Bai Xue was sleeping softly, but for some reason I couldn't close my eyes at all.
Hours passed. My eyelids were just starting to grow heavy when a notification appeared in my mind.
[Ding!]
[The heroine has just made an irreversible decision.]
[+20 Bai Xue Corruption.]
I looked at Bai Xue in my arms, wondering what this so-called irreversible decision could be, when she suddenly sat up.
"Ryuu… Mom won't separate us. I already have a perfect plan."
The air in the room suddenly felt thin.
I watched, frozen, as Bai Xue pulled her phone from her pocket with disturbingly calm movements.
Her face no longer showed the panic or sadness from minutes ago. There was only a cold, feverish determination—the kind of look religious fanatics have right before committing madness.
She walked to the bedside table and propped the phone against the flower vase so that the camera lens perfectly framed the hospital bed.
Where I was lying.
"Xue… what are you doing?" I asked, keeping my voice weak while my mind raced at full speed.
"Securing our future, Ryuu," she replied with a sweet, fractured smile.
"I understand now. The problem is that you're too pure. Mom wants you because you're perfect. Gu Sheng and Yue use us because we still have some reputation left in high society."
She pressed a button on the screen. The small red recording circle began to blink.
"But… what if we become trash?"
She whispered as she walked back to the bed. Her hands went straight to the hem of her blouse.
"If the whole world sees a video of us… if they see the scum we've become, doing these things in a hospital bed… the scandal will be so huge that the family's stocks will crash."
She pulled off her blouse in one fluid motion, revealing pale skin and a dark lace bra that barely contained her full breasts.
I had never really noticed them before, but damn… They were bigger than Bai Yue's, second only to our mother's.
The image of her half-naked clashed violently with her "suffering angel" persona.
But wait… why the hell am I thinking about that right now?
This girl is insane.
She doesn't just want sex; she wants our mutual destruction.
She wants to burn the bridge that connects us to the rest of society so we can only depend on each other.
[System Warning: The heroine plans to record and leak an S-Level scandal online.]
[Calculating consequences…]
[Risk of Bai Xue's death due to Bai Ning's murderous rage: 99.9%.]
[Risk of host being locked in Bai Ning's basement forever: 100%.]
"Thanks, system! Very comforting!" I shouted mentally.
If this video leaks, Bai Ning won't feel "disgust" toward me. She'll simply wipe Bai Xue off the face of the earth for having "tainted" me, and then lock me in a golden cage forever.
I need to stop this now.
But if I reject her, her unstable mind might completely collapse and do something even more extreme.
Xue climbed onto the edge of the bed, crawling toward me. Her eyes were locked on mine, hungry and desperate. Her hand slid down to the waistband of my hospital pants.
"It'll be quick, Ryuu. We just need a few minutes. Then I'll post it on every forum. We'll be ruined together. No one will ever want to look at us again."
Her breath brushed against my face. The scent of feminine perfume was intoxicating. She was trembling, terrified of what she was about to do, yet driven by an obsession far greater than fear.
I can't use physical force. With a punctured lung, my strength and agility stats are nothing against her adrenaline-fueled madness right now.
I have to use my brain.
I slowly raised my good hand and, instead of pushing her away, firmly grabbed her wrist. Not aggressively—but with authority.
"Xue," my voice came out cold, slicing through her madness like a blade. "Do you think Mom cares about what society thinks?"
She froze inches from my face. The mention of Bai Ning made her eyes flicker.
"Do you think a video on the internet will scare off a monster like her?" I continued, lightly tightening my grip. "Mom won't feel disgusted by me, Xue. But she will hunt you down and kill you."
"I don't care!" Xue whimpered, her tears falling onto my chest. "If I have to die to mark you as mine, I'll die!"
"But I care."
The words were simple, but they carried the weight of an anchor.
I pulled her wrist, forcing her to rest her head on my uninjured shoulder, taking our faces out of the camera's perfect angle. I buried my fingers in her hair, possessively stroking her scalp.
"Don't you understand, my little Xue?" I whispered in her ear, using the darkest, most seductive tone I could muster. "If you die… who will take care of me? Who will be my protector? Do you want to leave me alone with those monsters?"
A loud sob escaped her throat. Her body softened over mine, the tension melting into total surrender.
"I-I don't want to leave you… I just don't know how to keep you with me…" she stammered, clutching the sheets as if her life depended on it.
My hand hovered over her back as I hesitated.
I really didn't like using manipulation to get what I wanted, but I had to redirect this madness into something that benefited me—not something that would get us killed.
"We don't need the world to know we belong to each other, Xue."
I stopped hesitating and slid my hand down her bare back, feeling her shiver violently at my touch.
"You want a video? Fine. We'll make the video."
She lifted her head quickly, looking at me with shock and twisted hope.
"But," I raised a finger, pressing it against her lips to silence her, "you're not posting anything. That video will be our secret. You'll keep it on your phone, and every time you feel afraid, every time you think you're going to lose me… you'll watch it and remember who I belong to."
Xue's eyes widened. Her breathing grew ragged—not from panic anymore, but from pure, sick excitement.
The idea of having a dark "secret pact" with me, something neither Bai Yue nor our mother knew about, was too sweet a poison for her to refuse.
[Ding!]
[+15 Bai Xue Corruption.]
[Current Status: Corruption 58 (Dark Desire).]
[Warning: The heroine has abandoned the idea of Mutual Destruction and embraced Hidden Possessiveness.]
"A… a secret just for us…"
She murmured, licking her lips. Her gaze darkened completely, fixing on me with wild hunger.
"Yes… I like that. I really like that, Ryuu."
She leaned down again, her lips brushing against my jaw. But this time the frantic rush was gone. She moved slowly, as if savoring every second now that she believed we had all the time in the world.
"Then show me, little sister," I whispered, letting her take control of the situation—since I couldn't really do much anyway. "Show me how you're going to mark me in front of that camera."
[System Warning: There are hidden cameras in the room.]
My heart nearly stopped at that warning.
So I've been watched from the beginning?
My eyes scanned the room until I spotted a tiny black dot on the ceiling that I immediately recognized as a camera lens.
It was at the edge of the room. So well hidden that, if I hadn't been actively looking, I never would've noticed it.
"Damn it, system! You're only telling me now?!"
[You didn't ask.]
This damn system always waits until the last second.
"Fuck."
It's my fault. If I hadn't been careless, I would've noticed it myself.
I don't know who those cameras belong to, but if I actually have sex with the heroine, the chances of it leaking are enormous. In other words, we'll die anyway.
My chance to lose my virginity was right there—but now I have to change my plans.
"Xue…"
I let out a low, muffled groan, tensing my body and bringing my trembling hand to the edge of the bandage on my chest.
"Argh…"
She froze instantly. The haze of lust and obsession in her eyes vanished, replaced by sharp panic.
"Ryuu! Your wound… was I too rough? Did I press somewhere I shouldn't have?" Her hands hovered in the air, unsure where to touch, afraid of breaking me.
"It's not that…"
I smiled weakly, forcing a labored breath that, to be honest, wasn't entirely fake. Her closeness was genuinely testing my limits.
"I want you so much, Xue. More than anything. But my body… I'm still too weak. If we do this now, with the intensity we both want… I won't endure it."
Disappointment crossed her face almost tangibly. Her shoulders slumped, and she glanced at her phone's camera in frustration. She wanted so badly to seal that twisted pact, and I was rejecting her because of my fragile body.
Her already unstable mind might start spiraling into paranoia if I let her cool down like that.
And besides, I had an unwanted audience on the ceiling. I needed to handle both problems at once.
"Come here," I whispered hoarsely.
I pulled her down by the neck with my free hand.
As she lowered herself, I subtly tilted her body slightly to the left, using the cascade of her blonde hair like a curtain.
To the hidden camera above, it looked like Bai Xue was simply lying on my shoulder, our faces very close—maybe whispering or crying.
A scene of siblings comforting each other.
But to the phone camera on the bedside table, the view was clear and undeniable.
Our lips crashed together.
It wasn't a pretty kiss—it was ugly and wild, like two animals trying to devour each other.
Our mouths collided in a wet frenzy. Our tongues tangled like two snakes in heat, saliva trailing down our chins as we breathed in each other's scent.
Xue let out a muffled moan against my mouth, her hands clutching the sheets as she melted completely over me, responding with desperate hunger.
When we finally pulled apart, her face was flushed, her eyes shining with tears of euphoria. The disappointment had been completely swept away by the heat of that forbidden contact.
"That was just an advance," I murmured against her lips, my ragged breathing mixing with hers. "But for me to recover quickly and give you what you want, like I promised… I need your help, Xue."
"Anything," she gasped without hesitation.
"I'm starving, and you're using up the little energy I have left."
I smiled faintly, touching her cheek.
"Can you get me something warm to eat? You're the only one I trust here."
Being entrusted with my life and health—and being the "only one" I trusted—was like injecting adrenaline straight into her lovestruck heart.
Her chest swelled with pride and protective urgency.
"I'll go right now! I promise I'll be quick, Ryuu. I'll be back in the blink of an eye!"
She pulled away quickly, grabbing her phone from the bedside table with still-trembling hands. The way she looked at it was almost devout—that video was now her most sacred relic.
She picked up her blouse, hiding from me the frustratingly perfect view of her generous cleavage, and put it on in quick motions.
"Wait for me, Ryuu." She leaned down, planting one last possessive kiss on my forehead before running to the door.
The click of the lock echoed heavily in the silent room.
The door opened and closed.
I was alone.
The tension drained from my body, but the weight in the air remained.
I took a deep breath, slowly adjusted my hospital gown over my bandages, and lazily rested my head on the pillow.
"What the hell do I do now?"
I wiped the saliva from my chin and muttered to myself.
[You can try breaking the heroines.]
"Cool, but I didn't ask you."