That very night, Bai Yu entered the family head's room.

Holding the ruby, he was immediately waved through by the family head's attendants and led into the master bedroom.

Imuel had reserved the most luxurious suite on the cruise ship. The bedroom was spacious, with a massive 2.3-meter bed in the center. Bai Yu strolled inside, his gaze sweeping past the bedside—

Then he paused, brows lifting slightly.

There sat a bottle of lubricant and several unopened boxes of condoms.

Bai Yu glanced at them. The size matched his own. He had no idea how the family head had estimated it from just a single meeting, especially when Bai Yu had been fully dressed in a suit and slacks at the time.

The bedroom was empty, so Bai Yu sat down on the sofa beside the bed, fingers interlaced, waiting for Imuel to return.

Only then did he notice the sound of running water.

The suite had excellent soundproofing. The faint patter of water filtered through three layers of glass until only the slightest trace remained, but in the silent room, it became especially distinct, slipping straight into Bai Yu's ears.

Imuel was bathing.

The sound of water stopped and started intermittently, as though its owner was applying bath products before rinsing them away again.

Bai Yu thought, "He really doesn't hold back."

According to the tabloids, every generation of the Holladriel Family heads had been promiscuous and shameless, unconcerned with propriety or morality. This family head was openly bathing in front of a complete stranger, which only proved the rumors true.

The disgust in Bai Yu's heart deepened, but because of Lewis's situation, he could not leave so easily.

Not long after, the sound of water gradually ceased. Imuel seemed to step out of the bathtub. The bathroom glass was coated in a thick layer of steam, yet even through the fog, a hazy silhouette remained visible.

The mixed-blood beauty's figure was every bit as exquisite as his face. Imuel seemed to deliberately dawdle, lingering naked behind the glass for quite some time. Sitting on a chair, he crossed his shapely legs and carefully dried himself with a towel, from thigh all the way down to ankle. Only afterward did he leisurely tend to his hair and tie on his nightrobe.

He was not even wearing anything underneath.

Then, finally, Imuel opened the bathroom door.

The family head wore no shoes. Bare feet stepped onto the carpet, leaving damp footprints behind. His movements were light and elegant, the footprints nearly forming a straight line, catlike somehow. The moment he saw Bai Yu, an obvious smile appeared on his face. Then he climbed onto the bed on his knees and naturally opened his arms toward Bai Yu by the bedside.

If an ordinary person made that gesture, it would mean: hug me.

But when a vicious beauty with deadly methods did it, Bai Yu genuinely could not understand.

The head of the Holladriel Family opened his arms, asking a stranger bought with a ruby for an embrace.

Bai Yu frowned, lowering his eyes to study Imuel, trying to read the family head's emotions, but—

That silk nightrobe barely covered his thighs, and the moment Imuel knelt...

Bai Yu looked away.

He asked, "Why did the family head summon me here so late at night?"

It was a completely unnecessary question, because the next second, Imuel had already wrapped his arms around his neck.

Even when Imuel pressed down on his shoulders and Bai Yu fell backward with the family head in his arms, he still did not understand whether this transaction had actually been completed.

—He had come to ask for someone's release. Imuel desired his body. It was all a muddled mess, barely qualifying as mutual consent.

So Bai Yu asked, "Lewis..."

Before he could finish, Imuel kissed him, sealing away the rest of the words.

One hand pressed against Bai Yu's lips. "Don't mention irrelevant things right now."

It had been half a year since they last met. He had missed the doctor far too much.

Imuel did not believe Bai Yu was still suffering from amnesia. He thought Bai Yu had at least remembered some things, because with his understanding of the doctor, unless he had already recognized his little cat, he would never have come here in the middle of the night.

The doctor was not promiscuous. He approached intimacy rationally and with restraint. He was not someone who indulged for pleasure's sake, and under certain circumstances, he was excessively restrained. Imuel had never even dared cry out in pain, because the doctor would genuinely stop.

Bai Yu had never once lost control, to the point where the Duke would stare at himself in the mirror and repeatedly question the charm of his own face.

Every night, curled up asleep in the doctor's arms, Imuel would agonize over whether he should ask the doctor not to be so gentle and gentlemanly next time. The little cat had weathered plenty of storms growing up; the doctor could stand to bring him a few storms of a different kind too.

But before he could ever say it aloud, he had transmigrated here, becoming an abandoned son of a family with no one to rely on. Imuel was very familiar with this sort of script and adapted like a fish in water. His only trouble was that the doctor had lost his memory.

Fortunately, he had found him.

Even if his memories were not fully restored yet, it did not matter. As long as the doctor did not reject him, Imuel would stay by his side until he remembered.

Thinking this, the little cat enthusiastically pushed the doctor down and began kissing him wildly along the collarbone and neck. Then he tugged open the ties of their robes.

Bai Yu's, and his own.

Bai Yu frowned faintly. Being forced into things did not feel pleasant, and he himself was not particularly enthusiastic about it, so he was not especially gentle. Then he heard Imuel let out a startled cry, those lake-blue eyes widening abruptly, making him look even more like a cat.

He was clearly in some pain, yet for some reason he became happier instead, lowering himself to cling to the doctor and seek kisses recklessly.

Imuel kissed Bai Yu's neck until it was slick with saliva. Whenever he gasped for breath, he would bite down on his shoulder, then lick it afterward as though trying to appease him.

—He kept his strength in check. It did not hurt much, but it left red marks behind.

After several rounds of this, the doctor's shoulder blades looked as though he had really raised a cat, covered entirely in bite marks.

Bai Yu tilted his head slightly and thought, "Looks like I'll need to wear high collars."

Because he was in a bad mood, and because Imuel showed no intention of stopping him, Bai Yu's actions became harsh and ruthless. Just as the family head bit down on his neck again, Bai Yu tightened the arm wrapped around him and suddenly touched something strange.

Soft and furry, like a... tail?

A tail?!

In disbelief, he squeezed it. It was fluffy, soft to the touch, flexible like a living thing.

Having his tail grabbed made Imuel shudder. He bit down harder as though venting dissatisfaction, yet that tail reacted opposite to its owner. Like a vine, it tightly wound itself around Bai Yu's wrist, trembling faintly as it circled him once.

Bai Yu: "..."

Why was there a tail?!

He tugged at it slightly. Imuel winced in pain, lifting his eyes to glare at the doctor in displeasure.

Bai Yu: "..."

The tail really did grow out of Imuel's body.

Not some toy tail, but a living one, warm, jointed, real.

A living person with a tail was something shocking enough to unsettle anyone. A normal person should have been suspicious or disturbed at the very least. Yet Bai Yu felt no doubt whatsoever. Instead, he had the strange sense that this was exactly how things should be.

As though this beautiful mixed-blood man was meant to have a platinum-white tail, and that tail was meant to wrap around his wrist in a tight circle.

"..."

This was not the first time Bai Yu had experienced such a feeling. Ever since waking up on the cruise ship, the sensation had only grown stronger. It was as though he had forgotten something deeply familiar. And now, with the tail brushing against his palm while he absentmindedly stroked it, the feeling reached its peak.

Once he started thinking, he naturally stopped moving. Imuel rubbed against him in dissatisfaction and asked in confusion, "Doctor?"

At times like this, the Duke truly doubted his own charm.

Bai Yu frowned. The title "Doctor" was strange too. He and Imuel were complete strangers who had merely happened to be passengers on the same cruise ship, so how did Imuel know he was a doctor? Yet Imuel spoke with such intimacy, as though he had called him that thousands upon thousands of times before.

In a flash of inspiration, Bai Yu seized upon a clue.

He looked toward the blood-red ruby on the bedside table and vaguely remembered that once, a little cat had also given him an identical ruby.

...A little cat?

The Duke, Illyria... Imuel?

Bai Yu jolted violently.

Suddenly, he remembered that magnificent Grand Duke's Mansion, the platinum-colored kitten, System 55, and that absurd mission. Scene after scene linked together in his mind as countless fragmented memories flooded back.

By the time he pieced everything together, cold sweat the size of beans had broken out across Bai Yu's forehead.

Imuel... seemed to be his wife.

Imuel was his wife!

He had forgotten his wife completely. The little cat had come searching for him pitifully, offering him a token ruby of love, while Bai Yu had mistaken him for a venomous beauty, a perverted family head trying to buy his body, a scumbag using his friend as leverage. And if that was not enough, he had even handled him roughly and reduced him to...

Bai Yu lowered his gaze.

Back in Illyria, he had always been gentlemanly and restrained, knowing exactly where to stop. Beside him, the Duke had always been beautiful and composed. But now, tears clung to the corners of Imuel's eyes, his expression bordering on collapse, while red restraint marks covered his wrists and neck. Even his tail twitched from time to time, clearly leaving him miserable.

"..."

Bai Yu instantly entered sage mode.

He felt dead inside, and more than a little guilty.

Bai Yu himself did not smoke, but at this moment, in this situation, he desperately wanted a cigarette between his fingers so he could walk a full lap around the deck afterward.

But there were no cigarettes on the cruise ship, and he could hardly abandon the Duke to calm down alone.

Imuel immediately sensed the shift in him. He moved his tail experimentally before lifting his eyes in disbelief, accusingly staring at the doctor.

Wh-what was going on?

What had he done for the doctor to suddenly become like this?

Imuel's blank mind replayed the previous moments in fragments. He realized in a daze that the doctor had merely looked at him once, and then... and then...

"...?"

Imuel knew that in Bai Yu's homeland, there was a saying about the seven-year itch—that after being together too long, people started finding their partners unbearable and lost all interest in them. But he and the doctor had not seen each other for half a year already!

What happened to "absence makes the heart grow fonder"?

The Duke viciously kneaded the bedsheets, unable to stop his claws from popping out. The expensive fabric snagged instantly. Grinding his teeth, he sulked in silence, refusing to look up at Bai Yu.

After spending so many years together, Bai Yu already understood his partner's temperament inside and out. He paused only briefly before reacting. Pinching the little cat's earlobe, he pulled him into his arms.

"Imuel... then shall we continue?"

Imuel looked at him suspiciously. Only after confirming that the doctor truly showed no signs of disgust or rejection did he bite lightly at his shoulder and mutter, "Continue."

His ears reddened as he softly added, "I like how you were today."

Bai Yu raised a brow.

The doctor had always been gentlemanly and restrained, but that was because he feared hurting the little cat. If his partner was actively asking for it, however, then it was not as though he could not play rough.

And so Imuel very quickly lost the ability to stay angry.

The doctor had always known exactly how to handle the little cat. By the time Imuel lay limp beside him, continuously burrowing into his embrace, Bai Yu finally let out a small sigh of relief.

Crisis resolved.

Meanwhile, Imuel contentedly hugged the doctor he had regained and lazily asked, "By the way, earlier..."

Bai Yu's brow twitched.

"Earlier, when you mentioned Lewis, was there something you needed?"

Imuel had seen how intimate they were, and he had been jealous to death.

Bai Yu paused subtly before tossing his boss completely to the back of his mind.

"Nothing. Just an unimportant passerby."