Chapter 149

Time seemed to have drifted far away.

She didn’t know how much time had passed—every second felt as long as a lifetime.

Was this what it felt like when the heat period couldn’t be controlled or relieved? It was only her first experience, and already it felt unbearable. But Xie Shiqing had endured this for nine whole years—how had she managed?

The physical torment was as if she were being roasted over a fire, while the mental torture felt like someone slicing her soul apart inch by inch with a knife.

She curled up tightly, shrinking into herself like a shrimp being steamed.

In her hazy consciousness, a tear slipped from her temple into the sheets, mixing with her sweat and dampening a patch of the bed.

She couldn’t even tell whether it was a physiological tear or one born of sorrow. Her brain felt like curdled tofu—fragmented and messy, unable to grasp anything resembling logic or thought.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang.

The door was slammed open, then shut again.

Someone pounced onto the bed, as if they had fallen onto it, groping forward. A cold hand touched her body, the palm brushing across her burning cheek.

It was like drinking a freshly chilled watermelon juice in the sweltering heat of summer. Zhong Ning grabbed that hand instantly and caught a familiar scent of bitter absinthe.

Was this a person she had imagined?

She could no longer tell dream from reality. Turning over, she pinned down the body as cool as jade and kissed it obsessively.

…

The dark night passed. The sea mirrored the starry sky, reflecting the endless moon and scattered stars. As the moon gradually sank below the horizon, a pale golden-red glow spread across the clouds, like the blush blooming on a young girl’s cheeks.

It wasn’t until the sun rose high in the east, radiating light and warmth onto the earth, that Zhong Ning finally woke up—feeling a profound emptiness and an equally intense satisfaction.

She lay in bed in a daze, the hunger in her stomach particularly sharp, like a vulture starved for three days and nights tearing at her insides.

Zhong Ning couldn’t lie still anymore. She reached out her arm, trying to push herself up.

But with that movement, the weight from another body—something she had subconsciously ignored—could no longer be hidden.

Her eyes snapped wide open. Her heartbeat skipped. She jerked her head to the side so fast it almost twisted her neck.

The drowsiness of the morning vanished without a trace. With a loud swoosh, the blanket was flung aside by her motion, revealing the mottled body of a woman.

That body looked familiar. That side profile looked familiar.

“Shiqing?!”

She cried out in shock, the surprise in her eyes like a little bell clanging around her head.

“What are you doing here?!”

Xie Shiqing wasn’t deaf. On the contrary, her hearing was sharper than that of ordinary people. Besides, with the volume Zhong Ning had just used, even a truly deaf person would’ve been jolted awake.

The light-colored brows furrowed, a sign of irritation from having her sweet dreams disturbed.

Without opening her eyes, Xie Shiqing reached out to pull the blanket back over herself, mumbled a few words, and continued sleeping.

This left Zhong Ning sitting on the bed, completely baffled.

She really wanted to push Xie Shiqing awake and ask her what exactly had happened, but seeing how exhausted she looked—like even a hundred years of sleep wouldn’t be enough—she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

She got out of bed, quickly washed up, and went out to look for Fu Nanshuang.

She messaged her to ask where she was, and the reply came: in the first-floor lobby.

When Zhong Ning arrived, she found Fu Nanshuang looking unusually serious, surrounded by several people who appeared to be doctors, holding instruments and scanning around.

“What’s going on?” Zhong Ning asked in confusion.

“You weren’t the only one who entered heat last night,” Fu Nanshuang said grimly. “Something’s definitely wrong.”

This wasn’t her being paranoid—if someone was nearing their heat period, how could they go out without tranquilizers or inhibitors? That was absolutely impossible.

Those two injections were deeply integrated into the lives of every alpha and omega. In society, although alphas and omegas weren’t as numerous as betas, their combined numbers weren’t much less.

It could be said that every household had them.

And none of their heat cycles were scheduled for this period. Anyone able to board this cruise ship wouldn’t be the kind of person desperate enough to gamble on a one-night stand just to marry into a wealthy family.

Unless their intelligence suddenly dropped and they’d hit their head.

If it wasn’t a coincidence, then it could only be a conspiracy.

Fu Nanshuang had already investigated—only the people sitting in the same section of the sofa as Zhong Ning had suddenly gone into heat. The people nearby were completely unaffected.

Even so, when she’d brought Zhong Ning back, the situation had almost spiraled out of control.

An alpha or omega in heat would release their pheromones without restraint, which could trigger others of the corresponding sex to react as well.

Fortunately, there had been many betas present. Before things got out of hand, everyone had scrambled to lock those affected into rooms. There was no time to sort out whose room was whose—everyone just followed the nearest-available-room rule, stuffing people in wherever they could.

Zhong Ning quickly caught on. “Someone deliberately set a trap!”

“Did you find out anything?”

Fu Nanshuang answered coldly, “The sofa you sat on last night had heavy traces of induced pheromones. It’s an underground product with strong side effects. It can even disrupt pheromone balance.”

“How could this happen?” Zhong Ning frowned in deep thought. “Was it targeted revenge? Or just a random attack?”

She had only been thinking for a moment when her stomach cramped suddenly, making her hunch over and clutch her belly. “Ugh, I’m starving. Do you have anything to eat?”

Fu Nanshuang sighed with exasperation and annoyance, pulled her over to an empty sofa to sit, then rummaged through the fridge and pulled out bread, sausage, and milk. “Just make do with this for now.”

Zhong Ning clumsily tore open the bread packaging, stuffed a slice of toast into her mouth, followed by another, and then gulped down half a carton of milk in one go. Only then did she feel alive again.

“How did Shiqing end up here anyway? Do you know?” she asked while chewing.

Fu Nanshuang immediately showed a complex expression—a mix of teasing and amazement. “Guess how she came? She flew over in a helicopter. I was just busy calling for more inhibitors to be sent over when I suddenly heard this loud rumbling above me. I looked up at the deck, and there she was, stepping out of the helicopter and calling your name. I was dumbfounded.”

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