After staring at each other for a long time, Sang Jue tentatively asked: “Doesn’t it sound nice?”
“…” Huo Yanji asked: “Who taught you that?”
There was no reason for Sang Jue to suddenly think of terms of endearment between human partners. Given his naming skills, it should have been similar to “Ji Ji.”
“Colin taught me.” Sang Jue immediately sold him out. With something in his mouth, his voice wasn’t very clear: “Don’t you want to be my wife?”
“…”
When speaking, his tongue would inevitably brush against the fingertip. Huo Yanji pulled out, lying down to grab tissues from the coffee table and wiped off the moisture.
Huo Yanji asked: “Then what are you to me?”
Sang Jue thought for a second: “I’m male, equivalent to a man among humans, so I’m your husband.”
Huo Yanji reminded: “I’m also male.”
Sang Jue’s brain was getting confused: “Then… we’re both husbands?”
Huo Yanji suddenly pressed down on Sang Jue’s nape, barely avoiding contact at the moment their lips were about to touch, brushing against Sang Jue’s soft, delicate cheek instead. His other hand pressed Sang Jue’s waist, creating intimate contact at a certain spot.
The little evil dragon wasn’t foolish now: “Did you just want to kiss me?”
Huo Yanji’s eyes darkened for a moment, then after a long while he restrained himself: “Let’s sleep. Good night.”
“Good night…”
Sang Jue’s tail moved, wanting to poke at the hard something, but was quickly intercepted by a large hand that pinched his tail tip.
Huo Yanji’s voice was low and hoarse: “Don’t cause trouble if you don’t want to be bullied.”
His little scheme exposed, Sang Jue huffed twice and lay still in Huo Yanji’s embrace.
He had already been bullied, with fingers playing with his tongue – somewhat impolite… but perhaps this was normal intimate behavior between human spouses.
Hmm… Ji Ji’s thing also seemed bigger than his.
Why was that? Was it because his human genes weren’t strong enough?
The little evil dragon didn’t have much competitive spirit in this area, falling asleep amid curiosity and contemplation.
But he woke up at dawn because Huo Yanji was holding him while sitting up, slowly bending down to place him on the sofa.
Just as he was about to leave, Sang Jue’s tail hooked around his leg.
Huo Yanji pinched the tip, making the tail instantly retract, and said flatly: “I need to get to work.”
Sang Jue sleepily looked toward the window. The sky was still very dark – probably not even 4 AM yet.
His wife was a dolphin.
How troubling for a dragon.
Sang Jue mumbled: “If you die from overwork, I’ll be unhappy.”
Huo Yanji picked up his coat from the rack, covered Sang Jue with it, and said in a flat tone: “If something happens to me, leave early.”
“Leave to where?”
“Back to your home, to find the people you want to see, even staying at the Eye of Paradise would be fine.”
Sang Jue blinked and slowly became fully awake.
Huo Yanji thought he was an evil dragon from the Eye of Paradise… but actually he wasn’t. He didn’t even know if he looked the same as the evil dragons on this planet.
He secretly bit his lip. He should have obediently flipped through the contaminated creature illustrated guide in the study.
Though he didn’t like reading, pictures with text were still quite interesting.
…
As Ji Zhen had said, in one night’s time, news that the Supreme Executive’s lover could be exchanged for over seven thousand residents’ lives spread throughout the city.
Under the influence of interested parties, public opinion boiled, rumors flew, and countless eyes watched Huo Yanji, wanting to see how he would handle it.
In his eyes, were those seven thousand-plus residents important, or was one little lover important?
As for the two parties involved, one was seriously picking cilantro out of his beef, while the other was still handling other matters, continuously reading documents.
Sang Jue said while eating: “If you’re willing to hire me with ten gems, I can help rescue those seven thousand-plus people.”
Huo Yanji didn’t look up: “No need.”
“Okay then.” Sang Jue asked: “Then you need to resolve this quickly. If they all decide to hand me over, I’ll be very angry.”
Huo Yanji asked casually: “What happens when you’re angry?”
Sang Jue said: “I’ll knock you unconscious and take you away, then kill all the ringleaders.”
Huo Yanji glanced at him: “Not bad.”
Sang Jue asked: “Aren’t you angry?”
Huo Yanji asked back: “Why should I be angry?”
Sang Jue said: “Because I said I’d kill people.”
“If someone wants to hurt you, regardless of the reason, there’s no need for forgiveness.” Huo Yanji flipped through documents, saying flatly: “Tolerating and protecting the people is my responsibility, not yours.”
Sang Jue hummed, still struggling with the beef fibers using his fangs. It was unclear whether he understood or not.
Huo Yanji spoke casually and flatly: “If someday I also do something harmful to you, you should kill me too.”
This hypothetical made the dragon somewhat uncomfortable. Sang Jue thought seriously: “I would.”
Huo Yanji hummed: “Then that’s good.”
Sang Jue didn’t want to continue this topic and asked: “Why can I bite through even gems, but eating this is so difficult?”
“This is mutated beef. The fibers are very coarse, so it’s indeed somewhat difficult to chew. It can’t be crushed directly like gems.” Huo Yanji asked: “Can you eat gems in human form?”
Sang Jue really couldn’t chew it open and swallowed directly: “I need to change back to evil dragon form.”
Huo Yanji glanced over: “Then you’d tear down the house.”
“…” Sang Jue analyzed seriously: “That was indeed my fault, but your home is too small to support a dragon.”
Huo Yanji chatted while working: “Then how big would it need to be?”
Sang Jue said: “Your manor might work.”
Huo Yanji’s eyes darkened slightly: “I’m afraid the manor wouldn’t work either.”
Sang Jue didn’t understand why, becoming increasingly curious about what was wrong with Huo Yanji’s manor.
Last time Huo Jiangmian had been excessive too, arousing his curiosity but not giving him answers, saying it was a secret.
Hmph.
Huo Yanji was currently reading contamination reports from the Eye of Paradise.
Based on current human discoveries, evil dragons only existed in the Eye of Paradise valley and were among the most powerful flying contaminants, extremely difficult to capture.
Though they had low contamination desires, they weren’t without contamination properties. On the contrary, their genetic contamination was extremely high.
Moreover, according to previous research, evil dragon gene sequences were vastly different from humans, and examples of them being able to transform into humans were unheard of.
Currently, the only known entities capable of mimicking humans were the humanoid creatures from various rifts, who could simulate human genomes after digesting human corpses.
Furthermore, there had been no previous cases of a creature gaining the ability to simulate other biological genes after being infected by another creature.
In simple terms, if a giant frog was infected by a snake, there were usually only two outcomes: either the foreign gene cells were assimilated and metabolized, allowing continued survival, or direct death after infection.
Of course, there was also a very small possibility that after infection, the genes of both species would coexist within the body, mutating into a bizarre state where snake and frog were intertwined and indistinguishable.
But Sang Jue was different. After being infected by green fungi, he directly gained the ability to simulate the opponent’s genes… including human identity.
Even humanoid creatures, after simulating humans, had extremely unstable genomes, but Sang Jue was very stable and possessed thinking and logic.
This couldn’t be called simulation – it was more like gene replication.
Huo Yanji looked up.
Sang Jue had finished eating and was wandering around the office, his long tail perked behind him, the densely packed black scales barely different from the evil dragons of the Eye of Paradise.
At least visually, there wasn’t much difference – he didn’t look like a new species.
…There was another possibility: the evil dragon genes, like the green fungi, were also acquired by Sang Jue through infection.
Huo Yanji suddenly called out: “Sang Jue.”
Sang Jue turned around: “Hmm?”
The words reached his lips, but Huo Yanji swallowed them back, saying flatly: “Nothing, just calling you.”
“Oh.”
Sang Jue thought to himself that his wife was a bit clingy.
Humans who had just confirmed their partner relationship would feel very insecure and need more comforting.
So he dragged over a chair, moved next to Huo Yanji, lay sideways on the chair with his back against the armrest, head resting on Huo Yanji’s arm, and tail threading through the chair gap, swishing back and forth.
He said considerately: “I’ll keep you company while you work.”
It was indeed quite pleasant.
For a while, the office was filled only with the sound of paper rustling and message alerts. Whenever there was a pause, the boneless little evil dragon would obediently offer his tail to play with.
When pinched to ‘discomfort,’ he would only blush at the ear tips, obediently enduring it.
Two more beeps sounded.
Huo Yanji released the tail and pressed answer: “What is it?”
Zhang Min’s voice came through: “Sir, more and more people are gathering below the Supervision Center, and someone has initiated a public vote in the square on whether to exchange Sang Jue for those seven thousand-plus residents…”
Although these hostages were ordinary residents, some deviants didn’t care at all, but they still didn’t mind making trouble and began mocking – didn’t they say Dawn required sacrifices? Their lives could be sacrificed, so why couldn’t Huo Yanji’s lover’s life be sacrificed?
This made no sense.
Though it was clearly a matter of concept substitution, many people were convinced by it.
As mentioned before, people in this era had been wandering between despair and life-and-death situations, their thoughts already numb. As long as there was a leader, the followers would swarm behind.
This was also based on the Supreme Council’s “domestication” efforts.
So when Huo Feng became a spiritual pillar and then disappeared, humans at that time collapsed in that way.
Sang Jue heard Zhang Min’s words clearly.
But with Huo Yanji right beside him, he wasn’t very angry.
He was just thinking, why hadn’t he encountered people like Si Fu and Old Karl recently?
Or were such humans always a minority?
The little evil dragon didn’t quite understand; he had encountered too few people.
Zhang Min was asking: “Do you need to stop them by force?”
