"Argg..."
An abnormally sharp pain forced me to wake up; I felt a stinging sensation in my head, as if someone had struck me over and over again.
"Ugh… I shouldn't have drunk so much."
I slowly opened my eyes, dissipating all those invasive thoughts swirling in my mind. With my head a bit clearer, a shocking vision greeted me instantly.
...Eh?
White sheets were sliding down my completely bare torso. Beside me, wrapped among the crumpled fabrics, lay a silver-haired woman observing me with an intense and unsettling gaze.
"Gulp..." I swallowed hard.
Holy shit!
What the hell happened last night? I asked myself, clinging to the faint memory of having returned. Had it been just an illusion? No, this wasn't the time. I quickly tried to sit up, but my body didn't respond. It was completely rigid, as if it didn't belong to me.
「Assimilation rate – 13%.」
—Ah…?
There it was again, that irritating mechanical sound whispering in my ear. I thought it had been just a dream, my subconscious trying to wake me up. Before I could determine the source of the noise, a strange voice modulated from my mouth, without me being able to control it:
—…Why are you still here? I don't recall giving you permission to stay.
The moment the words ended, my body moved on its own, as if it had a will of its own. I sat up and reached out, gripping the girl's wrist firmly. With a jerk, I forced her out of bed.
The sheets slid away, and for a few seconds, her figure was exposed to the cold light of the room.
I slowly lowered my gaze. Her skin was white and fine like the purest jade, too perfect to seem real. The morning light traced the soft curves of her body, accentuating them even more. Her chest rose and fell with every breath, oblivious to the chaos seething inside my mind.
Soon, my gaze descended a bit further.
Among the sheets, a subtle red stain was slightly visible.
...
My body went still. For a few seconds, as if appreciating that moment, I could even feel a slight—and disturbing—tinge of satisfaction.
What the hell is going on!? I thought, while looking back at the woman beside me.
Her face, her figure… there was no doubt, it was exactly as described.
Silver hair, light topaz eyes, and a calm expression that radiated purity.
"Su Liang'er."
The eldest daughter of the Su Family.
And the fiancée of the protagonist of the novel: "Betrayed Son-in-Law Rises."
「Assimilation rate – 35%.」
Why is this woman in my bed?
Is it even possible… or is this a lucid dream?
Chaos swirled in my mind, but in complete contrast, my mouth continued to move with eloquence.
—I didn't know you were so desperate as to give yourself to me.
The sound of my own voice turned my blood cold.
Wait… This conversation…
No.
It can't be.
A memory struck my mind with force. A scene. A dialogue I had read over and over again.
Don't tell me that…
"You are mine now."
—You are mine now.
A shiver ran down my spine when my mouth pronounced the exact same words.
"From this moment on"
—From this moment on…
My breathing became heavy, almost uncontrollable, though on the outside there wasn't even the slightest disturbance.
"You belong to me"
—You belong to me.
Every phrase that left my mouth dragged a precise image with it. An exact moment from the novel. It wasn't a coincidence.
I remembered it clearly. It was a key point in the story: the moment the protagonist loses his fiancée.
If there had been even a shred of doubt before, it was gone now.
The voice filtering from my throat belonged to Qin Moshen.
The young master of the Qin family.
A man whose polite smile was merely a facade to hide his venom.
「Assimilation rate – 73%.」
The constant mechanical noise brought me back to reality. I looked at her again.
Her expression was full of hatred, as if she wanted to kill me with her gaze alone, but her body remained rigid, trapped in helplessness. That evident contradiction awakened something deep within me.
An alien desire, cold and possessive, seeped through my veins.
My hand closed around her wrist again. With a sharp, brusque tug, I pulled her against my chest with force.
"Uh," a slight moan escaped her lips.
She struggled, but it was futile. Her blows against my chest were nothing more than the fluttering of a wounded bird. I slid my hand down her back to her waist. I squeezed her there, digging my fingers into her skin.
"You… bastard."
Words loaded with hatred escaped a mouth devoid of any strength.
However, I didn't release the pressure. On the contrary, one of my palms, initially on her waist, began to descend slowly.
I buried my face in the curve of her neck, intoxicating myself with the scent of her skin and that trace of perfume that was beginning to melt with her heat.
—No... no... —she whispered softly.
I slid my tongue slowly. Her breathing became agitated, warm, and uncontrollable, until a rasping gasp escaped her lips.
—...ah.
It was a wet, surrendered sound. I took her by the nape and kissed her; her heat flooded my mouth. Her back arched, barely a centimeter, pushing her belly against mine. She no longer fought. Trembling, melting, her body yielded, betraying every word of a curse she had hurled at me.
「Assimilation rate – 81%.」
Thump, thump.
The dull knock on the door snapped me out of my daze.
Confusion hit me full force; for an instant, I experienced the terrifying sensation that my consciousness was being devoured. I was a spectator trapped in my own flesh: I saw how everything happened and could even feel every sensation vividly, but I had no control. I was unable to stop myself.
Liang'er took advantage of my bewilderment to break free with a desperate tug. She recoiled with such abruptness that she ended up collapsing onto the floor, exhausted by the momentum. She stayed there, panting, her gaze full of rage and frustration, while the silence was broken only by the sound of the door.