxiety, “Baby, you have a fever.”

— Your baby not only has a fever but almost ended up forced to sleep with another man! Yu Sen, weakly lifting his eyes, had a pitiful look in his feverish gaze.

The cold wind seeping into the quilt made him shiver. He let out a soft moan and burrowed into Si Xuanyang’s embrace.

His little furnace was the best; he only wanted to sleep with him.

Si Xuanyang frowned and looked at the open window, startled. “Why is the window open?”

His expression changed slightly: Did he forget to close it last night?

It couldn’t be; Yu Sen couldn’t stand the wind. He couldn’t have missed such an oversight.

He released Yu Sen from his embrace, and carefully got up to close the window.

Turning around, he saw a puddle of water on the floor at the foot of Yu Sen’s bed, and his heart sank suddenly.