ITF Chapter126

Lead-gray skylight poured down from the high arched windows.

The anatomy classroom was saturated with the rancid odor of death. A marble examination table stood at its center, its polished surface reflecting a chill, sterile sheen. Resting atop it was the body of a male Alpha, freshly brought in from the execution grounds. His chest cavity had been cut completely open, the dark-red flesh peeled back on either side like worn theater curtains, while the branding mark reserved for rapists was neatly divided in two by the incision.

A few timid students kept their eyes tightly shut. A young noble sitting in the second row covered his mouth and nose tightly with a silk handkerchief embroidered with his family crest, muttering under his breath, “May the Lord have mercy on his soul…”

“Clang.”

A silver coin precisely struck the numb muscle of his elbow, bouncing and rolling down the stone steps. The young man rubbed his arm and turned around in a fury, but the unuttered curses froze in his throat.

In the shadows of the last row, the black and gold military uniform outlined the sharp silhouette of a young military officer. The man rested his chin on one hand, the other still frozen in the motion of flipping a coin. Yet his attention was fixed not on him, but on the anatomy, professor standing before the dissection table, carefully removing the liver from the corpse.

But the other party seemed not to see him at all. He wiped the blood off the scalpel with a handkerchief soaked in lemon juice and then placed the scalpel on a copper tray.

The crisp sound of metal clashing finally brought the students’ attention back to the dissection table.

“If you are unwilling to open your eyes now, you will faint in front of the operating table in the future.” Jiang Han propped up the dark red liver with his palm and said in an enticing and systematic tone, “Remember, a physician who shrinks back is more dangerous than a butcher.”

*

Anatomy was a newly introduced field within the medical school. The uproar surrounding the reinstatement of research into the new generation of inhibitors had yet to die down when this latest council resolution sparked another wave of fierce opposition from the church and other conservative factions. Devout believers of the Xili Religion regarded the dissection table as an altar that blasphemed God, claiming that this course would plunge the soul into eternal night. At the beginning of the course, some radicals lay in wait for Jiang Han at the entrance of the medical school and splashed holy water all over him. Since then, Bei Yang would personally come to pick him up and take him home for every anatomy class.

“Don’t always bully my students.”

Jiang Han looked serious while looking up at the Alpha perched high on horseback.

Bei Yang raised his eyebrows disapprovingly.

“Where did I bully him? His mercy should be reserved for those harmed by that bastard.” After saying that, he moved back a bit to make room, and stretched out his hand toward Jiang Han, “Come.”

Jiang Han looked down at the bloodstains smudging his cuffs, hesitated, and took a step back, “My robe is too dirty, it smells like dead people.”

“The number of people I’ve killed exceeds all the dead you’ve ever laid eyes on combined.” With that, Bei Yang urged his horse forward and reached out to seize his wrist.

His strength left no room for refusal, and Jiang Han did not decline further, taking his hand to mount the horse. The Alpha’s body heat still lingered on the saddle. He turned his head slightly and asked, “Why are you back so early today?”

Bei Yang held the reins in his right hand while his left arm remained firmly wrapped around the slim waist of the person seated before him. The black stallion’s hooves rang out steadily against the stone-paved road, yet there was a distinct edge of irritation in his voice. “The honorable Lord Prime Minister thought I was incompetent and sent me packing,” he said sullenly. “Bai Heting really has a heart of stone.”

He was calling Bai Heting by his full name again, and Jiang Han turned his head back to give him a glance.

Bei Yang caught his right hand, massaging his wrist while rambling on, “I really don’t understand, why would anyone want to teach a one-year-old girl how to brandish swords and spears?”

“A wooden sword,” Jiang Han corrected him. “And I heard he only wanted you to teach Her Majesty how to practice her grip.”

“She can’t even hold a rice spoon steadily at her age,” Bei Yang sighed. “If I followed his orders completely, Her Majesty would grow up to be another Bai Heting.”

Jiang Han said, “Wouldn’t that be quite good?”

Bei Yang was choked up by his words.

“A child her age only needs to do one thing, and that is to grow up healthy and strong. If it were my child, I would never—”

The pressure applied to the wrist suddenly tightened, and his words came to an abrupt halt.

Bei Yang changed the subject, “Forget it, I hate kids.”

Jiang Han did not expose this obvious lie. Male Betas do not have the ability to bear offspring; for an Alpha to choose to spend the rest of his life with a male Beta meant actively giving up the possibility of continuing his bloodline. This topic was a tacit forbidden zone between them.

“Protecting young cubs is an innate instinct of animals,” he said calmly. “It’s normal for you to feel this way.”

Only then did Bei Yang speak up again, “That’s why I say he has a heart of stone. How can he bring himself to be so cruel?”

“His care for Her Majesty is no less than yours,” Jiang Han said. “But he has to do this. One day, we will leave this world before the children, and when that time comes, they can only rely on themselves.”

These words made sense, but since every sentence defended Bai Heting, it made Bei Yang feel quite uncomfortable inside.

“Look at you, knowing him so well.”

“I am speaking the truth.”

Bei Yang abandoned the argument altogether. Tugging lightly on the reins, he fished something from his pocket and pressed it into Jiang Han’s palm. Then he lowered his chin onto Jiang Han’s shoulder and murmured in a coaxing, almost pleading tone, “Our lemon trees have borne fruit.”

Jiang Han looked closely at the green-skinned lemon in his palm and suddenly smiled. Those few lemon trees in the backyard had been planted together by the two of them when they moved into their new home last year, and this was the first batch of fruit.

His laughter was crisp and clear, and for a fleeting moment, Bei Yang felt as if he heard the ice of Lake Urdan cracking in the spring. The ripples, long imprisoned by the bitter winter, came alive, refracting fine, golden light in the twilight. As he yanked the reins, the black horse beneath him neighed as it turned into a deserted, dark alley.

Jiang Han reminded him, “We’re almost home…”

Before his words could fully leave his mouth, his chin was caught and turned.

The wind in the alley suddenly fell still, and the setting sun cast the silhouettes of two people entangled in a kiss onto the moss-covered brick wall. Jiang Han’s neck curved backward into a crescent moon, and during a brief pause to catch his breath, he let out a soft sigh—

He couldn’t even restrain himself for this short a time.

*

If he restrained himself any longer, he was going to go crazy.

The candlelight from the gilded wall sconces flickered along the palace corridor. Two guards jogged behind him with their hands resting on their sword hilts but not daring to actually stop him, their leather boots clicking frantically against the marble floor.

“Bang—”

The door was flung open with a bang, and Luo Congye strode into the inner chamber, calling out loudly, “Are you still not coming home?”

The Prime Minister’s figure was half-submerged in an armchair with only a wine-red velvet robe thrown over his thin, white linen nightshirt, looking very much as though he intended to sleep in the palace again tonight. Without lifting his head, he turned a page of the document in his hand and casually waved his hand at the guards, who immediately backed out of the room.

The heavy oak door slowly closed behind Luo Congye, and the room fell into a brief silence for a few seconds. Bai Heting raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, and only then did he sluggishly lift his eyes. “Try shouting like that one more time?”