绝代双骄 林志颖

Ge Xiu had his eyes closed, his fluffy chin resting on the pillow.

His back undulated slightly with the rhythm of his breathing, with the tail wrapped around him, partly covering his paws.

He quietly opened his eyes, his eyes flashing slightly with a green light in the darkness.

The sky was about to brighten up.

Ge Xiu yawned and stood up, arching his back and stretching his body.

However, before he could do anything, a hand stretched out from the side and petted his body along the direction of the fur.

“Woke up?”

Low voice sounded in the darkness, without the slightest drowsiness.

Ge Xiu was stunned, the tip of his ear quivered slightly.

Had Shen Boyan not fallen asleep yet, or was he already awake?

Ge Xiu turned his head and looked beside him, only to see Shen Boyan prop up his upper body on the bed and sit up slowly.

Right afterwards, he easily picked up the small as his palm kitten and placed it on his lap. His movements were gentle and firm, as he stroked its fur on the back with his hands.

Ge Xiu yawned and rolled on his lap, his tail swishing comfortably.

Shen Boyan’s eyebrows drooped down, the outline of his face was hidden in the shadows as his fingers gently scratched the cat’s chin.

Ge Xiu lifted his eyelids and glanced at the gradually brightening sky outside the window.

The sunrise was getting closer.

He didn’t want to directly change back into a human form where he was.

Ge Xiu stood up and was about to jump off Shen Boyan’s lap, but was held down in the middle.

“Meow?”

The little black cat looked at the human who was holding him, its little fluffy head tilted in confusion.

“So anxious.” Shen Boyan said calmly: “Where do you want to go?”

He picked up the cat, held it up in front of him looking straight in its green eyes, and asked:

“Why don’t just stay here?”

Ge Xiu suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart.

Shen Boyan’s face got closer again, his thin lips as sharp as a blade were slightly pursed, an unpredictable smile passed over his lips, but his dark pupils were unfathomable and bottomless.

He said unhurriedly,

“I’d love to meet you.”

The bad hunch that faintly grew in Ge Xiu’s heart came true.

He quickly went through the experience of the last few days in his mind, thinking back to when he had revealed his tail.

Most likely it was the time when he came back too late.

Really careless.

Although Ge Xiu didn’t want to admit it, not knowing when he stopped treating the other as a potential enemy and his vigilance would subconsciously decrease when he was by the other party’s side.

Shen Boyan hugged the little black cat on his laps, looking at him with his eyes lowered and gently rubbed the cat’s pointed ears with his fingertips.

The cat shrank away from his fingers as if his tail was on fire and turned around swiftly to bite them.

Shen Boyan didn’t dodge, letting the little black cat pierce his skin with his fangs, red blood beads dripped from the wound.

A trace of dark red flashed at the bottom of his eyes:

“Don’t you want to see me?”

Really don’t want to.

If the previous behavior was coming from a cat, it would make sense, but thinking back on the premise that the other knew that he was a human… It was too shameful!

Ge Xiu felt heat rising to his head, cat’s face hidden under the fur was uncontrollably scalding hot.

After passing through so many worlds, he gradually got a glimpse of the truth hidden under countless mysteries, but he still didn’t even know how to get along with “him”. This feeling of helplessness passed to this world, this non-human form was not only an unavoidable deformation, but also a self-protection mechanism letting him avoid direct confrontation with the other.

Ge Xiu was not even willing to think about the possibility of having to stand face to face with Shen Boyan in his human form.

In addition, after changing from cat to human form, he’d be completely naked…

Ge Xiu made up his mind.

In any case, he cannot stay after the sun rises.

The hazy morning light shone in, shrouding the entire room in a warm halo, Ge Xiu raised his eyes and glanced at Shen Boyan in front of him, his gaze swept across the metal collar on the other’s neck.

Now that he was no longer on the verge of madness, Ge Xiu was reluctant to use electric shocks to get out of danger in this state.

However, disadvantages and advantages could be converted into each other.

Shen Boyan had now left the brink of beastization, so his speed and strength had returned to the level of normal human beings.

It also made it easier for him to get distracted.

Ge Xiu had an idea.

He let go of the other’s fingers, lowered his head and licked the two small holes he had bitten on the fingertips and then began to rub the man’s fingers with his lower jaw, making a thin “meow” sound.

Shen Boyan scratched the little black cat’s chin.

Purring sounds sounded and then the whole cat relaxed on the other’s lap, turned over to reveal its fluffy belly, and let out a “mi”.

Shen Boyan was dazed for a moment.

Ge Xiu keenly caught the moment when the opponent was caught off-guard, his hind legs kicked hard on his thigh, his whole body rushed out like a black lightning.

In just a few short jumps, he disappeared through the open gap in the window.

Shen Boyan slowly put down the obstructing hand.

His demeanor was extraordinarily calm, as if he was not surprised by the current result.

The gray-blue light outside the window was still dull and dim, and the darkness was deep, like a silent undercurrent.

——He stayed up all night.

He thought over the idea that he had almost on the verge of madness carefully and earnestly, and after careful consideration and contemplation, he determined that this was not just some kind of temporary impulse, but that this desire to plunder and possess quietly grew from depths of his soul.

Shen Boyan didn’t know where it came from, nor why this emotion was suddenly so strong.

But why bother?

Wasn’t that what the so-called instinct is all about?

A lycanthrope itself was a creature that obeyed desires—the desire to kill, the desire to possess, the desire to love, the desire to make love.

However, he still has basic rationality in the end. Forcible capturing and imprisonment can only be counterproductive. What he needed was a more meticulous plan, like a cage woven little by little around him so that he cannot escape and can only stay by his side forever.

Shen Boyan’s eyes were darkened, and he gently put his knuckles to his lips, kissing in silence.

Run.

This was the first step.

·

Since the previous incident, Ge Xiu hid a bag of clothes in the alley behind Shen Boyan’s apartment just in case.

What he didn’t expect was that he would use it so quickly.

The first golden rays of the rising sun shone on the quiet and uninhabited street, there was still a bit of icy chill in the air that had not yet dissipated.

Ge Xiu raised his hand to lower the brim of his hat, deftly bypassed the detection devices that had recently been added on the street, hurriedly walking forward.

He frowned slightly, his lips pursed into a tight straight line.

Shen Boyan’s sudden revelation was something he didn’t expect.

This made Ge Xiu’s future plans completely deviate from the original trajectory, and he had to start planning for his next step again.

Ge Xiu returned to Chen Ziyan’s apartment.

He took off his hat and the fluffy cat ears jumped out instantly, a slender cat tail protruded out of the wide gap in his trousers unwillingly, swaying impatiently behind his back.

Ge Xiu turned his head and pinched his tail.

——In any case, the top priority of his work now was to deal with these superfluous features.

At least he now had a clear understanding of the beastmen’s origins and the substances that were closely related to them. In addition, the collar could have an effect on Shen Boyan, which meant that it was actually capable of suppressing beast characteristics in people who had already mutated. The revealed beast-like characteristics may be due to incompetence or unwillingness to retain a generation of beast-like people as the government had never attempted a research on this aspect.

Once there was a clear starting point, the rest of the work became much easier.

Ge Xiu used the illegal funds that he had previously transferred to the anonymous account to purchase relevant analytical equipment and experimental tools from the black market, and then rented a warehouse on the edge of the city with a fake identity. In just a few days, a streamlined and professional laboratory was assembled and put into operation quickly.

That energy material had now become widely circulated, but the man-made material that had been reversed at the molecular level and put inside the collars was more difficult to obtain. Fortunately, the samples collected by Ge Xiu from the collars worn by those few people he caught had not been used up, basically everything was ready.

After working day and night frantically for a week, Ge Xiu finally found a way to target and temporarily suppress the mutated gene.

——In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that he always changed into cat form at night, his efficiency would have been at least doubled.

It could be manufactured by fine reprocessing on the basis of artificial substance from the collar. Although there would still be certain side effects on the human body, compared with the convenience it could bring, it was more than enough to make people ignore the side effects that could be reduced by controlling the dosage.

He stared at the light green liquid in his palm and let out a deep breath.

According to the number of samples obtained in his hands, this was the largest volume he can make.

It was estimated that such a tube can last up to five hours of action.

Ge Xiu swept his sight around his rudimentary laboratory with some pity — if the equipment could be more complete and advanced, he could reverse molecular build and purify it directly from energy source, but the control of those related equipment was too strict, that there was no way to buy it even on the black market, and if it had been illegally imported, it would be easy to get targeted by the government that was strictly guarding this aspect.

It would take too long, however, to start with basic equipment.

Based on the plans he had glimpsed in the lab, Ge Xiu worried that he wouldn’t be able to wait that long.

He raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, yawning tiredly, the blue and black shadows under his eyes became even more striking on his pale face.

Ge Xiu slowly stood up from his seat, took the phone beside him, then turned on the screen.

He his eyes swept over the screen hastily and then he couldn’t help being slightly taken aback.

During this week of work, the situation has changed dramatically.

Four days ago, there was the first report of the beast-like characteristics appearing on a collared person, and when the relevant troops went to control it, five people were slightly injured, three were seriously injured and one died.

The candid video immediately appeared on the Internet.

In the shaking footage, a huge python struggled frantically, swaying its thick and long dark green tail in broad daylight, fighting and letting out terrifying shrieks as the shops of the entire street got destroyed, stirred dust flew into the air and rubble piled up, vague screams and cries of people could be heard in the distance.

The video caused a huge wave in an instant.

It conveyed two very clear messages to the public—

First, the inhibiting effect of the collar was no longer a safe and effective solution.

Second, newly awakened lycanthropes would no longer be limited by solar activity in changing their form.

Their terrific destructive power and the huge damage they once caused to society had awakened people’s terrifying memories. People vented their unease and fear in various ways. They marched, protested, the internet was flooded with all kinds of extreme remarks, the atmosphere of panic makes the air tense and restless.

And violence thrived in fear.

Some humans no longer believed in the collar wearers around them. They started to regard these people as potential dangers and delayed fuse bombs, threatening their personal safety all the time. The voices to control all collar wearers were getting louder and louder. There had been even persecution of collar wearers in one region.

Even in areas that haven’t turned to violence, people were starting to double on their vigilance and distance from those around them.

Events were tilting towards a gradual loss of sanity.

Uncontrolled anger and fear make people foolish and blind.

Ge Xiu’s brows furrowed more and more.

As he was scanning the web page in front of him, suddenly there was a vibration coming from the phone he held, and then, an interface marking “BREAKING NEWS” suddenly appeared——

Ge Xiu paused, but finally still clicked on the link.

“…According to relevant personnel, the government had received threatening remarks from the lycanthrope terrorist organization. According to the report that terrorist organization had disappeared after the end of the war 50 years ago. This is their first appearance in 50 years…”

Ge Xiu remembered that organization.

He scanned through information of all people in the folders from that research institute. The participants and creators of that organisation either died in the siege or were arrested and imprisoned for life.

This terrorist organization had long since been destroyed.

If someone didn’t take the opportunity to imitate it, it should have been someone behind the scenes.

And the already tense situation had become more serious.

The behind the scenes people began to move their fingers, holding the invisible thin thread, manipulating the puppets on the stage, all for the sake of silently leading the upcoming drama.

At this moment, a message from the school teacher to Ge Xiu popped up on the mobile phone. In addition to greeting him, the head teacher had also conveyed to him the latest changes in the school’s rules. Due to the recent tense situation, in order to ensure the safety of each student, during this period of time, they would be conducting strict inspections on all students.

Therefore the teacher came this time asking him report his recent whereabouts and the hospital that diagnosed him, as well as ask him about his recovery and whether they could have a talk in near future.

Ge Xiu stared at the screen that lit up in front of him, thought about it, and clicked on the dialog box.

He replied shortly:

“Thank you teacher for your concern, my health is much better and I will go to school tomorrow.”