RBNR Ch58: Holding hands

A permanent mark—also known as a lifelong mark.

For any Alpha and Omega who had endured it even once, whether physiologically or psychologically, the sheer agony and overwhelming shock it inflicted upon both partners was something neither could ever erase from memory.

Qin Bao had braced himself mentally long before this. Subconsciously, however, he had never truly believed it could be that grueling. He and Feng Chengyu had always been remarkably compatible; the preliminary trials they had run over the preceding days had at most stirred up traces of peculiar friction and bodily discomfort.

Only now did he realize how utterly naive he had been.

Those sessions had truly been mere rehearsals.

When his frame felt cleaved in two, Feng Chengyu’s knot formed and locked him rigidly in place. Clamping him from behind with terrifying brute force, the Alpha’s sharp canines sank mercilessly into the scent gland at the nape of his neck.

The blinding torment nearly extinguished his life then and there.

“Feng Chengyu… please, I’m begging you…”

Qin Bao gasped for breath, curling inward from the searing agony, yet he remained pinned and unable to wrench free—like a fish laid bare upon a cutting block, gutted alive.

…I’m about to die.

He thrashed violently, pleading through broken sobs.

Reason disintegrated completely beneath the crushing onslaught of pain. He not only lashed out with frantic curses, but spilled out a torrent of raw, desperate words he would never utter under normal circumstances. Yet none of it bought him a sliver of mercy from Feng Chengyu.

Because the Alpha was trapped in equal agony.

Across Feng Chengyu’s lower abdomen, along his arms, and tracing his neck and temples, hideous veins corded outward in violent relief. Pheromones surged from his pores like an uncontainable deluge, pouring into the Omega’s system with feral, relentless insistence.

Even with self-control as formidable as Feng Chengyu’s, the man could not unlock his jaw to offer his Omega a single word of comfort.

The entire marking ordeal dragged on for well over half an hour.

“Xiao Bao.”

When Feng Chengyu finally released his hold, his eyes burned bloodshot. The person cradled in his embrace had passed out cold, looking as though he had been dragged from the bottom of an ocean, sweat dripping from the tips of his hair.

The cabin fell deathly still, filled only with the ragged cadence of their breathing, echoing like a fetal pulse deep within a womb.

Qin Bao’s complexion burned with a feverish flush, his lower lip bitten through long ago; held clamped tight for so long, the edges of the split skin had blanched pale.

A primal, predatory savagery still roared through the veins of the Alpha caught in passive heat, ravenous for further, unending plunder.

The swollen, twisted veins across Feng Chengyu’s body had yet to settle. Relying almost entirely on lingering shreds of willpower to suppress the beast within, he scooped the limp figure higher into his chest. Lowering sweat-damp lashes, he gently licked and kissed the pitiful wound on the boy’s parted lips.

The permanent mark belonging solely to him had finally been seared deep into Qin Bao’s flesh.

From this moment onward, Qin Bao was entirely his, claimed in absolute exclusivity.

Yet it remained far from enough.

For Qin Bao, the passage of time dissolved into a blur.

Drifting awake from a deep stupor, he had barely swallowed a few spoonfuls of nourishment fed by Feng Chengyu before the second wave of heat abruptly swallowed him whole once more.

“Feng Chengyu…”

“I’m here,” the Alpha answered tenderly. “Part your legs a little wider.”

The food overturned onto the deck, the nutrient pack torn open along a single edge.

They completed the permanent mark a second time.

Then came a third, a fourth…

As the cycles repeated, the piercing agony gradually receded, shifting from the initial shivering pain to wave upon wave of soul-shattering shivers, until Qin Bao genuinely doubted whether he was still among the living.

Whatever they had shared in the past could not hold a candle to this moment—a universal truth for any Alpha and Omega.

For this alone was a union in the truest sense of the word.

No wonder everyone dreaded the permanent mark, yet yearned for it with such desperate fervor.

Beneath the sheer agony lay boundless, intoxicating ecstasy.

…

The heat drew them impossibly close, weaving an unprecedented intimacy between them.

It even offered Feng Chengyu the fleeting illusion that they were profoundly, irrevocably in love.

During one of his waking intervals, Qin Bao regained a fraction of his strength. His striking eyes looked washed clean, brimming with the soft, lingering tenderness unique to an Omega in heat.

Held under that gaze, Feng Chengyu’s pulse hammered hard against his ribs.

Qin Bao reached up to press his palm against the man’s bare chest, mumbling incoherently, “I like you so much…”

Feng Chengyu froze slightly: “What?”

“Here…” Qin Bao’s palm rested over that thumping heart, explaining in a fevered daze, “Right here, it feels like it’s speaking… It’s saying, I like you so much.”

Feng Chengyu remained silent for a long beat, finally murmuring in a low, husky register, “You only just figured that out?”

No answer came.

Lifting Qin Bao’s chin to check, he found the boy had already drifted off to sleep, thoroughly sated.

Across the entire Empire, only two commercial organizations operated licensed interstellar tours. The Alliance, by contrast, boasted several dozen, each offering bespoke cruise routes. Yet they shared two universal traits: beyond astronomical price tags, prospective travelers faced century-long waiting lists with tickets nearly impossible to secure.

For the very first time, Feng Chengyu pulled strings through his personal privileges.

An alumnus of his operated the Alliance’s largest interstellar travel firm. After discreet coordination, a single priority ticket was secured, complete with a private honeymoon orbital suite.

“We met her at that alumni mixer last time,” Feng Chengyu told Qin Bao. “The one who penned that thirteen-line love poem to the professor.”

Qin Bao remembered: “Her?”

She was a charming Beta woman who had teased Feng Chengyu back then about booking a suite; who would have thought they would actually end up utilizing her services.

“Mm. She secured the priority ticket for me. In exchange, I promised to arrange an exclusive tour of my grandfather’s flagship combat mecha for her technical team,” Feng Chengyu smiled. “That bunch—every single one of them calculates trades down to the last penny.”

Clear terms and meticulous accounting—perhaps that was the very foundation that kept their circle of alumni ties enduring for so long.

The two had transferred aboard the Alliance’s interstellar liner, yet the private villa on Surilan remained fully maintained as though they had never departed, with the security perimeter holding its posts. Even after multiple safety sweeps, Feng Chengyu could not afford to remain stationary in a single coordinates zone for too long, a precaution Qin Bao completely understood.

Still, staring out the viewing port at the vast sea of stars, he couldn’t help voicing his doubt: “Are we truly heading all the way to Planet Yinshui?”

In the stateroom’s promotional brochure, Yinshui was listed as the cruise’s premier destination.

Departing from Planet Ayla, reaching the endpoint alone required six whole months; factoring in the six-month return vector, the entire round trip stretched across an entire year.

If they genuinely vanished for a full year before heading home, Brother Lu would cough up blood from pure anxiety!

“No. We’re still cruising within Ayla’s orbital sector,” Feng Chengyu murmured from behind, wrapping his arms around him as his hands drifted downward. “The return leg begins tomorrow.”

A fresh undercurrent of heat was slowly mounting inside Qin Bao once more. His vision slipped out of focus as he heard Feng Chengyu murmur, “Xiao Bao, do you see the brightest star on that display screen over there?”

Qin Bao: “…Which one.”

Feng Chengyu withdrew his fingers, gently catching the boy’s jaw to guide his line of sight: “Eleven o’clock relative to Ayla. The most distant, brilliant star.”

Qin Bao’s jaw felt warm and slick, carrying a distinct floral fragrance laced with sweet milky undertones.

Thoroughly intoxicated, Qin Bao caught Feng Chengyu’s hand and guided it back down. Gazing at the star map rendered across the digital console, he answered in broken breaths: “Mm… I see it.”

As the orbital suite’s angle adjusted, the massive blue arc of their home planet, Ayla, crept into view outside the observation pane.

And on the top-left quadrant of the navigational display, a single star indeed shone with piercing brilliance, visible to the naked eye.

“That is Planet Feilu,” Feng Chengyu murmured, his movements steady and slow. “Cruising there aboard a liner like this takes two months. A heavy mining vessel running on full-burn warp thrusters would only need a fortnight.”

“When I was a boy, I accompanied my grandfather aboard a Fuxing Conglomerate mining hauler and visited it once.”

The timing was right.

Freeing his hand, Feng Chengyu locked his grip around Qin Bao’s waist.

Settling back down firmly, Qin Bao reached behind him to loop both arms around Feng Chengyu’s neck, his head thrown back. Framed against the dark celestial canvas beyond the glass, their silhouettes were cast in sharp, luminous contrast.

Breathing heavily, Feng Chengyu asked, “Have you ever seen what Feilu truly looks like?”

Qin Bao shook his head.

“Do you want to?”

“…I do.”

The digital sensor array zoomed in, the vessel’s astronomical optics locking on target and transmitting a real-time feed of Feilu straight to the display.

Qin Bao’s eyes widened slightly. The ochre-brown planet before him was ravaged and scarred from pole to pole, retaining only a minuscule sliver of blue-green—resembling a tiny oasis stranded in the midst of a barren wasteland.

He had known that excessive mining of Dysprosium-X had devastated Feilu’s ecosystem and generated waves of refugees, but he had never imagined the visual reality was this stark.

Such unfiltered feeds were banned within the borders of the Empire; the planetary archives the public currently saw dated back fifty years.

Qin Bao wanted to say something, but the rising rhythm stole every coherent syllable from his tongue.

Only after this cresting wave broke, leaving a humming aftermath through his veins, did they fall into a tender, lingering kiss.

The devastation of Feilu had left a profound scar on Feng Chengyu in his youth.

“Do you know the feeling?” Feng Chengyu whispered. “Plummeting from a prosperous civilization straight into another world, where everything the eye can see is poverty and famine… Only then did I realize that our peace and abundance were built upon the agonizing suffering of that planet…”

Feng Chengyu had not stopped his rhythm. Clinging to him, Qin Bao draped limply over the man’s shoulder, surrendering completely to the Alpha’s demands.

Amidst the intoxicating haze, he strained to gather his scattered focus, trying to understand why Feng Chengyu was sharing this: “So… that’s why you pushed so hard for the fifty-year mining moratorium on Feilu?”

“No, Xiao Bao. What you see is merely Feilu. Trapped in that exact same plight are several other uncharted, forgotten worlds.”

Feng Chengyu felt an urge to bare his inner core, longing to lay everything before his Omega.

“My uncle fought for this cause his entire life, and my aunt poured immense effort into it, because the burden rests on our shoulders. Centuries ago… everything began with the Feng family, and it should end by our hands as well.”

The late Marshal had taken his grandson to Feilu, planting a seed deep within his heart. Choosing a political path in adulthood, he carried the weight of his lineage, determined to realize his ideals.

How could Qin Bao not understand?

He asked Feng Chengyu, “Then moving forward… are you going to push for mining moratoriums on other worlds as well?” Recalling the political landscape even an ordinary citizen knew, he added, “I don’t think the Fuxing Conglomerate and the Imperial Crown will ever agree to that.”

“I’ll try,” Feng Chengyu murmured gently. “Success isn’t guaranteed, but in my lifetime, I still want to do what I can.”

Qin Bao held him tighter: “You will definitely succeed.”

Feng Chengyu: “Why are you so sure?”

Qin Bao answered, “Because you’re Feng Chengyu. You’re so capable, you can succeed at anything you set your mind to—ngh, Feng Chengyu!”

A powerful thrust stole the breath from Qin Bao’s lungs, turning his mind completely white.

Immediately after, his frame shuddered violently as Feng Chengyu pierced the back of his neck once more, pouring fresh pheromones into his system.

“Bao Bao.”

Laying him flat against the berth, Feng Chengyu leaned over, resting his forehead against Qin Bao’s.

“Care to try that position you studied?”

Qin Bao was driven nearly to the brink: “No way—”

“Let’s try it,” Feng Chengyu coaxed. “Opportunities like this are rare. Aren’t you curious?”

Tossed around like a rag doll, Qin Bao cursed limply, “You’re a pervert!”

Feng Chengyu replied, “I thought you liked me being a pervert.”

Qin Bao: “…”

…

Once the fifteen-day leave drew to an end, they completed their return journey smoothly.

For this getaway, Feng Chengyu had won on absolute privacy, and he had won on romance as well.

Crossing back into Alliance space, they met up with Lin Zi, who had been waiting for them, and headed to a private airfield to board their flight back to the Empire.

Qin Bao had bundled himself up so thoroughly that only his eyes were visible, terrified that Lin Zi might catch a whiff of anything—he was completely saturated in the scent.

Once aboard the jet, Feng Chengyu leaned in and whispered, “Lin Zi inhaled a suppressant.”

Qin Bao looked at him skeptically: “Really?”

Feng Chengyu nodded: “Really.”

Only then did Qin Bao unwrap the stifling knit cap and heavy scarf, drawing in a long breath of fresh cabin air.

Even the strands of his hair reeked of the permanent mark, matching the exact scent of the man beside him.

Seated a few rows back, Lin Zi nearly suffered internal injuries holding in his reaction. What was the use of fussing over the scent alone? The bite mark stamped across Qin Bao’s nape—now scarred over yet permanently etched—was plain for anyone to see, leaving no doubt as to what they had spent the past two weeks doing.

Having spent half a month glued to each other in isolation, suddenly returning to an environment with a third party made Qin Bao visibly self-conscious. He didn’t know where to put his hands or feet, so he retreated to an isolated seat in the first row, picking up the terminal Lin Zi had brought for him to browse through his missed notifications.

Unread messages were sparse: a seasonal weather reminder from Ms. Rong, and an invitation from Mr. Qin sent last weekend asking them to return for dinner.

The rest pertained to professional matters. Brother Lu mentioned that an internal test screening for Echo had taken place two days prior; unable to attend, he had dispatched Jin Si to represent them, noting that a theatrical release was slated for mid-year.

Having cleared his replies, Qin Bao instinctively looked back toward Feng Chengyu.

Ever since completing the heat, his sensitivity toward Feng Chengyu seemed to have sharpened tenfold. No matter where they were, he barely needed to scan the room before his eyes automatically locked onto Feng Chengyu’s position.

Feng Chengyu was reviewing documents on his screen, his handsome profile marked by laser focus… As if sensing the gaze, he paused his typing and lifted his dark eyes.

“Bao Bao?”

The shape of Feng Chengyu’s lips seemed to mouth the words.

Qin Bao felt an electric strike to his chest, his heart hammering hard, and he quickly looked down at his terminal, pretending not to have noticed.

Disembarking from the aircraft, Feng Chengyu walked slightly ahead as Lin Zi briefed him on pending affairs.

Catching the familiar scent drawing near, Feng Chengyu slowed his stride.

Spring had settled in and the air was warming, casting an amber sunset across the tarmac that bathed the surroundings in rich, painterly hues.

Keeping his eyes trained straight ahead, golden light danced across Qin Bao’s eyelashes.

Reaching out, Qin Bao actively laced his fingers through Feng Chengyu’s palm.

“Hurry up,” he muttered with burning cheeks, sounding thoroughly impatient.