Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 98: The Feelings of a Bystander...

Chapter 98: The Feelings of a Bystander...

Shen Yifei POV

March 17th, 20xx — 11:50 PM

Archery Club Room — Main Hall

—

It started with a noise I couldn’t place.

Just a low thump through the wall — like something shifting, like someone falling softly onto mats.

I didn’t mean to move.

I didn’t mean to get closer.

But I did.

Zhou Xue was already near the wall, her expression unreadable. Liang Mei stood a little off to the side, holding her sweater tighter, like she could pull it over her ears if it got too bad.

I didn’t say anything at first.

Then came the second sound.

Schlk.

Flesh on flesh. Muffled, but not faint. Then again — Squelch...! — a steady rhythm, wet and certain.

My stomach flipped.

I pressed my hand against the wall. Felt it vibrate, faint but real.

Inside the side room, they weren’t whispering anymore.

Mu Qinglan’s voice broke through the next moment. A low breath at first. Then a moan — sharp, sweet, and unguarded.

"Ahn... fuck... right there—"

I froze.

I’d never heard her speak like that. Not even close. Not in battle, not when she was being cocky, not when she was angry. This wasn’t her being anything. This was just her. Open. Bare. Loud.

Squelch. Slap. Slap. Shlk!.

The sounds came faster. Stickier. The kind of rhythm you didn’t mistake for anything else. I could hear John, too — not words, just the rough grunt of breath against breath. Skin hitting skin.

Qinglan cried out again — a voice dragged from the centre of her chest.

"Nghh—! Yes—! Fuck me deeper, John—haaah—!"

I felt heat shoot up the back of my neck. My fingers twitched. I didn’t realise how tight my grip had got until my nails scraped the plaster.

Zhou Xue stepped back slowly, face pale, eyes averted.

"You shouldn’t listen."

She sounded calm.

She wasn’t.

I laughed — too quiet, too bitter.

"You’re the one who heard it first."

"I didn’t say I was better."

Another moan. Higher. Twisted.

"Harder—! Right there—!"

Slap... Slap... Slap... Squelch... Gush!

I flinched. My thighs pressed together without thinking.

This wasn’t just sex.

This wasn’t two people trying to pass time or vent frustration.

It sounded like she was breaking. Like she was letting something come apart, and he was helping her do it.

I hated it.

Not because I was a prude. Not because it was wrong.

Because it sounded too good.

Because I couldn’t stop listening.

Liang Mei let out a small sound — not a gasp, more like a hiccup of embarrassment. Her eyes were round, wide, and red at the corners. She hadn’t moved. Her mouth opened once, like she was going to speak, but nothing came out.

"Mnhh—nghh... don’t stop—hahhh—don’t stop—!"

Smack. Slap. Slap. Squish.

"Are they—" I swallowed. "Are they doing it again?"

Zhou Xue didn’t answer.

I pressed closer to the wall, but then something thudded on the other side — a heavy slam, like a body hitting the floor or a knee shifting too hard on a mat.

A second later, a whisper. Not from the room.

From behind us.

"Shit," I muttered.

We’d been too loud.

The others had noticed.

I yanked away from the wall and turned sharply, just as Deng Hua’s head ducked awkwardly down and Chen Xun looked everywhere but at us. Zhou Xue grabbed Liang Mei’s arm gently and pulled her away from the wall, her voice tight.

"Come on. Give them... space."

But even as we moved to the far side of the room, even with the boys awkwardly looking at their boots and pretending not to have heard...

I still heard her voice.

Soft and shivering.

"...God... I love you, John..."

I stopped walking.

The others did too.

That wasn’t moaning.

That was real.

And for the first time in my life, I hated how small I felt.

Not because she had him.

But because it wasn’t me... and he didn’t touch me that way. I never saw him as a serious thing, but each day in this hell felt like a week... sometimes a month or even a year...

The pair stopped for a moment, but I could hear it... the wet smack of their lips... She was kissing John... It wasn’t just because I was desperate, because I felt nothing when looking at Deng Hua, or the other guys here... It was him.

He’s stolen my heart.

For real...

And he probably knew it, too.

Who could blame me... in this sudden hell, only he made me feel a sense of hope and became the light of our group.

I just hated that being honest was too difficult for me.

’John... I also love you.’

—

Liang Mei POV

March 18th, 20xx — 12:20 AM

Archery Club Room — Main Hall

—

It had gone quiet again.

At least five minutes must have passed since we moved away from the wall, since the last time her voice reached through the plaster and made us freeze in place. No one said anything, not at first.

The silence stretched between us, not heavy, not tense, just strange.

We sat in a triangle near the centre of the room, trying to keep warm in small blankets, none of us had the desire to knock on the door and disturb the two of them.

Shen Yifei looked at me, sitting opposite, as she rested her chin on her knees, wrapping them with her arms.

The spear she carried was laid beside her, forgotten for now.

Her shoulders had dropped a little since before.

Some of the edge in her voice had faded, too. She looked tired, but calmer.

Zhou Xue seemed different from usual, no longer confident and sitting to my right, her back rested against a cheap wooden shelf. But the red on her cheeks made me realise she wasn’t as experienced as I thought.

The way she looked made me confused; she seemed a little softer and calmer, but also gazed at the other room with a strange glint in her eyes.

It was strange to be here like this.

To think that I would still be alive despite the world becoming so dangerous and broken. Yet in this moment, we were just girls sitting together in a room... listening to a couple having wild sex, and the outside didn’t matter.

We weren’t planning. We weren’t defending. We were just here.

Shen Yifei broke the silence first.

"She’s loud."

Her voice was flat, almost resigned. Not angry, but not completely neutral either. Like she’d been holding the comment in for a while and had only just let it out.

I tried not to comment on Shen Yifei’s jealousy, or her eyes that lingered in the room with the look of an abandoned puppy.

"She is."

"I don’t think she knows how to whisper."

Zhou Xue raised one eyebrow slightly, as if amused by the thought.

"She knows but probably can’t stop it if she wanted to."

We all laughed at that, quietly, without meaning to.

The sound was more real than anything else that had passed between us tonight.

It was easier to talk like this, with the danger pushed far enough to let us pretend.

Pretend for a few minutes that we weren’t in the middle of a nightmare.

"I thought she was so perfect," Shen Yifei said after a moment. "Always so collected. Always one step ahead. I didn’t think she’d be the type to just... lose herself like that."

She didn’t finish the sentence.

Zhou Xue didn’t offer an answer either.

Honestly... I was jealous because she sounded so happy, so blissful. It wasn’t fake like those naughty videos Zhou Xue showed.

That’s why I replied...

"She sounded like she needed it."

They look shocked that I said that... was it so wrong?

My cheeks became hot, but I didn’t stop...

I couldn’t!

"She wasn’t just enjoying it. She was... asking for it. Like she hadn’t been touched in years, or maybe ever. Like she wanted to be seen. Really seen."

Zhou Xue tilted her head back against the shelf behind her and let out a long, slow breath.

Shen Yifei looked down at her hands, then at me. Her voice dropped to a murmur.

"I thought maybe I had a chance."

Her words weren’t bitter. They weren’t proud either and just sat between us like something she hadn’t said before, and now couldn’t take back.

There wasn’t something I could say to make it right, so I just smiled.

I looked down at my hands, rubbing my fingers together as I remembered the way he treated me, and understood her feelings. He treated me gently, crouch and lifted me into his arms without hesitation when I was near death.

The safe, steady way that he saved me.

’Is this a crush?’

I wondered while touching my chest that it beat faster, especially when picturing myself lying beneath him.

Men normally avoided me... because of my heart and burden.

The warmth John brought me still lingered on my skin, as if he’d left some part of him behind for me to hold on to. Just that brief moment together... had filled something hollow inside me that I never knew existed.

I wanted that again.

Even if my heart couldn’t take it...

I wanted to taste it, to feel it and beg for it.

My chest hurt just listening, not from disgust or shame, but from the knowledge that I could never give myself that way.

Not without consequences.

Not without risking everything I still had left.

Still, I whispered it.

"She’s lucky."

No one disagreed.

We sat in silence again.

Then her voice came back, softer now, but somehow more intense.

A whisper full of her desire and feelings, and a smouldering heat deeper underneath.

"You’re still hard... again... I want it again."

I saw Shen Yifei shudder upon hearing her voice.

Sweet and sultry.

Zhou Xue leaned back, shutting her eyes, while wrapping herself with the quilt... it seemed strange, but I thought she was waiting for the moment to pass.

I didn’t move.

I didn’t react.

Because while I listened to their love affair... I could feel it.

But I was beneath him.

That closeness. That heat. The sound of someone wanting me completely, and not taking no for an answer...

And I knew I would remember this night for a long time.

Even if it wasn’t mine

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