APUTFFZG Chapter 19

Translator: Deyonna

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The tiles on the bathroom floor were frigid, in stark contrast to the scalding water cascading down Xi Ze's back. The alternating hot and cold left his head spinning.

He knelt halfway on the floor, one hand braced against the wall, his eyes squeezed shut in a look of forbearance. He reached his other hand behind him and, moving with extreme unfamiliarity, began to clean himself.

"Nng..."

Until now, he had only theoretical knowledge and had never practiced on himself. On top of that, losing his sight made it harder.

Unsure whether he had touched a wound, he felt a sharp, stabbing pain and gasped. His face suddenly paled, and his muscles tensed all over.

Xi Ze's nostrils flared briefly, and his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed down a wave of nausea.

He had never told the male zerg that the torment hadn't stopped at the external wounds, that the injuries ran deeper, to more hidden places inside. Whether they had caused permanent damage to his fertility was unknown.

Ye Er probably doesn't know either. Otherwise he wouldn't have stayed so calm for so long, never asking or mentioning it.

It's better not to know... He's always had a high pain tolerance, so he'll endure it until it passes, without letting the male zerg find any clues.

Water dripped from the tips of his hair, making small splashes on the floor.

Many thoughts raced through his mind in a jumble, but he couldn't hold on to any of them. The inexplicable urgency felt like a scythe hanging over his head, making him more and more restless.

His expression was vacant as he scrubbed mechanically and roughly with his right hand, as if he had lost all sense of pain.

"Xi Ze?"

The male zerg's voice came through two doors, muffled and indistinct, jolting the female zerg out of it. He realized he had probably been washing for too long.

He answered hoarsely and grabbed the towel hanging nearby.

---

It was the first time he had lain on Ye Er's bed, but what lay beneath him wasn't a soft blanket. It was a thin, cold waterproof sheet.

Xi Ze hesitated, then reached out to feel around. He confirmed that the quilt and pillows had been removed and that the whole mattress was covered with plastic film.

The female zerg pursed his lips unconsciously, a flash of embarrassment and an indescribable sense of loss in his eyes.

"Then I'll go first. Call me if you need anything," 015 said as usual, then closed the door and left the room.

The sound of running water came from the bathroom nearby, so the male zerg must have only just gone in.

Xi Ze surreptitiously adjusted his posture. The waterproof sheet made a faint sound, and his body froze unnaturally.

Unable to see the edge of the bed, he accidentally put his palm out over empty space and nearly fell off, but then his hand struck a hard corner protruding from under the bed.

Xi Ze frowned, propped himself up, and fumbled the box open. His fingertips met something hard with a sinister outline, and he could faintly smell the ominous scent of danger on it.

These were the things the Male Zerg Protection Association had sent.

The female zerg's fingers tightened, and his clouded thoughts gradually cleared.

He couldn't stand, and he wouldn't kneel, always clinging to that fragile sense of self-respect, preferring to endure torment and abuse rather than humble himself to please anyone.

But... Ye Er had never demanded a female slave's standards of him.

Ye Er had given him a second life, a safe place to stay, plenty of food, clothes to cover his body, and, most precious of all, respect.

So it doesn't matter.

—If the zerg holding the whip is him.

As that thought surfaced, Xi Ze's tense shoulders suddenly relaxed, as if he had given up resisting.

He took a deep breath, fumbled out another prop, and unlocked the cold buckle on it.

---

Ye Er opened the bathroom door, stared wide-eyed at the scene before him, and slammed the door shut again.

What was going on? Had he walked into the wrong room, or traveled through time and space?

He could hardly believe what he had just seen.

Xi Ze knelt on the bed with his back to Ye Er. Intricate bright red ropes wound around him from his neck to his tailbone, bound his wrists together, and were even tied into a bow.

A silver chain was fastened to the collar, its other end attached to the headboard, like a snow leopard holding its own chain in its mouth, voluntarily bound and kept. He knelt there, waiting for either caresses or the whip.

Even a glimpse was enough to shock him. Ye Er didn't dare imagine what it would look like up close.

But it wasn't good to keep Xi Ze waiting too long. He hesitated for a moment, then opened the door anyway.

The female zerg on the bed must have heard him approaching. Perhaps because of the injury to his knees, his back trembled slightly and he couldn't help bending down.

It wasn't until Ye Er reached the edge of the bed that he saw the box, pulled out from under it, with the decorative sex props inside already transferred onto the female zerg.

He looked somewhat helpless and nearly sighed as he asked, "What are you doing?"

The female zerg's eyes were covered with a black cloth. Ye Er could only see his tightly pursed lips and his constantly bobbing Adam's apple, which revealed his tension.

After so long without any movement beside him, Xi Ze froze, unable to guess whether the male zerg was pleased or displeased.

Ye Er had been examining the rope, thinking about how to untie it, when he soon heard a sound and even caught a faint smell of blood.

"What's that sound?"

He suddenly frowned, took another look at the female zerg's expression, and realized something was wrong.

He followed the sound to its source. His expression changed instantly, and his voice turned cold. "Are you crazy? How dare you use that thing?"

Without bothering to untie it properly, Ye Er picked up a sharp, spiked prop and cut the red rope binding the female zerg, freeing his wrists and ankles, which already bore red marks.

"...Ugh!"

Xi Ze groaned suddenly, his tone wavering slightly, conveying pain and perhaps a mix of other emotions.

Clink.

Ye Er held the trembling female zerg with one hand, pulled something out with the other, and threw it on the floor. He looked at the bloodstains on his fingertips, a trace of suppressed anger between his brows.

"...Believe it or not, if you don't give me a reasonable explanation today, I won't let you off easily."

With the object removed from his mouth, Xi Ze was freed from suffocation. He collapsed limply into the male zerg's arms, but at those words his body stiffened, and his voice turned hoarse and hesitant.

"Today... the Male Zerg Protection Association came to the door, and then... the Male Lord took this box into the room..."

The female zerg spoke haltingly, but Ye Er understood at once, and one eyebrow rose slightly.

"So you thought I was going to start torturing you tonight?"

"In your eyes, am I just the kind of zerg who enjoys abusing female zergs?"

He nearly laughed in anger, but he was also too lazy to hide anything or beat around the bush and make the female zerg guess.

"Only today did Hughes tell me about the injury to your womb and ask me to give you in-depth treatment."

The female zerg in his arms stiffened, looking dazed.

He suddenly raised his head as if he wanted to speak, but Ye Er cut him off.

"I was afraid you'd accidentally touch this box if I left it outside, and there's no storage room in the house, so I put it under the bed to gather dust."

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Ye Er lowered his gaze and looked at the female zerg. When he saw the pale, watery sheen in those golden eyes, his anger deflated like a punctured balloon and quietly dissipated.

"If you have any questions, don't speculate in secret. Is it fair to me, after I've been diligently treating you with medicine all this time, for you to harm your own body without permission?"

Xi Ze still seemed dazed and nodded instinctively, then shook his head and reached out to grip the male zerg's slender arm, as if afraid he would pull away.

"I'm sorry... It's my fault, Male Lord..."

He was eager to explain but seemed overwhelmed by emotion and could only apologize hoarsely. His thick, nasal voice sounded like a faint sob.

Ye Er sighed and reached out to stroke that □□* shoulder.

*redacted

The warm body under his palm trembled slightly, like a tamed wild beast that still kept its wild nature but had lowered its head to expose its belly to be petted.

"Don't do this again."

He removed the decorations that had been bound tightly around Xi Ze and threw them all back into the box.

After a moment's hesitation, he released soothing pheromones, enveloping the female zerg in his arms.

"Feeling better?"

Xi Ze's emotions had been abnormal tonight, as if he were under stress, but fortunately it had been contained in time and hadn't led to worse consequences.

"You're very afraid of this kind of torture, right?"

Every zerg knew fear, but the fear of facing the battlefield was very different from the fear of torture and abuse that female zergs endured in the female slave exchange.

It was like a deep void in the heart where black blood had flowed for years, leaving it unable to heal and even harder to touch.

Ye Er lowered his voice, stroking his palm from the female zerg's neck down to his tailbone as if soothing a startled snow leopard.

"It's okay. This won't happen again. I promise... I loathe things like this too. It's bloody and cruel. Only perverts would enjoy it!"

"Take a deep breath and relax. We still have treatment to do later..."

The female zerg in his arms was still trembling slightly, nodding and holding on to Ye Er's waist more tightly, as if clutching a lifeline.

...Very strange.

Xi Ze squeezed his eyes shut as pain radiated from his clenched teeth, unable to stop the stress response.

The violent pounding of his heartbeat brought suffocation and dizziness, setting off a series of adverse reactions.

He had thought he could hide it well, but it had turned out to be unbearable.

But perhaps the reason wasn't himself but the male zerg before him.

Every time, every time he slipped into the filthy swamp, Ye Er could pull him back, accurately and powerfully.

How could there be such a male zerg?

His mental landscape trembled violently. A place that could not withstand any impact was now in a mess, yet it didn't bring much pain.

Beneath the complete upheaval, a vast, sweeping spring was arriving.

---

After he finally calmed the female zerg down, it was already late.

Ye Er laid the medicines out in a row on the bed and counted them, then had the female zerg lie on his back and held his legs.

"Your previous injury hasn't healed, and you just tore it again. It might hurt later, so bear with it."

He disinfected his hands, put on gloves, glanced at the female zerg, and gave a few instructions before starting.

"Okay."

Xi Ze still looked a bit dazed, faint tear stains on his face. He pursed his lips and breathed quickly, but there were no signs of losing control anymore.

Before him was still an undissolvable darkness, yet it felt like being wrapped in thick, fluffy cotton candy, giving him a long-lost sense of safety and relaxation.

"I'm starting."

Ye Er gave the warning, applied transparent ointment to the outside of his gloves, and began the first course of treatment.

Xi Ze made an indistinct sound, and his breathing gradually quickened.

He faced ahead uneasily. He could clearly feel the male zerg's other hand pressing against his leg.

The warm palm wrapped around his injured kneecap, its heat almost scalding the flesh of the wound.

The male zerg's fingers were cool yet gentle, their presence so distinct that it momentarily overshadowed the pain and filled all his thoughts.

"Male Lord..."

He looked dazed, his voice hoarse.

The tears of weakness he had been holding back flooded his eyes again, and he couldn't help letting go of his bent knee and biting down on his curled knuckle.

"Ugh...!"

☰