Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

“…Give it to me, I’ll do it myself,” he said in a hoarse voice.

"I'll do it for you, and then I'll leave." Yu Zhuo had already arrived in front of Zhou Yanshu. He avoided the fish tail hanging on the ground and squatted down in front of him as if he hadn't seen it. "You don't like me staying here, so I'll leave after I'm done doing it for you, okay?"

Zhou Yanshu's lips were slightly parted, his breathing was so weak that it was almost imperceptible, and he lowered his eyes silently upon hearing this.

Yu Zhuo sighed inwardly. He reached back with his palm and parted the wet blond hair from behind Zhou Yanshu's neck.

Unlike before, the glands, which had previously shriveled to the point of being almost deformed, are slowly recovering. Perhaps due to the impact of estrus, they have become red and swollen, showing visible pain and trembling.

Yu Zhuo took out the injection in his hand, and hugged Zhou Yanshu's lean upper body, letting him relax and rest his head on his shoulder.

"It hurts a little, just bear with it." Yu Zhuo turned his head slightly, his fingertips moving as he quietly placed the useless syringe into a corner.

Zhou Yanshu's upper body was covered in cold sweat. He had been naked and exposed to the air for a long time, and his skin was already cold. Layers of gray-white lines overlapped, climbed, and snaked to reveal a corner of scales.

Yu Zhuo looked at the stripes, and his palm ran down Zhou Yanshu's back, touching a large, sticky patch damp with sweat.

"...Did you hit him?" Zhou Yanshu half-opened his eyelids, his silver eyes filled with an unclear emotion. His fingers stiffened for a moment before he gripped Yu Zhuo's lower back.

What he actually needs most is not an inhibitor, but pheromones—the pheromones of the Alpha that once marked him.

And these things... Yu Zhuo doesn't have now.

Zhou Yanshu lowered his eyelashes, clutching the clothes beside Yu Zhuo, and felt a faint pain with each breath.

"... Yuozhuo!"

Zhou Yanshu suddenly arched his back, a shiver emanating from the back of his neck. His voice was slightly hoarse, as if he were warning someone, or perhaps begging for mercy.

"It's nothing, it's just an inhibitor, you know?" Yu Zhuo's lips parted slightly, his breath gently dispelling the chill from Zhou Yanshu's body. "I'm here..."

Zhou Yanshu's eyes inexplicably welled up with tears. He pressed his forehead against Yu Zhuo's shoulder blade and gently patted the ground with his fishtail.

Yu Zhuo hugged him tightly around the waist. His golden eyes were bright. He whispered and soothingly stroked Zhou Yanshu's thin back from top to bottom, from light to slow.

Zhou Yanshu's hoarse voice gradually subsided.

The smell on Yu Zhuo was almost exactly the same as that of the man who had been barely surviving a hundred years ago.

They filled the surroundings and then quietly dispersed, as if placing him once again in some distant embrace.

"Honey……"

Yu Zhuo was startled when he heard the voice. His teeth were slightly exposed, and he looked somewhat wistful.

Who are you calling?

Zhou Yanshu remained silent. He was weak, his flushed cheeks resting on Yu Zhuo's shoulder, his white eyelashes drooping.

Yu Zhuo glanced at him for a few seconds, then got up to pick him up. Zhou Yanshu immediately sensed this and tightened his grip on the towel covering his lower body.

"I'm not going out."

"I know, I'll put you in the water." Mermaids live in the deep sea, not to mention that Zhou Yanshu is now in mermaid form. His silver tail is wide and covered with dense scales. Yu Zhuo wouldn't be so brainless as to throw him on the bed.

Yu Zhuo drained all the cold water from the bathtub and refilled it with warm water. Layers of steam rose up, finally bringing warmth back into the bathroom.

Zhou Yanshu leaned against the bathtub, his eyes reddening slightly, his gaze drifting unnoticed over Yu Zhuo.

"Alright." Yu Zhuo quickly filled the warm water container, tested the temperature, and then walked back to Zhou Yanshu.

Zhou Yanshu's bath towel tightened, and Yu Zhuo, seeing his uncertain expression, said, "I know you're a mermaid, you have nothing to cover up. Besides, your bottom is all exposed, I can see it all."

Zhou Yanshu's expression stiffened slightly, his fingertips turned white as he pressed hard, and he said, "I didn't cover it up."

After he finished speaking, he relaxed his grip, and the folds of the bath towel gradually opened up to both ends. Zhou Yanshu's expression had returned to its original state.

Yu Zhuo noticed the slight unease on Zhou Yanshu's face. He picked up Zhou Yanshu but did not remove the towel covering his lower body for the time being.

“My spiritual form is a tabby cat, but I don’t eat mermaids, and I certainly won’t pounce on your tail and bite you,” Yu Zhuo comforted him. “I’m not that perverted.”

Yu Zhuo walked to the edge of the bathtub, where the steam slowly rose. As he spoke, Yu Zhuo untied the towel covering Zhou Yanshu's lower body.

As the pure silver fish tail gradually came into view, Yu Zhuo's words suddenly paused.

Zhou Yanshu was the former king of mermaids, and his fish tail was a pure silver color that was rare among mermaids for thousands of years.

Yu Zhuo still remembered the scene of Zhou Yanshu resting on the shore a long time ago, covered with layers of silver scales, hard and with a cold luster. The daytime sunlight poured down, imprinting colors on his scales and outlining a golden edge.

Back then, he liked to smile casually at Yu Zhuo with his eyes crinkled, and his tail would wag, creating pure white waves on the sea.

That was a scene that Yu Zhuo deliberately recorded in his memoir. He was worried that he would forget his past if he had been away from home for too long, so he made a point of describing everything about Zhou Yanshu in detail.

And now... the fishtail he described as "incomparably beautiful" a thousand times in his memoirs has become almost unrecognizable.

It was still the color of pure silver, still covered in scales, with a smooth surface and flowing lines. Only now, it bore deep scars that reached to the bone.

The wound started at the waist and went down the center of the fish's tail, tearing away all the scales along the way, until it gradually faded and disappeared at the very bottom.

Yu Zhuo's eyes trembled as he looked at the scar in the center of Zhou Yanshu's silver tail. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he remained speechless for a long time.

The scales around the scar were cracked, and no new ones have grown back over the years. Yu Zhuo didn't know how deep the wound was, but seeing Zhou Yanshu's current paralyzed state, he knew that he had injured his bones back then.

why why?

Didn't he run away back then? Before Yu Zhuo died, he had already paved all the escape routes for him... Why did he still end up like this?

Yu Zhuo's eyes stung with tears. He held Zhou Yanshu in his arms, but suddenly felt his arms stiffen and grow cold, and he almost lost the strength to lift the person in his arms.

...He died too young.

Even after Yu Zhuo's death, Zhou Yanshu still could not escape.

The main system did not let him off the hook.

"thump."

A distinct sound came from the bathroom. Yu Zhuo felt a lightness in his hand and looked down to see that Zhou Yanshu had already rolled over and fallen into the bathtub.