Lu Yuan walked in front.
His body felt strange.
By past experience, after ejaculating he should have felt drained for a while, weak in the legs, his mind hollowed out, not wanting to do anything.
But now there was nothing like that at all.
Not only did he not feel weak, there was a hot current surging back and forth through every limb and bone, seeping strength out from between the cracks in his skeleton.
He clenched his fist. The feedback from his muscles was far stronger than before, and even the pain from stepping on the gravel underfoot had faded.
Right when he came, it seemed a prompt had popped up.
But the instant ten times the amount poured out of him, it brought ten times the pleasure, blasting his consciousness into a blank. There was nothing left in his head except how good it felt.
What was the prompt again?
He couldn't remember.
Forget it. He'd deal with it when he got back.
Behind him, Shen Nian's footsteps followed at an unhurried pace, but she hadn't said a word the whole way. Lu Yuan didn't speak either.
The two of them kept about three steps apart, neither of them seeming interested in breaking the silence.
Lu Yuan glanced back.
Shen Nian had her head down as she walked, her eyes on the ground, but it was obvious she wasn't really watching the road.
Her expression was a little dazed, her lips pressed lightly together, and the red from her earlobes down to her neck still hadn't fully faded.
Her pace was much slower than when they had come, and the way she walked looked a little awkward too. Her legs weren't quite together, and she was probably still swollen inside.
Shen Nian was still looking down, not knowing what she was thinking, her brow furrowed and the area from her ears to her neck still hot and red. When she noticed Lu Yuan looking back, she immediately shot him a glare.
"What the fuck are you looking at, your dad?"
"Are you all right?"
"If anything's wrong, it's because of you."
Lu Yuan didn't argue back. He turned around and kept walking.
Shen Nian grit her back teeth, her gaze slipping involuntarily to his back.
That position, that size, that force driving in, and the hot rush that slammed deep inside at the end, all of it was stuck in her head like a thorn she couldn't shake off.
The worst part was that she not only remembered it, she was savoring it.
"Fuck."
She cursed under her breath.
Lu Yuan didn't catch it.
"What'd you say?"
"I said shut up. Don't talk to me."
"I only asked one question."
"Not even one is allowed."
Lu Yuan couldn't be bothered to answer again.
The gray, overcast sky hadn't changed, and the broken houses lining both sides of the main road looked just as dead and lifeless as they had on the way there.
The road was short. The train was already visible, and the doors were still open.
Lu Yuan had been thinking that when they got back, he'd first report the situation outside, then split everyone into groups to search for supplies.
But once he got a little closer, he noticed something was off.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
When they had come, the voices of more than thirty girls in the carriage could be heard from far away. Now that he was less than twenty meters from the car, there wasn't a single sound.
That group of girls in the class had never been truly quiet. Even if they had been scared when they first arrived, someone would still have been whispering, and Lin Shiyu was definitely not the type to keep her mouth shut.
But now there was no noise at all from the entire carriage.
Lu Yuan frowned. He didn't stop, just kept walking forward.
Ten meters.
Five meters.
He lifted his head and looked at the carriage windows.
Everyone was there.
More than thirty faces were pressed behind the glass, all of them staring at him and Shen Nian.
Some were leaning against the window, some gripping the frame, some even half-twisted out as far as they could. Every single one of them was looking at him and Shen Nian with exactly the same expression.
Lin Shiyu's whole round face was practically pasted to the glass, her dimples impossible to suppress.
Zhou Wei stood inside the doorway, one hand on the rail, her expression the stiffest of all, though that hint of unnaturalness was still obvious.
Nobody spoke.
Their expressions were all the same, half-smiling and half-not.
Their mouths were curved, but it wasn't a kind smile. It was more like they were holding something in, trying not to laugh, but unable to help themselves.
Lu Yuan's steps paused.
What the hell?
Shen Nian looked up at that moment too.
She only took one look before her heart gave a hard jolt.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The look on those people's faces didn't seem like they were watching two people returning from scouting. It looked more like they were watching two idiots who had just snuck out of a hotel after fucking and got caught red-handed by the class.
Before either of them could make sense of it, two figures shot out from the carriage entrance.
Two girls ran down from the train, their bare feet slapping against the concrete. They went straight around Lu Yuan and grabbed Shen Nian's arms from left and right.
"Sister Nian!"
The one on the left was tiny, just over five feet tall, with a baby face, her hair tied into two short pigtails. Her round eyes were bright and sparkling, and her figure was small and delicate.
Chen Keke, the youngest in the class, a year and a half younger than the others in her grade. She looked like a little doll.
The one on the right had dyed her hair bright yellow and wore it in a high ponytail. Her eyes tilted upward at the corners, and her mouth seemed naturally curved in a smile, making her look like trouble.
Xu Zhaozhao, famous in the class for being wild and unruly, always attached to Shen Nian at the hip.
The two of them grabbed her from either side and dragged Shen Nian away.
Shen Nian stumbled a step, looking utterly baffled. "What are you doing?"
Chen Keke rose onto her toes, leaned in close to Shen Nian's ear, and spoke in a voice so low it didn't actually stay low at all: "Sister Nian, how did it feel?"
Shen Nian froze.
"What do you mean, how did what feel?"
Chen Keke blinked, leaning even closer. "How it felt doing it with Lu Yuan."
Shen Nian's expression locked up. Her mind went "buzz".
Visible to the naked eye, a layer of red started at the base of her neck and spread upward, past her chin, over her cheeks, and all the way to the tips of her ears.
"Who!" Her voice shot up an octave. She took a step back. "Who the hell did it with Lu Yuan!"
The moment it left her mouth, she knew that reaction looked even more like an attempt to cover it up. She subconsciously looked up at the carriage.
Sure enough.
The more than thirty faces behind the windows were still watching her.
Nobody spoke.
Half-smiles, not-quite-smiles.
A few girls who usually got along well with her could no longer keep the corners of their mouths down, covering them with their hands, their shoulders shaking.
Shen Nian's pupils shrank.
Xu Zhaozhao's hand was still on her arm as she said, neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for the people around them to hear clearly: "The carriage just played a broadcast."
Shen Nian didn't move.
"What broadcast?"
"The Breeding Protocol broadcast," Xu Zhaozhao said carelessly. "It said you and Lu Yuan triggered the Breeding Protocol, your attributes went up by however much, all nice and clear."
Shen Nian's brain stopped working.
"Everyone in the class saw and heard it," Xu Zhaozhao added.
Shen Nian opened her mouth but no sound came out.
"The teacher heard it too," Chen Keke added from the side, her tone still sweet as sugar.
Shen Nian closed her mouth.
Xu Zhaozhao leaned closer, looping an arm around Shen Nian's shoulder, her voice carrying a blend of grievance and coquetry. "Aren't the two of us still your girlfriends? Last time the three of us ambushed Lu Yuan and it didn't work out. We said we'd do it together, didn't we? How could you sneak off on your own?"
Shen Nian's lips were trembling.
Her brain had completely overloaded.
What she had done with Lu Yuan had been publicly broadcast to the entire class by the system.
The whole class.
More than thirty people.
The teacher.
Everyone had heard it.
Everyone knew that Lu Yuan had just fucked her hard.
How was that any different from a public execution?
How was that any different from dying of social embarrassment on the spot?
She suddenly looked up toward the carriage.
The girls by the windows didn't hide at all. Instead, they just kept staring at her.
A few of the ones she usually flirted with looked especially fascinating now.
Only one thought remained in Shen Nian's mind.
"Lu - Yuan -!!"
Shen Nian's roar exploded down the streets of the abandoned town.
She shook off the two girls, stomped barefoot across the concrete, and charged toward Lu Yuan in front of her.
Lu Yuan had just reached the car door when he heard the noise behind him and turned his head.
Shen Nian was too fast.
Before Lu Yuan could react at all, one arm had already locked around his neck.
"You fucking-"
Shen Nian jumped on him from behind, one hand clamped around his throat, the other gripping the back of his head, her legs nearly wrapping around his waist.
Lu Yuan was dragged forward two stumbling steps. He grabbed the edge of the doorway with one hand just to keep from falling out.
"It was the system broadcasting it, not me-"
"Shut up!!"
Someone in the carriage finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Hahahahahahaha-"
Lin Shiyu was the first to burst out laughing, squatting on the carriage floor and slapping her thigh as she cackled.
Then came wave after wave of laughter.
"Sister Nian's face is so red, hahahahaha-"
"Lu Yuan, run!"
"Run where? Weren't the two of them just pretty damn in sync a moment ago-"
"Who was in sync!!" Shen Nian's shout came from behind Lu Yuan's neck, her voice cracking.
Zhou Wei stood there with her arms folded, watching the scene, her expression complicated.
She was still thinking back to the broadcast she'd just heard.
[Breeding Protocol triggered - Lu Yuan x Shen Nian]
[Bonding judgment: success]
[Lu Yuan gains attribute enhancement -]
[Shen Nian gains attribute enhancement -]