EDEH Chapter 90

“Uncomfortable?”

 

Sang Jue honestly hummed in agreement.

 

“Bear with it.” Huo Yanji cruelly put him down and stood up, tugging at his shirt.

 

The military jacket was lost in the pool water. All Huo Yanji had left was a white shirt and military pants tucked into his boots, all soaked through.

 

He went outside to pick up some living wood to add to the campfire so it would burn longer.

 

Then he took off his shirt, scrubbed it clean in the pool, and hung it on a wooden stick by the campfire to dry.

 

Sang Jue stared intently at Huo Yanji’s back, warmed by the firelight.

 

His slender neck was slightly bent, beautiful muscle lines alternately relaxing and contracting, the side curves winding downward and tucked into his waistband, making his legs look incredibly long.

 

After hanging up the clothes, Huo Yanji walked to the spider queen’s corpse, gripped his long dagger in reverse, bent down and cut open its abdomen, extracting a small pale sac from the right inner side that contained heavy black-green liquid.

 

Sang Jue asked curiously: “What’s that?”

 

“Green sore, one of the most precious medicinal materials.”

 

Sang Jue understood: “Are you going to apply it to me?”

 

Huo Yanji hummed: “But it can’t be applied directly.”

 

He hung the sac directly above the campfire. Under the fire’s heat, it slowly began to change color, gradually darkening from bottom to top.

 

Sang Jue pounced over.

 

Huo Yanji seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, directly catching him with a backhand: “No biting.”

 

“…” Sang Jue had just wanted to take a bite of his shoulder blade, mouth already half open, but could only close it upon hearing this.

 

He hugged Huo Yanji’s back, poking his head out from under his arm: “I know what you’re doing.”

 

Huo Yanji cooperatively asked: “What am I doing?”

 

Sang Jue said: “Contaminated biological cells can have their contamination removed with high temperature after leaving the main body.”

 

Huo Yanji curved his lips: “Seems you did read the book.”

 

Sang Jue: “Of course! I finished reading an entire volume of the ‘Contaminated Creature Guide.'”

 

Huo Yanji gave faint praise: “Not bad.”

 

Sang Jue asked: “But won’t the sac melt like this?”

 

Huo Yanji said: “No, just like spider silk, it’s heat-resistant and hard to burn. After completely removing contamination, the green sore inside will become dry, hard and viscous, turning deep black in color.”

 

Sang Jue pressed against Huo Yanji’s back, nuzzling: “I don’t need medicine, it’ll be fine tomorrow.”

 

It was just that his skin was fair, making the wound look long and frightening, but his healing ability was strong.

 

Huo Yanji turned around to pick up Sang Jue and slowly sat down by a large boulder nearby: “Medicine is for using. There’s no need to drag it out – what if you get infected by other organisms?”

 

Sang Jue hummed: “Then I’d just have another skin type.”

 

Huo Yanji: “…”

 

Sang Jue avoided Huo Yanji’s death stare and tugged at his pant leg: “Aren’t you going to take off your pants to dry them?”

 

Huo Yanji said: “They can dry while being worn.”

 

That’s different.

 

Sang Jue thought privately – if worn, he couldn’t see the legs.

 

“Cold?”

 

“Not cold.”

 

Sang Jue sat sideways in Huo Yanji’s embrace, pressed against his burning chest, asking puzzledly: “Why are we staying here?”

 

Huo Yanji pulled him closer into his embrace and asked lightly: “When did you leave the main city?”

 

Sang Jue thought about it: “Last night.”

 

“…”

 

A journey that normally took three to four days by car, Sang Jue had completed in one day. His sudden disappearance from the main city and unexpected appearance at the underground city would inevitably arouse suspicion.

 

Sang Jue hummed: “So we need to stay in the forest for a few days?”

 

The hand supporting his waist also pinched his tail as Huo Yanji said: “About three days, then we’ll leave.”

 

This way, even if people suspected, they couldn’t openly do anything about it.

 

Huo Yanji said flatly: “How did you get out?”

 

Sang Jue roughly described the situation and added: “Your manor was discovered.”

 

Huo Yanji didn’t care about this, his brow slightly furrowed: “They saw you fall into the antlion trap?”

 

Sang Jue recalled: “They should have seen it. There were whirlpools everywhere on the ground, and I accidentally stepped into one…”

 

At that time, Sang Jue jumped down not to save Yang Chen, but to find an opportunity to slip away and find Huo Yanji. He didn’t care whether everyone thought he was dead or alive, he just wanted to leave quickly.

 

But Yang Chen was right beside him at the time, her body already mostly trapped. Sang Jue hesitated but still pulled her.

 

But this just showed how much Sang Jue lacked common sense – antlion quicksand vortex traps couldn’t be escaped through brute force.

 

Huo Yanji asked: “Did she die?”

 

“I don’t know.” As he spoke, Sang Jue’s mouth began to move upward, rubbing around his Adam’s apple. “That whole underground area was hollowed out by antlions.”

 

Huo Yanji rubbed Sang Jue’s nape, his thoughts circling, saying flatly: “If anyone asks when we go back, tell them you hitched a ride with someone.”

 

Sang Jue made a sound: “Won’t they suspect I’m that evil dragon?”

 

“Perhaps they will, but everything requires evidence.” Huo Yanji said: “If anyone asks too many questions, just play dumb. You haven’t done anything wrong, and they have no legitimate reason to interrogate you.”

 

“Okay.” Sang Jue responded, gently nibbling at Huo Yanji’s Adam’s apple. “But we don’t have food. Will you starve to death?”

 

“Three days won’t kill me.” Huo Yanji pinched Sang Jue’s chin apart and subtly curved his lips: “Besides, isn’t there ready-made food here?”

 

The two stared at each other for a while, and Sang Jue’s entire tail stiffened, standing straight up behind him.

 

Sang Jue tried to persuade: “When you like someone, you don’t eat them.”

 

Huo Yanji said: “You’re not human anyway.”

 

“…Dragons can’t be eaten either.” Sang Jue tried to scare him: “You’ll be contaminated by me.”

 

Huo Yanji said: “Didn’t you say you don’t have contamination?”

 

Sang Jue lacked confidence: “…What if I do?”

 

In nature, there were indeed some creatures that would eat their mates, which conformed to their genetic habits. But most animals wouldn’t consume their own kind, and killing other creatures was only for survival.

 

Humans were naturally the same.

 

Sang Jue hugged Huo Yanji, knowing he was deliberately ‘bullying’ him. He wasn’t afraid, just mumbled: “If you eat people, other humans will be afraid of you.”

 

Huo Yanji embraced Sang Jue’s waist, his lips brushing against Sang Jue’s cheek: “It doesn’t matter. Will you let me eat you?”

 

Sang Jue pursed his lips: “If you’re about to starve to death, I can let you eat a small piece… just a small piece.”

 

The coldness in Huo Yanji’s eyes completely dissipated, his tone softening with a tenderness rarely seen: “Would you let others eat you too?”

 

Sang Jue thought carefully: “If it’s the doctor, she can eat some too.”

 

Huo Yanji paused slightly: “The doctor was very good to you?”

 

Sang Jue nodded: “Super good. She was always very gentle and patient, made me delicious food, read me bedtime stories, played with me…”

 

She also taught Sang Jue that others could only be good to you if you were good to them first, and not to let anyone hurt you for any reason.

 

If Sang Jue were human, Dr. Anya would probably be like a foster mother, giving Sang Jue all the care and education she could give to a human child.

 

She never treated Sang Jue as a monster.

 

Huo Yanji asked for the first time: “What’s the doctor’s name?”

 

Sang Jue said: “Her name is Anya.”

 

When mentioning this name, the little evil dragon’s tone rose by two degrees.

 

“Anya?” Huo Yanji searched through his memory. Among the currently famous researchers who could be called doctors, there was no one named Anya.

 

He paused and asked: “Is her surname An, or does she have another surname?”

 

Sang Jue said: “Her surname is An.”

 

“…”

 

A thunderclap rumbled outside.

 

The mountain fire that had lasted nearly a week finally brought torrential rain. Large raindrops pounded into the mountains, but the continuous mountain fire only became slightly smaller, still burning tirelessly.

 

Startled by the thunder, Sang Jue pressed against Huo Yanji’s neck, missing the complexity that flashed through Huo Yanji’s eyes.

 

Remembering Sang Jue’s many mentions of “going home,” Huo Yanji paused and continued asking: “Do you really want to go back to see her?”

 

“I have to go back.” When saying this, Sang Jue’s tone carried some humanized stubbornness. “The doctor is still waiting for me to come home. If she can’t see me, she won’t know if I’m doing well. In her limited life, she’ll always worry about me.”

 

“…” Huo Yanji’s expression stiffened. “Where is home?”

 

Sang Jue didn’t hide anything. His human already knew a lot, so knowing a little more didn’t matter.

 

“Actually, I’m not a creature from this planet. My home is on a planet very, very far away.” He was an alien dragon.

 

“…”

 

Seeing Huo Yanji not speaking, Sang Jue issued a formal invitation: “When the day comes for me to leave, would you be willing to come with me?”

 

Huo Yanji’s eyes churned with something Sang Jue couldn’t understand.

 

Sang Jue thought he was unwilling and said nothing sullenly. Indeed, in Huo Yanji’s heart, responsibility was more important than him.

 

The little evil dragon understood that humans were complex beings who could place all sorts of odd principles above their feelings, yet he was still unhappy.

 

But that was fine—he couldn’t give up going home just for Ji-Ji’s sake.

 

When the time came, he would simply snatch the man, tie him up, and make sure he’d never escape for the rest of his life.

 

After staring at each other for quite a while, Huo Yanji’s lips twitched as though he wanted to say something.

 

In the end he swallowed the words and answered calmly, “All right.”

 

“But we have to wait until every disaster has been settled,” he added, lifting the youth in his arms. “Once everything is back on track and mankind is walking the right road, you can take me wherever you want.”

 

Sang Jue’s eyes widened in surprise.

 

“Really?”

 

“Really.”

 

A hard-to-describe excitement bubbled up inside him; his mind raced as he began planning how to introduce Huo Yanji to Dr Anya.

 

Supporting Sang Jue with one arm, Huo Yanji picked up the spider sac that had turned completely black. After it cooled he dug out a lump of solid salve and changed the subject. “Spread your legs.”

 

The wound was in a rather awkward spot. A faint flush climbed Sang Jue’s cheeks, making one want to bite.

 

Expressionless, Huo Yanji smoothed the salve over the gash. “Have you slept well these past days?”

 

Sang Jue knew he meant the ten days they’d been apart. He answered earnestly:

 

“I couldn’t sleep. So I spread your clothes all over the bed—then it all smelled of you.”

 

Huo Yanji chewed over the sentence. “You slept in my clothes?”

 

Sang Jue nodded and mimed wrapping himself up. “That way I slept soundly and even dreamed of you.”

 

“And after you dreamed of me?”

 

“Then I’d fetch the belt and bite on it.”

 

Huo Yanji’s eyes darkened; his Adam’s apple bobbed. He set Sang Jue on his feet, took the dried shirt and slipped it over him.

 

The oversized white shirt hung loosely; a breeze lifted the hem, half-covering and half-revealing—far more seductive than full nudity.

 

The young, self-controlled major general had to summon every ounce of restraint.

 

—Men really are creatures ruled by desire: with the boy wounded and innocent, all he could think of was pressing him down and ravaging him. Truly a beast.

 

**

 

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