Zhang Heng kept his sentinel closely hugged to his chest.

Really, that Yan Ning was such a piece of work. Through their link, he was well aware that Yan Ning was doing the equivalent of overworking himself to reach a deadline, but he was still annoyed it happened so often.

Yan Ning had ended up having to take inhibitors after a lesson. The newbie had challenged him and Yan Ning, who still had a terrible temper, ended up only resisting for a while before accepting the fight. Due to Wei Chen constantly raising his senses in an attempt to win, Yan Ning has followed. Wei Chen was now in another ward, physically in a worse but mentally in a better state than Yan Ning, who had just recently entered the zone.

Zhang Heng sighed softly. 

He had keys for every room in the facility, including the medical wards that would be locked at night. 

His sentinel had zero guard against him. Despite their link not being fully established, Yan Ning had never reacted to him approaching secretly. He knew, because he had tried several times - it was like Zhang Heng didn’t exist in his expanded perception.

It was convenient. Sentinels drugged with inhibitors were sedated, but if they thought they were in danger, they’d lash out like feral animals. When Zhang Heng entered the room though, Yan Ning kept on sleeping.

Even when the guide joined him on the bed and hugged him close did he not react.

“Troublemaker”, Zhang Heng complained half-heartedly and with an indulgent tone, knowing very well that Yan Ning wouldn’t remember any of it. “Making me run all over the place.”

Yan Ning was too far gone to show an actual reaction but Zhang Heng had the feeling that his head tilted just a bit closer.

Inside his mind he could feel their connection. It was shallow due to the inhibitor, but Zhang Heng could feel how all of the overload was falling away at a much quicker pace. Yan Ning felt warm and comfortable.

Absent-minded, Zhang Heng stroked the other’s hair. Of course he was tired too - it was in the middle of the night, but he could hardly visit any other time.

The man yawned. Lucky for him that there was no one else in the ward right now.

He didn’t have to visit - the inhibitors did their job - but he had wanted to. Yan Ning would feel much better after waking up if his presence helped alleviate the effect of an overload and he additionally helped out a bit.

It would be even better if he wasn’t covering up his skin and allowed the skin contact to establish the full connection, but he wasn’t going to allow that to happen any time soon. It was a shame he couldn’t feel Yan Ning’s hair between his fingers, though.

The one-sided link quivered. Zhang Heng stopped his unrelated thoughts, instead focusing on the mess in Yan Ning’s mind. 

He resumed taking the cocoon of spiritual power around Yan Ning’s mind apart, lowering the reach of his senses back to normal levels. Then, like an artist with a bucket of paint, he started to forcefully blank out all the subconscious thoughts that made Yan Ning try to keep his powers up.

No, there was no need to fight right now.

No, there was nothing dangerous here.

No, there was nothing good about reaching out even further with his senses.

Zhang Heng felt like a daycare teacher calming down a crying child. It was interesting that guides needed no practice to understand how to calm their sentinels, it was completely instinctive once the link was established, even if one-sided.

All the inhibitor did was force the sentinel to shut down completely, so while that worked, it would never solve the underlying issue of the subconscious behavior of overreaching in the first place.

Once Zhang Heng was sure that everything was “cleaned” up - and he had gotten his fill of cuddles that he honestly craved - he slipped out of the bed.

He fixed the blanket over Yan Ning, made sure his sentinel was comfortable, and then walked towards the door.

He left the room quietly, almost bumping into a tall figure.

Zhang Heng raised his head, meeting his father’s eyes, and closed the door behind him.

The man who had opened this facility and was leading it. The boss on top of everything, a common person.

Zhang Xiao did not look amused. His jaw was set tight, the hands behind his back clenched. Zhang Heng smiled at the sight and motioned for them to leave the ward before speaking.

“Why are you up so late, Dad? Aren’t you tired?”, Zhang Heng asked casually, setting up water to boil for a cup of tea inside a breakroom.

“Since when?” Zhang Xiao did not mince his words.

“Don’t be stupid, Dad. Guides recognize their sentinel at first sight. You can easily check when Yan Ning joined the facility.” Zhang Heng rolled his eyes.

“You did not tell me.”

The accusatory tone hid something entirely else, and it did not go unnoticed. Guilt and fear.

Zhang Xiao had lost his wife to the birth of his son, then had lost his only sister to a sentinel. It was understandable that he was tense.

Contrary to his expectations, his son did not explain himself. They merely stared at each other while the younger one waited for his father to realize what his own words meant.

Suspicion started to creep into Zhang Xiao’s eyes, followed by surprise and confusion.

“You did not tell me. I didn’t know because you didn’t tell me. Yan Ning is not supposed to have a guide. You hid? Why would you risk entering his room, if you don’t want him to know about you?” Zhang Heng wouldn't be the first guide who preferred freedom and safety over succumbing to the lure of the link. Guides were never as affected by it as sentinels.

Zhang Heng tapped a finger against his empty mug. “He does know I exist. He just doesn’t know it’s me.”

In an instant, the experienced old man formed several assumptions.

If his son could use the keys to slip over to the facility unnoticed, there would certainly be many more things he could use his status for. Knowing when Yan Ning went out to do his missions, where they were, the exact status of how things were going.

His son was crafty enough to hide the whole thing from his own father for so long - it was almost a coincidence he noticed him slipping out this time - so maybe he did indeed have the resources to hide it from his own sentinel while still helping out.

However-

“Yan Ning did not report this to us. He isn’t searching for you.”

“Of course he’s not. He’s too worried about hurting me.” Zhang Heng poured the boiling water into his mug. “I made sure he heard about what happened to my aunt. I mean, yes, the first two times I helped him he did try to force me to stay but… He’s not stupid. He realized pretty quickly why I’m hiding from him, and he accepts it.”

“That sounds ridiculous.”

“I didn’t let him link to me. Think about it, with the clues he has, wouldn’t he be able to at least start a decent search? And yet he didn’t. I feel quite safe. If he did come after me…” Zhang Heng’s eyes narrowed. “That’d be the last time he ever sees me.”

Leaving a linked partner behind was painful, but Zhang Heng would accept that pain.

He was the reason his aunt died. It was because she had tried to visit him that her sentinel had finally snapped.

Zhang Heng wasn’t attached to many people, but he loved his father dearly. He was well aware of how much the man missed his dead wife, and how much grief his sister’s death had caused him.

Zhang Heng would never enter a relationship that carried the same dangers.

The old man’s tense expression slowly twisted into worry. He stepped forward, pulling his son into a hug.

“Why do you have to be a guide as well”, he whispered under his breath.

Zhang Heng did not escape the awkward hug. He closed his eyes, smiling wryly. “I like my sentinel a lot, Dad. I just need to invest some time training him, you know? Like an overgrown guard dog. In itself, the link isn’t bad at all.”

Otherwise he’d have never helped Yan Ning out in the first place.

But he liked their daily conversations in the app, he liked that funnily mafia-like face, and the way Yan Ning went about with his work.

He didn’t mind the link that was sweet and sticky like honey. As long as Yan Ning didn’t lose his head, he didn’t mind indulging in the feeling of sharing his very soul with someone else. Since the link did not contradict his actual feelings, he could accept it quite well.

“I’m not in danger, Dad. I know what I’m doing. If you’re worried, you can help me clean up my traces?”

Zhang Heng freed himself from his father’s arms and smiled mischievously.

At the sight of it, Zhang Xiao could only sigh deeply.

He had loved the mischievous side of his wife so much, how could he possibly scold the son he spoiled for also having it?