Ye Ci lowered his eyes, shook his head which was exposed outside of the quilt, and said quietly, “No, I don’t hate . . . .”

He couldn’t lie.

When he shook his head, his cheek brushed against the prominent muscles of Huo Tinglan’s chest.

The texture was firm and tough, and the shirt material was smooth.

He felt like he had taken advantage. His eyes flickered, and his face was ridiculously red.

“You don’t hate him.” Huo Tinglan’s eyes were dark. Relying on the dimness, he stared presumptuously at those two soft, moist lips, flirting and asking in a low voice: “Do you like him?”

Like Huo-shushu – – 

The entanglement of the past few days was suddenly revealed.

A pile of dirty desire not fit to be seen was pulled to the bright side and illuminated by the sun. Ye Ci reacted as if he had been stabbed, his eyes widening in astonishment. He couldn’t hold those tears back, and they were about to fall.

He couldn’t bear to look directly at his urge to succumb to the stronger, more mature man, and dared not admit it.

Especially after just making that scene . . . .

Just now, he had almost reverted to his appearance from when he was in a state of delusion – this was clearly the face of a young man, with distinct and heroic contours, but due to the Omega pheromones, he showed a delicate, supple, and blushing look at the corners of his eyes. He hugged Huo Tinglan’s quilt, appearing clingy, confused, and unbearable to look at. He had turned into an Omega, but he was still a boy after all, so he shouldn’t be like this. He was so weird, and . . . .

So awful.

All of this was seen by Huo Tinglan.

He was extremely out of sorts, but Huo Tinglan, who was imprisoning him, was dressed neatly. His shirt was crisply ironed and washed snow white, and the slender silver collar pin was decorated with a small jadeite leaf. This close, he could smell the clean fragrance of his aftershave under the pheromones . . . .

The contrast was great. Ye Ci became increasingly afraid to answer, and pulled out his forearm from the quilt, covering his face as if it was something dirty. His body was shaking with shame and inferiority.

“Xiao Ci?” Huo Tinglan grasped Ye Ci’s wrist to pull it aside, wanting to see his face clearly. He held back his strength at first, but when he saw his stubbornness, he brazenly pried it open and pinned the arm back on the pillow.

Ye Ci’s face was exposed, and the tips of his eyes, his cheekbones, and the sides of his face were all wet and bright red. His eyes were shut as if he didn’t dare to look at anyone, and he had closed them so hard that a few tears squeezed out of the lovely fine folds at the ends of his eyes.

He only asked if he liked him or not, and he cried.

“You don’t like him,” Huo Tinglan answered for him.

“. . . .No, I don’t . . . . don’t dislike him.” It was as tiny and fragile as a gnat, almost inaudible.

“Then you like him,” Huo Tinglan answered for him again.

Like him?

Ye Ci couldn’t make a sound, and his thoughts were chaotic and confused.

The things he couldn’t figure out in his heart were too hard to stammer.

He clenched his hand until his fingertips went numb, then opened his eyes and looked at Huo Tinglan as if asking for help.

He seemed to be counting on Huo Tinglan’s keen insight, hoping that he could see through his sick heart and diagnose and treat him.

Unknown to him, that helpless and aggrieved look, overflowing with light, was saying “yes” to Huo Tinglan.

He couldn’t say it.

Huo Tinglan understood.

His chest was abruptly set on fire by this look, and his heart burned hot and painful. As if a switch had been pressed, Huo Tinglan suddenly rolled over, holding Ye Ci’s weakly writhing wrist with one hand. With the other, he drew up Ye Ci’s jaw and kissed his tear-soaked face.

Ye Ci was stunned. He drew back slightly with a hum, but his chin was grasped and there was a pillow behind his head. There was no place to shrink away, and he could only be pressed down by Huo Tinglan and kissed again.

His soft face, smooth forehead, black eyebrows . . . . those kisses deliberately avoided Ye Ci’s lips, clearly passionate and full of turmoil, but containing unexpected caution and restraint. Huo Tinglan’s shoulders arched slightly, his solid and fierce muscles tense and quivering under his forcible control, like a gentle beast. Ye Ci was numb and softened by the kisses, but also panicked and frightened,

Like or not like?

. . . . . .

He didn’t know. His chest was folded in half and all he knew was that his heart was about to break free, to jump into Huo Tinglan’s arms like a rabbit.

“Huo-shushu . . . . don’t, don’t . . . .” Ye Ci shuddered and begged for mercy.

As if awakened, Huo Tinglan sat up abruptly and let go of Ye Ci.

He controlled the violent ups and downs of his chest, adjusted his heavy breathing, and stroked the scattered hair back from his forehead.

“. . . . I apologize.”

He lowered his eyes and straightened his crooked tie, hiding his aggressive, tiger-like gaze.

He had made a rare gaffe.

The heat of Huo Tinglan’s lips still remained on Ye Ci’s cheeks.

Ye Ci seemed to be in a magnificent and absurd dream, staring at him blankly, his eyes vacant.

“I’m not forcing you to respond to me . . . . but I think I need to explain to you what I just did.” Huo Tinglan closed his eyes, and when he looked up again, he had returned to his usual mild and elegant appearance. He pondered, considering his words as usual in order to make them tactful and appropriate. But after a moment of silence, he smiled in defeat, only tossing out one sentence softly and solemnly: “Xiao Ci, I like you.”

Ye Ci’s eyes trembled fiercely, and he even held his breath.

After giving Ye Ci a few seconds to buffer, Huo Tinglan explained slowly: “After agreeing to marry you, I thought we were too different in age and wanted to be a good ‘shushu’ for you, take care of you and watch you grow up, but . . . .” Huo Tinglan laughed lightly at his age, his own frivolity, and the yearning that did not match his years. “I’m 30 years old, but I was just like you in this respect, a blank sheet of paper. So . . . . I didn’t know what was going on, but once I realized, I couldn’t help but think of you every day.” He sighed helplessly. “I was afraid of frightening you and didn’t dare let you know. If it hadn’t been for this situation today, I might never have said anything. I’m afraid you’ll think I’m very wicked and took care of you with impure motives . . . .”

Huo-shushu . . . . liked him?

Not only didn’t dislike him, but also liked him.

Ye Ci stirred uneasily, and white steam nearly poured from the top of his head because of this series of confessions. He had really never forgotten when he first called him Huo-shushu. Grabbing the key points, he retorted: “I, I don’t think you’re wicked.”

“. . . . What about just now?” Huo Tinglan hit the snake with the stick,^[1] but he said with a sincere expression of guilt, “I couldn’t help kissing your face just now, without asking for your consent. I’m sorry I offended you, I won’t do it next time.”

“I, I’m not offended, I . . . .” Ye Ci spoke to Huo Tinglan wholeheartedly, but halfway through, he suddenly felt something was wrong. He closed his mouth abruptly and almost bit his tongue.

It offended him, so he wouldn’t do it next time.

If it wasn’t offensive . . . .

There was still a next time?!

“What were you just about to say?” Huo Tinglan looked at him with a gentle and mischievous expression.

“. . . . . .”

Ye Ci pursed his lips silently, and there was a little bit of confusion and struggle in his eyes.

Huo-shushu . . . . was he a person who would set this kind of trap for people?

He was 80% sure he was thinking too much.

But whether Huo Tinglan was such a person or not, this little interlude made Ye Ci’s mood a little less devastated.

Embarrassment and terror at being caught, tears of shame and anxiety . . . . it was all gradually fading from his face.

“I’ve said all I can say.” Huo Tinglan gently scratched the clumsy little tongue in the clam shell with his words, calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos, and tried his luck at digging out a few pearls: “Is there anything you want to say to me?”

Ye Ci nodded, hesitated, and then shook his head again, his fingertips clenched white.

Huo Tinglan speculated on Ye Ci’s thoughts. After five years of marriage, he knew him too well. Linking Ye Ci’s various expressions and reactions tonight, he could make a close guess.

His guess was perhaps even clearer than what Ye Ci figured out for himself.

“You haven’t figured out what to say to me yet?” Huo Tinglan asked warmly. “Afraid that the pheromone changes during the marking period will affect your judgment?”

After a temporary marking, it was indeed easy for Alphas and Omegas to have a mirror-like yearning for each other due to the fluctuation of hormone levels, and various dramas such as “friends with benefits become true lovers” could occur. But when the temporary mark faded, the skin-deep feeling of pure physical attraction also faded immediately.

But in fact, Huo Tinglan could see that Ye Ci was not like this toward him.

Moreover, spirit and flesh, sex and love, were not separated from each other.

But there was a generation gap between the teenager and him. Perhaps in Ye Ci’s view, feelings mixed with too much desire may not necessarily be real feelings. Ye Ci had a temporary fever at the moment, and during the fever period, the physiological needs for affection and comfort from an Alpha were a tangled mess. Based on Ye Ci’s experience, of course it was all ceaseless chaos.

“. . . . En.”

Ye Ci found it difficult to speak about, and nodded slightly.

Sure enough.

He had guessed right.

If he could, Huo Tinglan didn’t want to wait even a second.

But that would be no good.

Besides . . . .

He really hadn’t expected Ye Ci to care so much about the secondary differentiation of his glands when he was 18 years old.

The current Ye Ci clearly lacked a sense of identity with the Omega gender. The Omega fever period made him ashamed, and correspondingly, it was naturally equally difficult to accept the fact that he “liked an Alpha.”

When asked, “Do you like Huo-shushu,” he suddenly cried and covered his face with his arms, likely because his “secret and unbearable” thoughts were spoken, and he was fearful and self-loathing . . . .

This problem needed to be solved.

He needed to guide Ye Ci to accept the fact that “Huo Tinglan was his Alpha.”

“I understand your concerns.” Trying to fathom Ye Ci’s thoughts, Huo Tinglan’s heart gradually softened into a mess. “We’ll have a good talk when the marking period is over……okay?”

“O – okay, Huo-shushu.” Ye Ci gazed at him, his eyes bright.

The room was silent for a moment.

The sweet, intimate smell of vanilla had been frightened away for a while, but now it became strong again.

“Your temporary fever . . . . isn’t over yet?” Huo Tinglan suddenly said with concern.

Only then did Ye Ci realize that the greedy glands were still agitated.

“Want to resolve it quickly and go back to your own room?” Huo Tinglan was simply tempting and testing his inexperienced little lover, trying to see how far he had actually softened.

Ye Ci quickly glanced at him. Those eyes were not naive, and after a moment of silence, he just blushed and whispered, “I want.”

Huo Tinglan lifted the corner of the quilt and reached in with one hand.

Ye Ci’s cold hands and feet hadn’t recovered yet from the fright of being caught.

“Skin contact can efficiently transmit pheromones, that was in the physiological knowledge book before, remember?” Huo Tinglan said in earnest, and gently grabbed Ye Ci’s hand.

It was fair and ice-cold.

Like holding a ball of snow.

---

[1] 打蛇随棍上: ‘Hit the snake with the stick’ basically means to see an opportunity and strive for greater benefits, or to exploit an opponent’s flaws. ⮐

---

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Chapter Twenty-Three<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Five

– – There were clear footsteps in the hallway.

And they were getting closer.

Going straight to Huo Tinglan’s bedroom.

Ye Ci’s face turned white with horror. When his shock faded, he rushed out.

As a result, as soon as he stepped out, he ran into Huo Tinglan head-on. The two looked at each other and saw one another clearly and distinctly, with no room for salvaging the situation.

However . . . . the hallway was silent for only a second.

No, maybe not even a second.

Huo Tinglan looked calm, glanced at the exercise book in Ye Ci’s hand that was on the verge of being crushed, and asked lightly: “Which question are you having trouble with? Why didn’t you go to the study to find me?”

“. . . . . .” Ye Ci’s throat felt like it was filled with cement, and he hesitated. Let alone saying nonsense, he couldn’t even squeeze out a single syllable.

But Huo Tinglan seemed to be asking casually. He didn’t give Ye Ci time to answer and didn’t even look at his panic-stricken face. Instead, he went straight to the bed and picked up a document from the bedside table that he had been reading when he fell asleep last night, and said to him: “I have an emergency meeting.” He looked down at his watch and confirmed the meeting time. “I’ll try my best to be back before ten o’clock. If you don’t know the questions, save them and I’ll go over them with you tonight . . . . is that okay?”

Coming back from death’s door, Ye Ci regained his language ability and nodded like he was pounding garlic: “O, okay!”

Huo Tinglan’s lips curved into a covert arc. He walked into the cloakroom, took out a coat and put it on his forearm, and strode toward the stairs like he was really in a hurry.

Ye Ci didn’t dare to linger any longer and quickly went back to the room, clinging to the window and looking out.

In the distance, a black Maybach 62 slowly drove towards the gate of the house.

– – Huo-shushu really went out.

The fever period was making his brain dull, otherwise Ye Ci would have noticed that Huo Tinglan’s “consideration” was familiar.

Seeing through everything, but staying silent. Just lightly prodding from the side to provide guidance. It was completely in accordance with Huo Tinglan’s consistent style.

The miserably suffering brain that was hijacked by the Omega glands desperately craved Huo Tinglan’s pheromones. Ye Ci had never been in Huo Tinglan’s bedroom until he went there and tasted how sweet and comfortable it was to be soothed by an adoring Alpha during the fever period. That greed and thirst were twice as difficult to contain, and his body temperature continued to rise.

It would be fine if he didn’t touch what he shouldn’t touch.

For a while, nothing moved in the house.

Huo-shushu wouldn’t return home until ten o’clock.

There was even time to open the windows and ventilate the “evidence” of the smell.

What was he afraid of?

The brain dominated by love instigated him every minute and every second, without end.

When he regained his senses, he had already returned to Huo Tinglan’s room as if sleepwalking.

Their pheromones were so compatible. The burning glands were soothed, and just like dipping burnt skin into ice water, Ye Ci was immersed in a kind of extreme comfort that made his muscles and bones go soft.

The object with the most residual pheromones, aside from the laundry basket in the bathroom, was the big bed in the center of the room. He was like a cub attracted by bait. He knew he shouldn’t go, but his stomach was empty. Hungry and thirsty, sniffing the fragrance and anxiously going in circles, round and round, he couldn’t overcome his instincts in the end and looked for an excuse to draw near . . . .

Just a sniff.

He wouldn’t touch.

Huo Tinglan’s bedsheets and quilt cover were an identical graphite color made of satin material, cool and soft, overflowing with a silk-like brilliance. Ye Ci had never seen anyone use a four-piece bed set like this . . . . he couldn’t describe it, and only felt that just looking at it could make people blush.

He stood beside the bed with a dense fog in his eyes, sniffing greedily.

He couldn’t get enough.

It was so strange.

Wave after wave, his hot blood surged.

When the good child did a bad thing, at first, fear and dread interweaved. But then, a secret and novel excitement quickly fermented, awakening a part of the green youth that overlapped with his Omega attributes . . . . his qi and blood flourished, restless and reckless. These things had been lying dormant inside him all along.

His fingertips rebelled, casually stroking the silky graphite-colored satin soaked in Alpha pheromones.

It was like licking a dark pool of water with the tip of his tongue.

Sweet and tempting.

Ye Ci’s face and ears were red, his eyes blank and unfocused. It was difficult to control his throbbing heart, which was like a bad boy coaxing a little lover to taste the forbidden fruit for the first time. He pricked up his ears to catch the subtle noises outside the window and the hallway, and kept glancing at the gap in the door – the soundproofing in Huo Tinglan’s bedroom was very good. He didn’t dare to lock the door, for fear that he wouldn’t be able to hear noises from the hallway, or that a servant would suddenly break in and stumble upon his dirty desires.

Confirming that no one would break in, Ye Ci cautiously lay on his stomach, resting his head on the side of Huo Tinglan’s pillow.

At first, he tried to hold his bottom line.

He maintained his restraint and tried not to take up space. His thin body was neatly tucked into a line along the bed, so that he would fall off if he turned over. He breathed in small sips, as if he were sipping strong wine, but also as if he would be charged by the millileter for the air he breathed in this room.

But gradually, this sort of contact was no longer satisfying. He moved towards the middle impatiently, and no longer lay rigidly like a corpse at a funeral.

After some time, he began to rub his hot face against Huo Tinglan’s pillow. His thin lips were open, greedily taking in the pheromones in the air with his mouth and nose. The soft little red tip of his tongue could be seen between his teeth. He was addicted and drunk. Like a little cat that fell into a pile of catnip, he didn’t know what it meant to stop, just wanting to build a nest with catnip and live there forever. 

“Huo-shushu . . . .” In a trance, he sat up and rolled up Huo Tinglan’s quilt, folded it like a nest, and piled it high with the quilt under his legs and his face buried in it. The “only ten minutes” that he had thought about before he came in had long been ejected into the atmosphere. He couldn’t remember how many “ten minutes” he had lingered on Huo-shushu’s bed. He had long forgotten to be alert to the sound of vehicles outside the window, and his ears were full of his frantic, clumsy heartbeat and hoarse murmurs of, “Huo-shushu . . . .”

At this moment, the sound of footsteps came in through the crack in the door, neither light nor heavy.

The delirious Ye Ci caught this signal.

The moonlight spilling into the room suddenly became brighter, not like moonlight . . . .

The scent of tequila became fragrant . . . .

These signs were very weak, and he was still in a daze, but his instinctual vigilance rose from the chaos, breaking through the surface of the water . . . .

Ye Ci raised his eyes, took a breath of cold air, kicked the quilt away suddenly, and bounced up in a single movement.

The bedroom door opened at an angle.

Huo Tinglan stood backlit at the doorway and looked at him quietly.

He woke from his trance.

But it was too late.

He was caught in the act.

“Huo . . . . . .”

Ye Ci’s cheeks lost color. His eyes trembled slightly, staring in disbelief, as terrified as a criminal caught in the net or a startled wild goose.

Why did he come back this soon?

Was it ten o’clock?

No, that was wrong . . . .

How long had he been there?!

What time was it now?!

To avoid being noticed, Ye Ci hadn’t dared to turn on the lights. It was pitch dark, and the dim room was gently soaked in the warm light from the wall lamps in the hallway.

Huo Tinglan was afraid to startle him again, so he didn’t turn on the light. His sharp figure gradually approached in the haze, and he opened his mouth, as always, with a gentle and apologetic tone: “Sorry, did I scare you?”

With Ye Ci’s current state of mind, it was obviously difficult for him to notice the uncontrolled trembling at the tail end of his words.

It was agreed that he would be back at ten o’clock and it was now 10:01. Right on time. He couldn’t be called a cheater.

He had been thinking for the past few days that Ye Ci was concealing the situation from him, but he couldn’t be sure. After all, Ye Ci evaded him too well.

However, when he ran into him in the hallway tonight, he basically confirmed it with one glance.

He’d wanted to take the opportunity to grab a few clues and use them to scratch Ye Ci’s soft, ticklish flesh, to tease him, to play with him. To let him explain why he wanted to go into his room when no one was there, touching his clothes and sleeping in his bed. To force that tightly closed little clam shell to sip some water, and then slowly pry it open.

Unexpectedly . . . .

He simply caught him.

With his eyesight, he could clearly see from the door that captivating, charming and gentle picture.

At this moment, he could still hold back the wicked fire due to having endured the past two months, accustomed to playing the role of a good person.

“I, I wasn’t. So, sorry, Huo-shushu, I’m, I’m not . . . .” Ye Ci returned from the dead, wanting to prevaricate, but the joints of his mouth were rusted and hard, and couldn’t be opened.

He wanted to slip away.

But before his toes touched the ground, that cool tequila fragrance approached and the mattress sank as Huo Tinglan knelt on one knee on the edge of the bed, cutting off his path.

Ye Ci shrank back and fell onto the stack of quilts, and the blood gradually poured back into his face.

He could no longer run, dizzy with shame, and the secret excitement of stealing the forbidden fruit had already been swept away. He was remorseful, and stammered an apology: “I’m really, really sorry, Huo-shushu . . . . I, today I’m especially, especially uncomfortable. Sorry, I also don’t, don’t know what’s wrong with me, it’s like, like . . . .”

Intense self-loathing and tremendous shame made his voice ripple on the verge of a sob.

He was the very picture of speechlessness.

That word was so shameful.

In front of Huo Tinglan, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t make it come out.

He was finished.

Ye Ci’s slender chest rose and fell rapidly, accompanied by a small and helpless sob.

He didn’t even remember how old he was the last time he cried in front of someone.

Disgraceful. He wiped his face with his arm a few times, gritting his teeth to stifle it.

Suddenly, an arm hugged him firmly and tugged him into an embrace, while the other pulled over the thin quilt he had stacked into a mountain, shook it out, and wrapped up his tense, icy limbs as if spinning a silk chrysalis around a tiny butterfly.

The slight pressure and heat all over made Ye Ci temporarily return to the present like a soul that had strayed from his body.

“Don’t cry.” Huo Tinglan was reclining on the bed, hugging him. His posture was very possessive, as if he wanted to completely encircle Ye Ci. He took out his handkerchief and carefully brushed the corners of Ye Ci’s eyes, which were scratched red by the sleeves of his pajamas. He softened his voice to help that soft, clumsy little tongue explain: “It’s close to your fever period, and you’re very uncomfortable. You can’t use the inhibitors, so you had no choice but to come to my room and lie down for a while……right?”

Ye Ci sniffed and nodded lightly as he was coaxed, but felt aggrieved as another round of tears welled up but didn’t fall.

“That’s a very legitimate need, why didn’t you tell me?” Huo Tinglan slowly tightened the arm that hugged Ye Ci’s shoulders, asking gently and knowingly: “You’ve been avoiding me these days…….do you hate Huo-shushu?”

---

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Chapter Twenty-Two<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Four

Ye Ci wanted to talk to someone.

If he kept thinking like this all day, let alone not being able to study, he would go crazy.

Originally, he would have had a chat with Ye Hongjun. The mother and son depended on each other for survival, and could trust each other more than the usual parent-child relationship, but this was the only thing he couldn’t tell Ye Hongjun.

She didn’t even know about the marriage connecting the Chu and Huo families.

Since she fell ill, Ye Ci had always reported good news to her instead of the bad.

Being arranged by Chu Wenlin to marry an Alpha who was 12 years older than him and whom he didn’t know before, no matter how he presented this matter, he couldn’t erase the scummy smell of Chu Wenlin selling his son for glory.

He was lucky to have met Huo-shushu.

What if he had been unlucky?

If Ye Hongjun knew about it, she would probably go crazy. Given her current physical condition, it was hard to say whether she could bear it.

Moreover, it was difficult for him to explain the current situation without causing Ye Hongjun to worry. After all, she knew how he always tried to act brave. The more he hyped Huo-shushu up, the more afraid Ye Hongjun might be.

So when he visited her last week, he lied and said that he was still living with Chu Wenlin and everything was fine.

In addition to Ye Hongjun, he used to have some good friends when he lived on the old street. Later, Ye Hongjun fell ill and he was so busy with his part-time job that he became estranged from these people and his former classmates.

Besides, even if he hadn’t distanced himself, he wouldn’t be able to talk to them about this mess……

Ye Ci hurriedly finished his breakfast, went back to the room, and locked the door. After thinking about it, he took out his phone and browsed around for a while, and found an Omega support forum.

No one knew anyone online.

He wouldn’t be afraid of being embarrassed.

He registered a new account and opened a post. He didn’t know where to start, so he vaguely said that he had agreed to marry an Alpha who was much different in age, and picked out a few things about Huo Tinglan’s daily dealings with him, talking about them briefly.

L1: Dude, make a public display of affection.

L2: He asked for help in the title, isn’t that bad advice? 

. . . . . .

L10: . . . . My heart is as cold as my knife.^[1]

Yc: That’s not it.

Yc: I often think bad things.

Yc: About him.

33L: What do you mean by bad things? Spousal murder? Domestic violence? Cheating? . . . .

Dozens of floors were built^[1], and no one guessed correctly.

“. . . . . .”

Were netizens so obtuse?

Ye Ci hesitated for a moment, then quickly typed a few colorful words. After sending it, he threw the phone away as if it was on fire. With a blushing face, he felt for a cigarette, and after feeling around for a while, he found that his stock was depleted. He was too good at smoking these days.

He sat on the edge of the bed for a while, then suddenly grabbed his phone.

83L: Taking the liberty to ask OP’s age.

84L: Can’t laugh anymore, I’m dead.

85L: No way, no way, no one these days can’t realize when they’re in love with someone, right?

86L: Blindly guessing it’s an innocent male high school student, ha ha ha.

. . . . . .

Yc: 18 years old.

Yc: I’m a high school student. I stayed back a year. What’s the problem?

Immediately below, there was a wave of “cute and pure male high school student, hug gege/jiejie”. . . .

Ye Ci: “. . . . . .”

Ashamed, he reflexively felt for a cigarette again.

Yc: Is this a joke?

There was another round of hilarity and love below.

Ye Ci was completely taken aback, and accepted the bombardment with honest confusion.

After a few rounds of laughter and amusement, someone finally answered the question.

156L: Don’t you just like him? What’s wrong with thinking about someone you like?

157L: Don’t be ashamed, you’re both adults. Don’t worry about it, there’s not a problem, you’re normal.

. . . . . .

Yc: He just takes care of me as my senior, I have the wrong idea.

177L: Alas . . . . the old man is suffering. Let me try the next paragraph – I thought he took care of me because he liked me, but he actually treated me like a child.

178L: Also, he’s your father’s friend and there’s a big age difference, maybe the old man can’t express it out loud.

179L: What’s wrong with having feelings? Besides, who is it that you have a crush on?

180L: Don’t you live together? Seduce him with pheromones!

. . . . . .

Further down, the chaos descended and the more they said, the more outrageous they were, until they were almost sprinting to board the train.

Ye Ci blushed, and dared not look again. He nervously closed the web page, cleared his browsing history, and then fell back as if he had lost all his strength, falling heavily on the bed.

The sun was bright all of a sudden, and he covered his face with his arms. Under the sleeves of the lake-blue pajamas, a small area of hibiscus-pink jaw was tense, as if he were gritting his teeth and stubbornly resisting. After a while, the lines gradually loosened and softened.

So, he unconsciously . . . . liked Huo-shushu?

Since when?

He didn’t know, and still couldn’t figure it out up to now.

Like a pot of slowly heating water, he suddenly regained his senses and felt it was hot, but couldn’t tell at what moment the temperature exceeded the threshold.

Probably around . . . . hm.

Ye Ci turned over and hid his face in his arms.

Although he didn’t understand, he had learned that he liked someone.

He was done for.

. . . . . .

Some things didn’t make sense, and once they were figured out, the crisis would be impossible to control.

When a young man began to fall in love, it was as if a floodgate was knocked open in his mind. It opened suddenly, but he lacked the experience to control the flow. Waves rushed toward the sky, and everything was washed away by that young and reckless love.

Originally, Ye Ci only made mistakes in taking care of himself. He was always cautious and practical in his studies and work, but these two days, it seemed that he had become a fool. Things were not going well. Whenever others asked him questions, he answered without thinking, so absent-minded that he couldn’t even keep up with the exercises. Going to school, his body and mind headed out first, and Uncle He chased after him, calling him with his schoolbag.

In the past two days, he had also redoubled his efforts to hide from Huo Tinglan and resumed the style of staying aloof just like when he first came to the Huo residence. The hazy admiration and longing had his heart in his throat every second. He feared that his expression and the emotions in his eyes would be revealed, and Huo-shushu would see into the thoughts of love hidden within him. As a result, he felt doubly ashamed to show his face.

After school on Wednesday, he returned to the Huo residence, said hello to Uncle He, and slipped back to the bedroom to do his homework. He used to go to the study to do his homework so that he could release pheromones in the same room and help Huo Tinglan relieve the symptoms of the early stages of susceptibility. But he wouldn’t have to do that again for the next two or three months, and he was happy to avoid it.

He immersed himself in writing papers, and for the questions he didn’t know, he went as far as the steps could take him. In the past few days, he had accumulated a lot of questions, and he wanted to try his luck and wait for the teacher to cover them in class.

Half of the homework was written, and the long summer day turned into twilight. The white-hot summer air dissipated, and cool wind blew from the window, but Ye Ci was hot and uneasy.

The scent of vanilla, like velvet soaked in honey, spread and grew.

It was far from familiar, but the two previous experiences were enough to make Ye Ci realize that his pheromones were disordered again.

It was that kind of “mild, short-lived fever.”

Ye Ci tore off the barrier patch that had been in use for a long time and quickly replaced it with a new one.

As if his head had been injected with glue, his thinking gradually became muddled.

Ye Ci was lying on the study table, hiding his face in the darkness provided by his arms.

The scene of the temporary marking a few days ago emerged from the chaos, vivid and fragrant. Like an inexhaustible piece of sugar cane, juicy and plump, he ate it again and again. It was sweet and moist, and he chewed it with a kind of embarrassed shame.

On the one side, he was having unrealistic fantasies about his senior and caregiver. On the other side was the unfamiliar inverted yin and yang love – that urge belonged to an Omega, not an Alpha. His body could change very quickly, but his spirit had not turned this sharp corner. What the body desired was no longer to conquer, plunder, and occupy, but to add a “be” in front of every word, completely transforming into the yielding, submissive party . . . . he was afraid and embarrassed.

The tide of love was flowing, its offensive getting stronger, and his body slid down like mud. He couldn’t stay sitting, staggered to the side of the bed, and fell down.

He lay down and curled up, making his body appear small. This little one, trembling pitifully, endured the throbbing alone.

He suspected that the hospital’s judgment was inaccurate. What about this looked “slight?”

Hours had passed, and there was no sign of the tide ebbing.

Instead, the desire for Huo Tinglan’s pheromones intensified. The fluffy tips emerged like spring grass, a gust of warm wind blew, and they rubbed against each other, itching to the core . . . .

“Huff . . . . huff . . . .”

Ye Ci urgently pulled at his neckline. Due to a few threads of blood, his black and white eyes were not so clear.

Maybe . . . .

An absurd thought popped into his mind.

He couldn’t let Huo-shushu know.

If you didn’t know something, it was almost like it never happened.

He was silent.

Once he had this bad idea, he couldn’t get rid of it.

After another ten minutes, Ye Ci got down from the messy bed and grabbed the exercise booklet as an excuse of last resort.

Unless he didn’t have much business to take care of that day, Huo Tinglan would most likely be working in the study at this time.

Ye Ci tiptoed to Huo Tinglan’s bedroom.

The door was open, and he peeked in. No one was there.

There was no one on either side of the corridor.

Ye Ci swallowed hard, stepped inside, and whispered to himself: “Huo-shushu, are you, are you here?”

Of course, no one responded.

Ye Ci tightened his grip on the exercise book in his hand to gear himself up, and took a few steps inward: “I have, have some questions that I can’t do . . . .”

The chilly smell of tequila lingered in the bedroom. Ye Ci moved his small nose and smelled it so comfortably that his breath even shivered.

It was comfortable to be in the room like this, but he couldn’t stay there forever, in case Huo Tinglan went back to the room to get something or change his clothes. It would be too easy to get caught.

Wait, change clothes . . . .

As if he had grasped something very important, he walked toward the bathroom as if compelled by some kind of spirit.

Huo Tinglan paid attention to appearance and loved cleanliness. In summer, he changed clothes frequently, often wearing one set in the morning and another set in the afternoon, so he didn’t have time to clear away the clothes he changed at noon.

They were all in the laundry basket.

The problem was, on top of the basket of laundry was an item . . . .

Pure black.

Bullet type. ^[3]

Inexplicably . . . . unassuming, yet intriguing.

Ye Ci glanced around from side to side in a daze. He turned his face away suddenly, choked, and was so ashamed that he wanted to kill himself in the bathtub on the spot to show his innocence.

He didn’t sneak in to see this!

By heaven and hell, he didn’t think about it!

Huo-shushu was also strange. He thought that if you sweat, you should change your shirt, but why were underwear also changed twice a day?!

Ye Ci was so shocked that his palms began to sweat, and he didn’t dare to think about getting a shirt anymore. As if he were running a drug ring, he just wanted to get away from the area on the double. But as soon as he turned around, something even more devastating happened.

---

[1] “My heart is as cold as my knife” is an internet term to used express indifference, referring to a marketplace fish butcherer who has been killing fish so long, he is no longer affected by it. ⮐

[2] “Floors” = comment threads, indicated by L1, L2, etc. ⮐

[3] Bullet type: A type of underwear that look like briefs, but tighter. 😉 ⮐

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Chapter Twenty-One<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Three

Ye Ci’s negative reaction was much bigger than Huo Tinglan had imagined.

When he was discharged from the hospital, he was checked again inside and out, and by all indications, he was basically back to normal. The person himself was still listless, obviously thinking about things.

Huo Tinglan apologized to him, and he had accepted it completely. It didn’t look like he dared to be angry or speak out. But when he wanted to take the opportunity to reconcile with Ye Ci again, he would awkwardly shy away. He often wouldn’t say more than a few words, clumsily using “I’m not feeling well” and “I’m sleepy” as excuses to avoid communicating with Huo Tinglan.

It seemed inoffensive but was, in fact, more difficult to deal with than anger.

In order to not over-stimulate him, Huo Tinglan resisted the urge to ask questions and press. After putting this matter on the backburner for a couple of days, the midterm exam papers were sent by Uncle He.

After getting the school’s exam papers, Ye Ci tried his best to dispel the strange emotions that had been haunting him for the past two days, strictly following the school’s exam time to monitor himself. After finishing the sets of test papers in his bedroom, he asked Uncle He for the answers in order to compare scores.

It was easy to decide how to fill in the blanks, and to follow the steps for the major questions of mathematics, physics, and chemistry, but he was not sure about some subjective questions in Chinese and English, especially regarding composition.

If he scored himself low, he would not be reconciled, and if he judged the score too high, he would be lying to himself.

After hesitating for a while, he finally took the papers and looked for Huo-shushu.

“. . . . Huo-shushu.” Ye Ci knocked on the study door.

“Come in.” Huo Tinglan closed a document and gestured at the paper in Ye Ci’s hand. So as not to make him feel awkward, he took the lead and said, “How did you do on the exam?”

“I per, performed well.” Ye Ci pursed his lips.

Huo Tinglan wore a dazzling white shirt today, with an imperial collar and a platinum tie with one side decorated with small stag antlers. He had an Alpha’s unique power and dignity. With eyes as black and clear as water, he was extraordinarily handsome.

Ye Ci was as nervous as a thief, swiftly averting his eyes and staring at his slippers: “That is, some questions, such as composition, I wasn’t sure how to judge . . . . Can you help take a look at it for me?”

“Okay, bring it to me.” Huo Tinglan reached out to pick it up.

The hand was slender and powerful, strong and lean. The fingers and wrist were angular, with slightly convex blue veins on the back. An expensive mechanical watch clasped that wrist, with sapphire glass and a crocodile wristband, and the dial was painted with a magnificent moon phase diagram.

Innately handsome, nourished by money, dazzling, calm, and elegant. It would be difficult for any Omega to resist these charms, but they had fallen into the eyes of the uninitiated, who had just now noticed them.

He’d used his jawbone to grind into the bloody palm of this hand . . . .

Some ill-timed images burst into his mind. Ye Ci’s heart beat straight into his throat, and with his face lowered, he redirected his hand to place the paper on the corner of the table: “Thank, thank you.”

After speaking, and without waiting for Huo Tinglan to respond, he slipped away faster than a wildcat.

Ye Ci returned to the room, and in order to shake off those blush-inducing, ear-warming images that were playing repeatedly in his mind, he went to the terrace to smoke half a pack of cigarettes.

Maybe it was from smoking too much or from crouching for a long time, but his legs trembled when he got up, soft and heavy like dragging two lumps of mud.

He washed hastily, and with the chaotic mind of a teenager, slumped onto the pillow, forcing himself to repeat formulas continuously to expel the unwanted thoughts. Half-dreaming and half-awake, an unbearable dry heat rose up in his body, and the sweet fragrance of vanilla drifted. Ye Ci opened his eyes in a daze, wanting to turn on the air conditioner, but was reluctant to waste the drowsiness he had cultivated with great concentration. He fell into dreamland, at a loss.

And in that dream, it was all . . . .

Huo Tinglan’s hand.

The hand he saw in the study that evening.

With sharp angles and sensual blue veins, like that night, it clasped Ye Ci’s jaw and let him use his jawbone to grind into the palm of that injured hand, and the faint, sweet scent of blood pervaded.

“Baby . . . .”

A seductive double-bass voice.

A tingling pain in his neck.

The feeling of being possessed by an Alpha.

What it was like to be an Omega . . . .

The vague dream abruptly came to an end.

“Wu . . . .”

Ye Ci woke up suddenly.

A foot spasmed across the sheet, making a long, shallow dent in the pure white cotton.

The bedroom was sweet and fragrant, and Ye Ci’s body exuded an abnormal heat, dripping with sweat. His pajamas and even the sheets were soaked through, his face was the color of a spring peach again, and his mind was a bit chaotic.

It was very similar to the experience that night.

It was just a difference of degree.

. . . . This appeared to be a mild and brief period of fever.

He had dreamed of Huo-shushu.

He still . . . .

Was he crazy?!

What was he thinking?!

Like a fish out of water, Ye Ci abruptly sat up, resting his elbows on his knees and covering his hot, embarrassed face with one hand.

He didn’t know what was normal and what was abnormal. He hadn’t had a competent father who could properly guide a boy through adolescence, and the pressure of life during his lingering youth never allowed him the curiosity to explore independently.

He was ashamed, as if he had done a bad thing.

It may have been that his face was too hot and the heat made his eyes sore, because Ye Ci’s eyes were moist and slightly red, holding a trace of water.

He wiped his eyes fiercely and exhaled. With a cold face, he removed the sweat-stained sheets and quilt, kicked off his pajamas, and took them into the bathroom.

As long as the laundry that needed to be washed was thrown into the dirty clothes basket, the laundry room servant would come to collect it the next day. The outer garments were okay for them to deal with, but Ye Ci was too embarrassed to let others touch his underclothes. He had purchased a small jug of laundry detergent, and for shorts and the like, he washed them as soon as possible the day after changing them, and then hung them in an inconspicuous place.

Fortunately, he had been prepared.

He dug out the jug of laundry detergent and scrubbed the sheets with water.

After washing the set, he dared not take it to the terrace to dry, for fear that people would see  and ask him why he was up in the middle of the night cleaning them, so he took two chairs and set them a distance apart to stretch the larger pieces out to dry.

After washing, drying, and changing the bedding, he had worked for over an hour. In addition to the mild fever that still hadn’t gone away, Ye Ci was so tired that he nodded off while changing the quilt. He didn’t care to continue beating himself up, and fell asleep.

The next day.

Ye Ci rarely slept late in the morning.

To Ye Ci’s perception, the brief mild fever from the previous night had subsided and everything was normal.

He was marked by an Alpha in the middle of differentiation and couldn’t bear it in the end, resulting in the repercussions of hormonal disorder, and would have irregular and mild pseudo-fevers in the following days. When he was discharged from the hospital, the doctor told him to keep a few more barrier patches with him, try not to go other places besides home and school until his hormones were stable, and pay attention to his personal safety . . . . As for the treatment of this fever, the first thing was to be patient since the intensity was mild and was not dangerous to his health. It was enough to isolate the pheromones so that they wouldn’t affect others. The second thing was to seek out the Alpha who marked him before for comfort.

Since the active ingredient in the Omega inhibitors on the market was artificial imitation Alpha pheromones, these  “inferior products” would only stimulate the Alpha pheromones remaining in Ye Ci’s body and make him more uncomfortable. So until Huo Tinglan’s temporary mark disappeared, inhibitors were ineffective for Ye Ci.

Of course Ye Ci chose to endure it.

He didn’t go to class for a whole week due to his hospitalization. On Monday the next day, he grabbed a handful of barrier patches from the drawer and stuffed them into his shoulder bag.

One layer was not enough, so he pasted on a second, and two layers weren’t enough, so he pasted on a third.

At last he was done sticking them on.

He got up late, and Huo Tinglan had already left for the company when he went downstairs for breakfast.

Ye Ci heaved a sigh of relief at not meeting him face to face.

Otherwise . . . .

Thinking of that shameless dream, Ye Ci didn’t know what expression he should use to face Huo-shushu.

They were out of control that night.

But Huo-shushu was purely affected by his susceptible period, and returned to normal immediately after it ended. He looked the same as before, still so gentle and decent.

He was the only one who couldn’t control himself, as if he had awakened some deep-rooted bad habits, some dark instinct, a mind full of crooked thoughts and images not fit to be seen.

It was still just a temporary mark for the sake of treatment. He was unexpectedly dwelling on it over and over, and his soul trembled at the thought.

If Huo-shushu saw through him . . . .

He wouldn’t need to find a hole in the ground, just directly find a beam to hang from.

There were two corrected test papers on the table.

The pen marks were handsome and sharp, and the most annotated part was English composition. He crossed out the spelling and grammar mistakes and wrote the correct ones to the side, explaining a few sentence patterns. There were more comments than actual text. After explaining, he did not forget to leave a few words of encouragement, to the effect that he had made obvious progress.

Such an ordinary thing somehow made his eyes sting.

Ye Ci re-read it several times.

The score given by Huo Tinglan was very fair, and he did not deliberately relax his standards in order to indulge him.

He calculated the points and added them together with mathematics, physics, and chemistry for an exciting score.

It was much better than the test at the beginning of school, and his ranking didn’t necessarily have to look good. After all, in a place like Tiancheng Private School, even the slacker students were good enough.

Ye Ci folded the papers and planned to show Ye Hongjun when he visited her at night – if she was not in a bad state and could chat with him for a while.

Aside from his mother, the only person in the world who made him want to share his joy was Huo Tinglan.

Ye Ci stirred the porridge with a spoon in a trance, his cheeks pink and his eyelashes fluttering.

He remembered that Huo Tinglan helped him clean up his mother’s old things and cherished the things he cherished, thought of how Huo Tinglan helped him learn in a roundabout way to maintain his fragile self-esteem, about the words “Three times a day, one tablet at a time” written by Huo Tinglan on the medicine box, about Huo Tinglan tirelessly showing him how to tie his tie over and over again. How he taught him how to eat things he wasn’t familiar with, helped him vent his anger by teaching others a lesson on his behalf, and bloodied his hands for him.

In just two months, Huo Tinglan was so good, but he hadn’t thought about it.

It was too much.

This Huo-shushu was a wealthy heir born with a golden spoon in his mouth, strong-willed but not a bully.

Like the moon in the sky, the snow on the top of the mountain.

It looked cold and distant, unattainable, but what fell into his arms was clear light and a spring breeze.

Ye Ci took a sip of porridge.

It was his favorite seafood porridge, but he couldn’t taste it.

He was thinking about his Huo-shushu. His heart clenched, his ears were burning hot, and he thought about everything that had happened the past two months, but he couldn’t understand why he was dwelling on it.

It was the first awakening of romance.

Love without knowing.

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Chapter Twenty<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-Two

He had thrown himself into the net.

Even a saint couldn’t endure.

Huo Tinglan wrapped his arms around the thin, fresh, and tough young man and buried his canine teeth completely into the back of his neck.

The large amount of aggressive and extremely potent Alpha pheromones were injected without reservation. The heat was scorching, washing through the red and swollen Omega glands.

In the end, they were A-level pheromones, and if the strength was too high, it would affect the pain nerves after injection.

The back of his neck was hot and painful, and even though he had lost the strength in his limbs, Ye Ci still gritted his teeth and struggled. Dizzy and confused, he forcibly twisted his neck to one side, ignoring that Huo Tinglan’s teeth were still wedged in his flesh.

If he twisted at this time, Huo Tinglan feared that the light bite that was easy to heal might open up. 

Huo Tinglan would be heartbroken to death. He had sharp eyes and agile hands, and was quick to hold Ye Ci’s jaw, letting that pointy little jawbone grind into his bloody palm. He ignored the injury and only tightened his grip, reveling in the temporary marking.

“Hold still, bear with it,” Huo Tinglan coaxed in a hoarse voice, the shameless rhetoric that Alphas had used to mark their partners for thousands of years. Even he was not exempt, but he coaxed more affectionately and tenderly, “Just be patient, baby.”

Ye Ci shook, and the slender fingers that were clinging to Huo Tinglan’s shoulders flexed abruptly, tightening as if there was nowhere to vent their strength.

This indulgent title made him more embarrassed than the temporary mark, and almost woke him up from his confusion.

In fact, Huo Tinglan didn’t call him that often. In the last life, Ye Ci was too thin-skinned to bear such strong flirtation. 

It seemed to have been bottled up inside, and as soon as the gates were opened, he kept calling it, his voice low and hoarse like sandpaper against Ye Ci’s ear, filling the atmosphere with heat and shame: “Baby, Xiao Ci . . . . Baby . . . .”

Ye Ci’s ears were red, and he wanted to pull back, but he was restrained.

The fever was surging, and he was being coaxed by the highly compatible Alpha. He was unbearably and inexplicably excited, and even his toes curled.

Mentally, physically . . . . the undifferentiated immature glands had endured too much.

The moment the temporary mark was complete, Ye Ci whined like a kitten from his throat, kicked his bare feet spasmodically, and fainted in Huo Tinglan’s arms.

For susceptible Alphas, a temporary marking on the back of the neck was often just the beginning of a series of intimate behaviors. 

An appetizer.

The physical pain was relieved, but the spirit was not full. On the contrary, it enticed a greedy person to keep going.

Huo Tinglan embraced the bamboo-like youth in his arms and greedily sniffed the scent of spirits blended with vanilla. It was the smell that symbolized the completion of the temporary marking, and it was familiar and unfamiliar. It haunted his longing, and had soothed his mania and relieved his pain countless times.

A certain deep and surging emotion seeped into every breath he breathed. Heaving up and down in his chest like sea lanterns, the madness, the beastly desire, the vicious instincts . . . . gradually merged into monstrous love and shattered into salty white foam.

He held Ye Ci’s thin shoulders, his breathing still heavy and his eyes bloodshot, but with forbearance and love, he laid Ye Ci down flat like a piece of fragile porcelain and closed the collar of his pajamas for him.

Immediately, he grabbed the intercom phone on the side.

. . . . . .

Charity Private Hospital.

East Hospital Building on the third floor.

The newly admitted patient needed to rest. The Huo family had cleared the area, and except for room 305, there was no one in the other wards on the third floor. It was so quiet that you could hear the rustling of the willow branches in the wind outside the window.

Ye Ci had fallen into a deep sleep.

He had inherited Ye Hongjun’s small face. It was cold when he was awake, his countenance was like snow, and it only showed a little bit of childishness when he was sleeping and defenseless.

These two months, he had eaten very regularly and nutritiously. He had gained a few pounds, his bones were no longer so prominent, and his cheeks had a wholesome arc.

In the morning, it was time to wash his face.

Huo Tinglan stood at his side, took off his watch, and rolled up the cuffs of his shirt. He dipped a towel in some warm water and wrung it out, then wiped Ye Ci’s forehead, the corners of his eyes, his cheeks . . . .

For the first time, he had received an A-level Alpha mark. Not to mention an undifferentiated Omega boy, even a fully mature older Omega would have inevitably fallen asleep for a day or two.

The intensity of A-level pheromones was too high, and was destructive to an extent. The body needed to repair itself and assimilate the new information during sleep, and in this way, adverse reactions would be alleviated a lot when the same A-level Alpha marked him next time.

Ye Ci had been asleep for three days. His physical examination results were normal for the moment.

But since he was marked by an Alpha in the middle of differentiation, it was difficult to say whether or not there would be any short-term repercussions. Therefore, doctors recommended that he stay in the hospital for observation for a period of time, so that his hormone fluctuation levels could be monitored 24/7 and treated at any moment.

His face was ticklish and wet . . . . as if he was being licked by a large dog.

Ye Ci frowned, his eyelashes trembled, and he opened his eyes abruptly.

He had slept so long that his awareness was lax, and he blinked a little hazily.

He saw the ceiling, walls, and bed sheets, an expanse of white.

There was also a hand with a few blue veins on the back of it. The cuffs of the fog-blue shirt were rolled flat and smooth. It was a mature man’s hand, but its movements were so soft, wiping his face with a damp towel.

Dazed, he followed the arm with his eyes.

Huo Tinglan was sitting on the edge of the bed looking at him. His eyes were dark, and except for tenderness, no other emotions could be discerned. The rest were buried very deeply.

He was like a frenzied hunter maintaining his calm. Having set up a thousand traps, he lay in the grass, quietly watching, waiting to see which pit the precious cub would fall into, so that he could follow him, pick up the soft bundle, and put it in his pocket.

Memories from before the coma gradually returned.

The family dinner.

Light beer.

Embracing in the back of the car.

. . . . . .

“Huo-shushu,” Ye Ci rubbed his eyes, “Why am I here . . . .”

Before a word could be said, the long-overdue memories from the safe room returned.

Like a metal wire that burned orange-red, the fine point unexpectedly stirred up the ashes into the shining whiteness of hot shame.

The hot pain on the back of his neck, the curled toes, tightly gripping arms and undulating chest muscles, the sweet and presumptuous sound of  “baby” that caressed his ears. “Baby,” “Xiao Ci,” and the intense, suffocating emotion in his eyes. So straightforward, so terribly blunt, like a mad beast that wanted to eat him alive. An Alpha in his susceptible period was actually like that . . . . Ye Ci couldn’t breathe. His chest still seemed to be restrained by a constricting arm, and his face flushed red. He rolled, slamming into the guardrail to avoid Huo Tinglan’s hand that was holding the hot towel. Stirred up like a girl dodging a scoundrel, if he hadn’t been fenced in, he would have rolled to the ground.

Huo Tinglan’s hand froze as if someone had agitated the wound, and he was stunned.

That palm was indeed injured. The bandage had been removed, but four dark red bloody scabs still remained.

Ye Ci glanced at it, and averted his eyes as if burned.

Huo Tinglan withdrew his hand and threw the towel away to show that he wouldn’t touch him, and said in a low voice, “I’m sorry.”

This apology came from the heart.

That night, he really didn’t mean to mark Ye Ci. He had crooked thoughts and wanted to sneak a mouthful of honey, but that was all.

Otherwise he wouldn’t have had to endure so hard at first.

If it wasn’t for Ye Ci coming to his door, perhaps he could have stopped himself from putting that little neck under those fangs dripping with greed . . . .

“I didn’t mean to give you a temporary mark.” Huo Tinglan looked straight at Ye Ci, not begging for leniency, not shirking responsibility, not coercing. The pain of being tormented during the A-level susceptibility period, Ye Ci’s negligence in throwing himself into the net, the gentle care he had shown Ye Ci these past two months . . . . he didn’t mention a word of it.

“I lost control. I’m sorry.”

He only apologized for his own mistakes.

Like a drowning man clinging to driftwood, Ye Ci grasped the metal guard rail on the edge of the bed, alertly watching him from the corner of his eye.

Huo Tinglan had come to the hospital to take care of this person and had not dressed up. With a few strands of hair drooping over his brow, he wore a casual shirt without a tie, with one button undone. His temperament made him seem a few years younger, not in line with the “shushu” that Ye Ci was used to calling him. His straight collar bones gradually disappeared into his collar, and his muscles propped up that fog-blue shirt material, expensive and sensual . . . .

His ears roared, suddenly flushed with blood.

Appropriately dressed, sober expression, honest and sincere tone . . . . Ye Ci turned his face away, as uneasy as if he had looked at a yellow book.

“. . . . Xiao Ci,” Huo Tinglan called to him softly, “I’m really sorry.”

Ye Ci’s Adam’s apple bobbed and he gave an mm-hm, saying faintly, “I don’t blame you.”

He had forcefully broken into the basement during Huo Tinglan’s susceptible period. His intentions were good, but had led to these consequences, and it was difficult to say that he bore no responsibility.

Replace him with any A-level Alpha that night, and it would have been impossible for them to remember not to mark him.

There was nothing to say. He didn’t blame anyone.

“Really,” he emphasized again in a whisper.

Then, without saying a word, without looking at anyone, he picked and rubbed at the metallic paint on the guard rail he couldn’t get through, making his fingers red.

The precious cub froze in place, curled into a small ball, didn’t give a reaction, and didn’t fall into any traps.

There was no telling what was going on in that little head.

He hid himself again.

The possibility of all his previous efforts going down the drain made Huo Tinglan feel a rare anxiety in his heart.

Feeling as if two sharp eyes were patrolling his face like ice chisels, attempting to find a weak point and defeat him in one fell swoop, Ye Ci hurriedly lowered his head, lay down, and wrapped himself with a blanket.

He had experienced the power of Huo-shushu’s insight.

“I’m still, still tired, I want to sleep for a while.” The voice was muffled by the blanket as it urged: “You go, go do your own thing.”

Only a few strands of fluffy black hair poked out from the blanket, laying on the pillow like whiskers.

“Okay.” Huo Tinglan closed his eyes and got up to stand beside the bed, his voice low. “Call me anytime, your phone is on the bedside table, and it is fully charged.” After a pause, he spoke again, “With your current situation, you can be discharged from the hospital as soon as tomorrow. Your school midterm exam was yesterday and today . . . .”

The figure under the blanket moved slightly.

Ye Ci attached great importance to the midterm exam, and had been looking forward to the improvement of his score to give himself a boost.

“. . . . I requested an alternate exam paper.” Huo Tinglan had guessed this. Fearing that Ye Ci would be disappointed, he comforted him in a gentle voice, “The difficulty is very close to the first exam. The scores can be used for reference, and you can take the test yourself once you have time.”

The person under the blanket was silent for a few seconds, as if calming down a certain emotion, and his voice trembled a little when he spoke again: “Thank, thank you, Huo-shushu.”

“You’re welcome.” Huo Tinglan smiled, was quiet for a moment, and leaned over slightly. He lightly touched the ends of Ye Ci’s hair outside the blanket with his knuckles.

Under the blanket . . . .

Ye Ci didn’t notice Huo Tinglan’s small movements, and only covered his two small, thin ears in vain. It seemed that in this way, he could block from his ears the sweet and presumptuous “baby” in his memory, and could contain that electric current that penetrated from the top of his skull, down his spine to the soles of his feet . . . .

Nibbling away until his bones were limp and numb.

But he couldn’t ward it off, couldn’t stop it.

His heart was beating fast.

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Chapter Nineteen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-One

The room was not large. Ye Ci took a few steps closer.

After tossing about all night, it seemed that some threshold had been forcibly lifted, and although his voice was so dry that it even felt unfamiliar, he still expressed himself clearly in the present situation: “Let’s hug again, hug for a while, ba. Huo-shushu . . . . you can’t just, you can’t go on like this . . . .”

Even if subjective feelings of pain were set aside, susceptibility syndrome could cause shock in extreme cases, and the risk was very real.

This was an outdated, absurdly savage mechanism of evolution.

In primitive times, it forced the genetically advanced Alpha to find an Omega that was highly compatible with itself, and insatiably plunder, possess, mark, breed . . . .

For primitive humans where instinct prevailed, this was a positive mechanism.

However, with the birth of civilization, law, and morality, reason and an increasingly rich and meticulous heart and mind thwarted the progress of genetic selfishness.

So much love, so much want.

In the eyes of a lover, a sweetheart who was ignorant of worldly affairs had become a budding flower.

He delicately sniffed and fiddled with it, and sometimes couldn’t help but reach into the core and steal a drop of honey . . . . yet couldn’t bear to break it.

But . . . .

Patience had its limits.

Moreover . . . .

He came to the door himself.

Huo Tinglan lowered his eyes and did not look at Ye Ci. Under his thin, half-closed eyelids, a pair of eyes nervously trembled.

He seemed to be hovering at some critical point.

Burning to the touch.

“I’m, I’m mentally prepared.” Seeing that Huo Tinglan was motionless, Ye Ci took two steps forward and stood in front of him.

His thin neck and hands were white as jade and lined with lake blue pajamas.

Inadvertently or not, he used a kind of “feigned calm” posture that diluted the ambiguity inherent in this mode of treatment: “You, feel free to hug this time, it’s okay. Before, I just wasn’t, wasn’t used to it . . . .”

Before he finished speaking, the world suddenly turned upside down, and the astonishing speed and strength of an A-level Alpha was revealed in this moment. With a bang, Ye Ci was shoved onto the bed. The mattress was soft, and it didn’t hurt, but it was shocking.

“Huo-shushu!” Ye Ci was about to get up, but Huo Tinglan’s hot hand grabbed the back of his neck.

He froze from head to foot.

Male cats would bite the back of a female’s neck at certain times to prevent them from escaping midway, which may be connected to how Omegas were built. Alphas had similar instincts, and would clamp down on an Omega in the same way when engaging in intimacy.

And Omegas cooperated sufficiently to evolve corresponding physiological reflexes. When the back of the neck was restrained by the high-matching Alpha they had established a trusting relationship with, they would fall into a state of surrender that was difficult to resist due to a series of stress responses such as decreased muscle strength . . . . this was very convenient for the Alpha.

“Wu . . . .” Ye Ci gritted his teeth and struggled to move, but could only do so weakly.

Huo Tinglan had also underlined this in that well-selected popular science book on physiological knowledge, but Ye Ci hadn’t read it.

He thought he had a hard enough fist to protect himself, but in reality, he had to pay the price for his arrogance . . . .

He was going to be “bullied.”

As if tormented by some sweet, sharp torture device, the blue veins on Huo Tinglan’s neck became prominent. His teeth were clenched so hard that they rattled.

After everything, he was still persistently enduring.

He forcefully pulled down the back collar of Ye Ci’s pajamas, using his fingertips to slowly and carefully stroke both sides of Ye Ci’s vertebrae to check the maturity of the Omega glands hidden under the smooth skin: It didn’t feel right, too small in size, slow to respond to an Alpha’s touch . . . . they demonstrated a low degree of development, and even a temporary mark could cause damage.

After being married for so long, this was actually the first time he had directly touched it.

The warm touch made both of them shudder at the same time.

Huo Tinglan couldn’t control his strength, and his force was rough.

Therefore, Ye Ci’s feedback came very quickly.

On both sides of his spine, the Omega glands were positively glowing with an unnatural peach-pink color. Driven by the blood vessels under the skin, they pulsed weakly and regularly, exuding a surging, extraordinarily appealing aroma.

— This was a testament to their responsiveness to an Alpha.

And the extent of their softening and volume was also in the range that could withstand temporary marking.

Before, Huo Tinglan had been looking for an opportunity to take Ye Ci to do a full set of examinations on the direction of his Omega development, but knowing that Ye Ci was thin-skinned, he didn’t mention it. He didn’t expect to do a preliminary inspection in a more straightforward way at this time.

Due to being slender and having little fat, Ye Ci’s skin looked very thin.

His Omega glands were stimulated and swollen, like a ripe fruit.

The thin skin had to work hard to cover them, pitifully red and swollen, luring people to bite.

The scent was also quite . . . .

Mixed with the familiar scent of vanilla was a thin layer of fishy sweetness.

That was the smell of desire.

“Huo-shushu . . . .”

With the heat of the Omega glands rising, and unprecedented restlessness swept through his whole body.

His bones were crumbling.

Huo Tinglan need not restrain him. He couldn’t struggle to break free.

He didn’t know what was going on. Compared to when he had a high fever, he had less energy, his thoughts were more chaotic, and the saturation of the colors in his field of vision had risen. Even the soft cream-colored material covering the walls and floor had a strange splendor under the light.

The sore, indescribable feeling in his abdomen from before also struck again.

Ye Ci was so restless with anxiety that he kept looking back, wanting to see what was going on at the back of his neck, like a stupid cat chasing its tail.

Of course he couldn’t see it.

Then he could only ask Huo Tinglan for help.

No matter how slow he was, he was still aware of who the culprit was behind this series of changes.

But he could only turn to the culprit for help.

“Huo-shushu . . . . what, what’s happening to me . . . .”

Huo Tinglan was silent, and his Adam’s apple rolled.

Originally, he consoled himself with empty hopes to quench his thirst, and was able to speak fluently.

But Ye Ci was too stimulated at this juncture, and unexpectedly entered the first phase of fever . . . .

Yet again, he innocently called out to him.

Huo Tinglan looked at the back of Ye Ci’s neck with burning eyes, so hot that they could burn through.

“Huo-shushu, I’m not, I’m not feeling well . . . . you just, just hug me, don’t, don’t do anything else . . . . okay?”

In order to break free, Ye Ci twisted like a willow swaying in the wind, and like tree sap, wrung out a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

He helplessly called out to that nice gentleman in his mind, stammering for mercy, wanting to awaken Huo Tinglan’s dormant “conscience” and reason. There was no turning back. The moment he stepped into the safe room, the matter was a foregone conclusion. But he had thought he would be shown mercy.

The lingering heat of that high fever was finally accompanied by the “Huo-shushu” and “hug me” that his brain clipped out without permission, igniting everything that was flammable in Huo Tinglan’s body.

There was a roaring in his ears, his vision exploded into white snow, and his blood surged. When he came back to his senses, his teeth had pierced the skin, wedged into the glands behind Ye Ci’s neck, and injected a small stream of pheromones.

Rich tequila blended with sweet vanilla to produce a wonderful chemical reaction. A brand new compound substance was derived, releasing an aroma that was somewhere between the two pheromones, but not quite like either.

This derivative, which symbolized a temporary mark, could solve the susceptibility period problem at the root.

Huo Tinglan took a deep breath. The torturous pain, the massive jumble of information brought by the hyper-sensitivity of the five senses, and the frenzied and chaotic thoughts were all cut down by a lot in an instant.

As comfortable as if he had been reborn.

The tip of his nose brushed the ends of Ye Ci’s sweaty hair. Huo Tinglan lowered his eyes and gently turned Ye Ci’s face, which was buried in a pillow.

Ye Ci’s cheeks were as pink as a spring peach.

An Omega’s initial fever would usually be quite severe, and their mental state would be affected. The current Ye Ci was a good example. With his eyes wide open, his blank pupils were filled with a kind of drunken emptiness, clearly not lucid.

Thanks to this lack of sobriety, his last bit of pretense completely disappeared. Not only did he forget that he used to be an Alpha, he even forgot to cover up his physical attraction, his desire for Huo Tinglan.

The misty expression in his eyes was thus completely exposed.

The temporary marking was only carried out halfway, and the amount of Alpha pheromones injected was still very small.

Originally, Huo Tinglan may have stopped here. After all, the symptoms had been relieved a lot. But right now, he had to use all the self-control he had to resist the urge to grasp Ye Ci and directly eat him clean. He crushed the impulse.

He turned Ye Ci over and put one hand next to his ear, teasing the cute drunken shrimp as he asked in a low voice, “Who am I?”

“You, you are Huo-shushu . . . .” Ye Ci answered honestly. His nose twitched, smelling him comfortably from a short, safe distance.

Good boy, even when he wasn’t sober, he hadn’t forgotten to use honorifics.

“Who is Huo-shushu to you?”

“He’s . . . . shushu.”

“Wrong.”

Ye Ci got stuck. Hesitating, he answered tentatively: “Or, the per, person who received a marriage certificate . . . .”

“And the person who received a marriage certificate with you is your what?”

“But –” Although Ye Ci was not sober, he instinctively avoided this pointed question, rambling, “Me, me and Huo-shushu are married . . . . it’s, it’s a fake marriage, it doesn’t count . . . .”

“There is no fake marriage at the legal level. Our marriage relationship is real and valid, “ Huo Tinglan said, his voice quiet and deep.

“. . . . . .”

Ye Ci didn’t speak.

“The person you have received a marriage certificate with, is your what?” Huo Tinglan repeated this question hoarsely.

He was unusually persistent, as if asking for a name for what he was on the verge of doing.

The obvious answer was that the Alpha with the marriage certificate was the husband.

Even kindergarten children knew this sort of common sense. Ye Ci raised his clear and beautiful eyes, a little shy, and looked at Huo Tinglan again a bit evasively. 

“It’s your husband,” Huo Tinglan said word by word.

The next second, Huo Tinglan’s chest sank down – –

Ye Ci was so embarrassed that he wanted to escape Huo Tinglan’s predatory gaze, but there was nowhere to hide.

That little head turned in confusion, dizzy and bewildered, and plunged into his arms.

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Chapter Eighteen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty

Huo Tinglan revealed a rare assertiveness, and brazenly competed with Ye Ci to cover his abdomen again with the palm of his hand.

Ye Ci was too thin, with a narrow waist and belly, as if he was trying to lure him in to hold it, to induce him to do evil.

“. . . . Do you know what’s in your stomach?”

His voice was terribly hoarse.

There was softness under the tips of his fingers.

Due to Omega development, Ye Ci’s originally thin and tight abdomen was covered with a thin layer of fat.

Looking at it with your eyes, you might not be able to see it, but the smooth, suet-like touch didn’t lie, existing at the same time as the toughness of muscle . . . .

Like soft velvet wrapped around gold.

It could really drive him to his death.

At this time, because the abdominal cavity was stimulated, the sweetness of vanilla was suddenly stronger.

— His beloved Omega was throbbing, only half-understanding, and longing for him.

This realization made Huo Tinglan’s arm under his silver suit tremble with excitement, and the bridge of his nose was dashed with sweat. Even his lips and eyes seemed to be stirred by the influx of blood, synchronizing with the rhythm of his heart.

“In the, in the stomach is –” Ye Ci didn’t dare to look directly at the terrifying guess in his heart, and only incoherently tried to break Huo Tinglan’s grip. In his haste, he lost control of his hand strength, and a few red and white finger marks were printed on Huo Tinglan’s wrist like cat scratches. “Huo-shushu, let, let go for a bit . . . .”

All at once, his stomach spasmed and thrashed like a contraction.

It felt strange, indescribable. With a huge sense of shame, Ye Ci’s breath shook, and his clear voice was faintly hoarse: “Let go!”

He was like a wolverine kitten carried off by a beast to its lair to be licked and drooled over. Frightened and pitiful, its fluff was matted down, and it was about to be overwhelmed.

Whether it was his mental state, pheromone-excessive glands, physical strength, or something else . . . . he was already at his limit.

Moreover, there was also a question of whether the immature Omega glands that had not yet been differentiated could withstand a bite from an A-level Alpha.

He couldn’t go any further.

Ye Ci couldn’t bear it.

He had asked for enough tonight.

Huo Tinglan’s eyes were bloodshot, his jaw clenched sharply as he fixed his eyes on Ye Ci. His precarious sanity was entangled with an Alpha’s vicious instincts. He was like a tiger that coveted fresh meat, very greedy, hungry and confused, but he clenched his fists and restrained his frantic, scorching emotions. Slowly releasing his restraints, he let his Omega escape from his arms like he was running for his life, avoiding him at a distance. Enduring the pain of the hunger, thirst, and loss was tantamount to mental whiplash for an Alpha.

. . . . . .

Ye Ci used a cool summer quilt to wrap himself into a chrysalis, a single hand emerging to hold his phone.

He glanced at the time and closed his eyes.

Tomorrow was Monday. With a morning of mathematics, physics, and chemistry, his brain was going to be fried.

He tried forcing himself to fall asleep, but his brows were unconsciously furrowed, his face like a bun with eighteen pleats.

A few minutes later, Ye Ci opened his eyes in discouragement, only to realize that his face was sore.

2:37.

After calculating the remaining time he had left to sleep, he couldn’t sleep at all.

He had been restless since he escaped from the study. He’d crouched on the terrace to empty a pack of cigarettes, his legs shaking. His pulse didn’t slow down, and his heart ached.

Huo Tinglan didn’t seek him out again, and he also didn’t take the initiative to talk.

There was still an illusory sensation in his abdomen, and the heat of Huo Tinglan’s palm still seemed to be scorching him.

“. . . . . .”

Ye Ci turned over anxiously, his face buried in the pillow. His ears were red, his black hair messy, and he didn’t know how many times he had tossed and turned under the quilt.

He had run out. He couldn’t do it if he didn’t run. Something was so wrong with Huo Tinglan tonight.

He could comprehend that something wasn’t right. After all, when an Alpha was susceptible, sometimes they would act in spite of themselves. Especially with high-level Alphas, it was not uncommon for them to lose control, and no matter how strong their willpower was, there was a limit.

But Huo-shushu at that time also really . . . .everyone would say it was excessive . . . .

Ye Ci grabbed the edge of the quilt, pulled it up, and wrapped his head fiercely, as if he could wipe out those messy thoughts in one go.

Too much was too much.

The moment he left the study, he didn’t have many thoughts about escaping, but was more worried and guilty.

He had run away in a hurry, but after thinking about it, Huo Tinglan’s appearance at that time seemed a little wrong.

. . . . In the end, what was wrong?

Ye Ci tried hard to recall.

The only thing that came to mind was a wrist with his fingerprints on it, and a pair of unhinged black eyes trying hard to maintain self-control.

He realized in hindsight that, in fact, even if he hadn’t struggled so desperately, Huo Tinglan wouldn’t have done more.

Ye Ci grabbed his hair, kicked off the quilt, and put on his shoes.

If he didn’t go take a look, his conscience would sting.

The sconce lights along the walls of the hallways were lit, giving off soft halos of illumination.

Huo Tinglan’s bedroom door was left open, revealing a dark gap, and it didn’t look like anyone was sleeping inside.

Ye Ci hesitated for a while, and it was hard to say whether he was more worried or temporarily relieved. He quietly opened the door a little wider, took two steps in, and looked in the direction of the bed.

The light from the wall sconces peeked through.

The unnecessarily large bed was a mess. The graphite satin sheets were twisted up like two thin, sodden towels, and seemed to be ripped in a few places, as if the person lying on them suddenly went mad. On the bedside table was an empty syringe that had been broken in two. There were also several colorful medicine bottles and packages lying or standing, and one bottle was not screwed shut. Small white pills were spilled all over the ground, and the bottle was compressed strangely, as if the person who opened it had lost control of their grip strength.

And he had been told not to take medicine indiscriminately . . . .

This scene didn’t look like a normal medication routine.

The bridge of his nose was suddenly sore and painful, and Ye Ci rushed to the first floor.

On the first floor, Uncle He’s housekeeper’s room was also empty with the door wide open, the blanket on the bed flung aside — it seemed he was in a hurry to get up from the middle of sleep.

The Huo residence was too big. Ye Ci aimlessly pushed open doors to search, and made two calls to Huo Tinglan and Uncle He, but both numbers were out of the service area.

Would the hospital’s signal be so bad?

Ye Ci frowned.

He knew that sometimes high-level Alphas wanted to avoid losing control and hurting people during their susceptible period, and would ask others to help lock them up while they were still sane.

When he was an Alpha, there were a few times when the susceptible period was particularly severe and he was locked in the bathroom of the old house by Ye Hongjun. Once, he was so manic that he kicked the door.

In Huo-shushu’s case, maybe there was a “safe room” . . . .

Ye Ci turned his head and ran towards the stairs leading to the basement.

Sure enough, the stairwell lights were on. He was halfway down when he happened to bump into Uncle He coming around the corner, his highly professional face revealing a rare apprehension.

“Is Huo, Huo-shushu down there?” Ye Ci was out of breath.

Uncle He was stunned for a moment. He had been ordered to cover up this matter, and originally planned to say that Mr. Huo had gone to a special medical institution to recuperate for a few days. He didn’t expect someone to stop him in the basement. In the current situation, to insist that Mr. Huo was not at home would be no different than making a fool of himself. He gave a hollow smile and deliberately avoided the question: “This . . . . It is so late, and Young Master Ye still hasn’t slept. You have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning, otherwise you will . . . .”

“Then, then he’s here.” Ye Ci came to a conclusion and deftly walked around Uncle He.

“Young Master Ye, ai, Young Master Ye!” Uncle He was alarmed and hurriedly chased after him.

There were also many rooms on the basement floor, but Ye Ci just looked straight at one that was different, made of metal. He didn’t need to touch it to know that it was thick and sturdy, appearing at first glance like the door of a vault.

He leaned over to fumble for the switch, and comforted: “I won’t, won’t make it difficult for you, I’ll say that I, I found it myself. That, that is actually the truth..”

Uncle He hesitated.

Would it not be difficult to face Mr. Huo?

It was hard to say.

He wasn’t sure if he should help the other person achieve his goal.

The husband and wife had been married for so long, and without mentioning that they slept in different rooms, they usually didn’t even speak a word of affection. The polite greetings and civility, he saw it all with his own eyes. Moreover, Mr. Huo was in such pain during his susceptible period, and locked himself up to endure it. But anyone with eyes could see that Mr. Huo was incredibly happy with this marriage, and it was Young Master Ye who was unwilling. It was good that he finally sought him out himself, plus this deep concern . . . .

Besides, this Young Master Ye could hop faster than a rabbit, how could this handful of old bones stop him?

“This, ai, all right . . . .” Seeing Ye Ci tinkering at the door for a long time without being able to do anything, Uncle He pushed him aside. With a grim expression on his face, he silently showed Ye Ci how to open the door.

The door opened a crack.

Although the safe room had an independent ventilation system, the aroma of tequila that rushed to his face was still as rich as the real thing. In just one breath, his lungs seemed to be filled with potent alcohol.

The walls and floor were covered with a soft, cotton-like material to prevent Huo Tinglan from hurting himself when he went mad.

There was no signal in the room, but it was equipped with emergency contact equipment that could call several internal numbers in the Huo residence, Huo Tinglan’s parents’ phone number, and those of the city’s emergency centers.

Huo Tinglan sat beside the bed facing him. His legs were spread apart, his elbows resting on his knees, like a silent and tyrannical stone statue.

Hearing the door open, he turned his head and stared at Ye Ci, who was standing at the door. His eyes were as dark as two black holes, burning with passion.

Passion, mixed with greed, possessiveness, thirst, infatuation . . . . concentrated and dense, burned black as pitch.

A used barrier patch stuck to the glands on the back of his neck.

Damp, wrinkled, printed with cyan blue flowers, full of Omega pheromones and sweat. Secretly, paradoxically, with an almost twisted erotic implication, it was stuck to the Alpha’s neck.

In the more than two hours since Ye Ci had left him, he had sat in this safe room, isolated from the world as he repeatedly rubbed the barrier patch to soothe his insatiable restlessness and avoid hurting his still innocent lover.

No one would believe that the dignified head of the Huo family actually satisfied himself with a barrier patch he had used deception and thievery to get his hands on.

Thankfully, most of the patch was covered by his collar.

Ye Ci’s legs were trembling, and he swallowed hard. Against the storm of high-potency Alpha pheromones, he took a step inside the door.

From this angle, he could only see Huo Tinglan’s head hanging between his knees.

Both hands were bandaged, and blood was oozing from his palms.

His fists were clenched.

The muscles in Huo Tinglan’s jaw trembled terribly, and two perfunctory words were squeezed out from between his teeth: “Go back.”

Translator’s Note: A big thanks goes out to Kay for their Kofi donation! As new to this as I am, I’ve never received a donation before, so you’ve made this translator’s day!

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Chapter Seventeen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Nineteen

The still immature Omega glands had continuously released high concentrations of pheromones for an hour. They were already sore and exhausted, and his limbs also felt weak, as if they had been drained.

. . . . He, he still wanted it?!

Ye Ci was stunned, and this sense of crisis was long overdue.

Like a sly falcon peeking over a small nest, the cub was coaxed to leave the nest, and when he left, there was nowhere to hide.

Ye Ci’s mind was in chaos. He swallowed dryly and tried to calm down: “My homework is un, unfinished. There’s still one set of papers.”

He used his studies as a shield.

Learning was his top priority – Huo Tinglan said it himself when he disciplined him.

He wasn’t going back on his word and stopping the treatment of the susceptible period symptoms, he just wanted to take a breather, to have peace quiet, even for an hour or two. It was too soon – – he couldn’t figure out what went wrong, why it didn’t work, but it was just . . . . too soon.

“I’m aware.”

Huo Tinglan nodded. His eyes were black with undistinguishable emotions.

“I’m taking the midterm exam soon, I can’t, I can’t be lazy.”

“En.”

That was unexpectedly reasonable.

“I’ll first . . . . go write.”

Ye Ci let out an internal sigh of relief.

“En.”

It was an easy negotiation.

. . . . . .

Ten minutes later.

There was a set of physics papers spread out on the desk. Ye Ci sat there at the desk, leaning his forehead in the palm of his hand. A few locks of black hair were tucked between his fingers to ease his embarrassment, and his head was ducked low so that the tip of his nose was almost brushing the paper.

The large swivel chair was barely able to seat the two of them.

Behind him, Huo Tinglan opened a pair of long, straight legs and clamped him firmly, and his rogue arms wrapped around his thin waist and abdomen, making him unable to move.

Huo Tinglan let him come to the study to do his homework.

But no one could have imagined that it would be written in such a way.

The mature Alpha’s frame was tall and straight, and Ye Ci, whose differentiation had stagnated in the middle, was thin and slender. Trapped in Huo Tinglan’s arms and completely covered, it didn’t matter how hard he tried to seem indifferent. He could only appear helpless.

He had obtained permission before and, thinking that he could finish writing the remaining set of papers in a hurry, his guard was relaxed. Unexpectedly, Huo Tinglan hung behind him without saying a word, and locked the door as soon as he stepped into the study. Half of him still maintained the demeanor of a noble gentleman, and half of him had become foolish and clingy.

He had drawn close to Ye Ci through deception, and his eyes were full of apology. He spoke as if to talk things through, but the heat splashed on Ye Ci’s ear was terrifyingly hot: “Sorry, this time the symptoms are more stubborn. I thought I would last until you finished writing the paper . . . . Another ten minutes of treatment? . . . .”

“Why are you . . . .” Ye Ci opened his lips slightly, stunned and pitiful.

Half the words were swallowed back.

Why was he like this?

“Sorry, I still scared you . . . .” Ye Ci didn’t say a word, and seemed to be reviewing something silently. Huo Tinglan gave a light, self-deprecating smile, as if he was ashamed of not being a gentleman during his susceptible period. He didn’t give Ye Ci a chance to recover, and left his lofty airs in the dust to plead in a soft tone that was almost embarrassing: “You write the paper as usual, just pretend that I’m not here . . . . is that okay?”

Ye Ci was kind, soft-hearted, and didn’t get enough love. When others treated him well, he was overwhelmed, and could not wait to pay it back. In the previous life, Huo Tinglan was also like this, and there were endless ways to break the defenses around Ye Ci’s heart, harmless but shameless.

He met Ye Ci at a race. He wasn’t that keen on formula racing, and was originally there to kill time. However, his eyes were scorched by the silver-white race car that was shining like a meteor on the track. That marvelous handling, the courage to turn quickly, the precise and decisive judgment, and the madness that was faintly revealed in its pursuit. It made Huo Tinglan think that the racer in the car was a young and vigorous Alpha, a fierce little wolf dog with sharp teeth and claws.

He didn’t expect . . . .

The contrast was too great.

Formula racing was an extremely physical sport. If nothing else, the centrifugal force of up to ten kilograms could break the neck of the racer when the car was taking a corner quickly. Therefore, formula racing was the kingdom of Alphas, and even a Beta was rare, not to mention the weaker Omega. The slender necks and weak muscles of Omegas may not be able to withstand even a single turn. They just dressed up nicely and appeared on the field as “racing babies” to liven up the atmosphere.

The thin, beautiful Omega racer mingled with a group of beefy Alphas, looking out of place.

But also firmly attracted Huo Tinglan’s gaze like a magnet.

He couldn’t help chasing after him.

Of course, Ye Ci’s presence on the racing circuit was not by chance.

Ye Ci became a race car driver half due to his false Alpha differentiation. The three year high-level Alpha differentiation period in his youth laid an excellent foundation for his physique, and although he appeared slender, his muscle strength was quite high. The other half was due to his staggering amount of training, in which he would do all kinds of extremely high-intensity endurance training in the off season – he seemed to enjoy the quiet state of a blank mind after physical exhaustion.

He was just such a person.

As fierce as a wolf dog on the track.

In the face of the public, he was taciturn and kept to himself.

After experiencing a half-year-long pursuit using various methods, only in front of Huo Tinglan was he peeled open bit by bit, revealing a soft and sweet core.

It was terribly soft.

Clever and sticky.

Just right for him.

Huo Tinglan was perfectly happy to fall head first.

It was worth another half a year.

Twenty-two-year-old Ye Ci was much colder and harder to approach than he was as an eighteen-year-old.

Therefore, now it was like Huo Tinglan was turning on a cheat, using that full-level experience to pursue the lover who was at present pure and innocent.

Really pure, too pure. He more or less took advantage of this innocence.

But so what?

He would do a hundred times better for Ye Ci, be totally devoted to him, love him. Even if everything was under false pretenses, there was no falsehood in his heart.

He readily apologized, his words sincere, his fierce and handsome face softened by rare guilt.

His body was like a beast, and he grasped the inexperienced boy in his arms, clamping him tightly. He dragged him to the swivel chair and squeezed him to the point that his face and ears were red, then sanctimoniously urged him to write physics problems.

The alpha hormones secreted in excess during the susceptible period finally stimulated all the evil in his bones. His lost and found lover was in his arms. He loved him so much that his heart hurt, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Huo Tinglan breathed heavily, and the hot air containing rich pheromones repeatedly gusted against the back of Ye Ci’s neck, forcing the already exhausted Omega glands to pump out more sweetness.

Ye Ci was holding a gel pen that was slippery and covered in sweat. It quickly fell, leaving his mind and face blank.

He moved forward quietly, very slowly, trying to steal a little space, one second of respite. But the iron-strong arms over his waist and abdomen were more vigilant than he imagined, and they suddenly pulled back, making the embrace even tighter.

Huo Tinglan had changed.

It was true that an Alpha’s temperament changed greatly during the susceptible period, but this . . . .

Ye Ci’s brain was working hard.

Not to mention how different it was from when they first met, but even compared to a few hours ago, it was completely different.

Just as if . . . .

The culture and refinement from before was all pretend.

No.

Don’t speculate about Mr. Huo like that.

In order to vent the violence that had nowhere to go, Ye Ci’s hand on his forehead clenched into a fist. His knuckles were blueish-white with the force, and he almost lost a few hairs.

Suddenly, Huo Tinglan asked in a low voice, “Why aren’t you writing?”

He seemed to be trying to maintain the pretense of “just add treatment to doing homework,” and knowingly asked, “You can’t?”

Ye Ci nodded casually: “En.”

“The first multiple choice question is to apply . . . .” Huo Tinglan repeated the physics formula, and the vibrations of his Adam’s apple and chest were transmitted to Ye Ci’s back. Even his insides felt itchy. Ye Ci’s spine swiftly softened, and if it wasn’t for being firmly sandwiched between two long legs, he feared he would have slipped under the table.

There was one thing that Ye Ci refused to admit, or to be more precise, didn’t even think about –

Their genes were 100% compatible, and Huo Tinglan’s pheromones were absolutely attractive to him.

The fierce and fragrant scent of tequila gusting over and over against the back of his neck, he seemed to . . . . like it.

He couldn’t suppress his blush or his heartbeat.

So strange.

“Do you understand,” Huo Tinglan’s eyes were dark, looking askance at him, “what to select?”

“Select,” Ye Ci was off in another world and looked towards the cover of the test paper, startled. “I don’t know . . . . that one, C.”

The first one to rule out was always C.

“Didn’t you listen to anything?” Huo Tinglan asked knowingly.

Ye Ci desperately put on a cold and sharp face, and shirked the responsibility: “My stomach is not, not very comfortable, so, so I wasn’t listening.”

He was not very good at lying, and this was not a lie.

His stomach really was uncomfortable, and it started when he was hugged by Huo Tinglan on the way home, getting heavier and heavier, increasing until now. Saying it hurt was not very accurate. It was more like soreness or tightness. Many subtle discomforts were intertwined and nibbling away at him, making him want to put his hands on his stomach and scratch a couple of times.

“Did you eat something bad?” Huo Tinglan frowned.

“No, just . . . . I, I don’t know.” Ye Ci twisted uncomfortably. “Still, still not finished? It should have been . . . . ten minutes.”

After he finished speaking, a large warm hand slid down his stomach, accurately covering the uncomfortable spot in his abdomen.

“It’s uncomfortable here?” Huo Tinglan confirmed.

“. . . . . . En.”

Huo Tinglan hooked his lips.

Under his palm, thin, soft skin covered the newly developed cavity.

Nerve hyperactivity, mucous membrane hyperemia . . . .

The series of changes made to the inside of the cavity produced a sore itching that could be compared to a slight pain.

This was a reaction unique to Omegas, preparing for the impending mark.

Ye Ci was unfamiliar with this kind of experience, so he didn’t understand . . . .

There was an “uncomfortable” sort of emotion called desire.

He didn’t understand anything, didn’t even realize that he had been seduced by Huo Tinglan. He was too shy and just wanted to get back to “normal.”

“It’s even worse, don’t . . . .” Ye Ci couldn’t take it any longer. Clamping Huo Tinglan’s wrist and pulling it to the side, he gritted his teeth and adopted an unyielding attitude.

---

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Chapter Sixteen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Eighteen

– – This is the susceptible period.

After Huo Tinglan finished speaking, the car was so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

Since the early stages of the susceptible period to the present, he had postponed the official susceptible period for more than a month by relying on the pheromones he obtained from his daily interactions with Ye Ci, and now there was finally no way to push it back.

The drunkenness from the 6% light beer had been washed away, and Ye Ci woke up with a fright. His eyes wandered, and he licked his dry lips, stammering and not knowing what to say.

In the past month, he and Huo Tinglan had gotten along harmoniously, and he almost forgot about the fact that he was Huo Tinglan’s human medicine jar.

To help Huo Tinglan delay the susceptible period, he gave him a pillow.

He even let Huo Tinglan smell the back of his neck.

After that, he spent several hours with Huo Tinglan in the study every day.

He could accept this much, which was equal to the requirements in the agreement.

The issue was . . . . 

After the susceptible period officially began, would these things be enough?

If they weren’t, to what extent would it be enough?

After all, Huo Tinglan himself said that this susceptibility period was particularly serious for some reason.

When Ye Ci was at war with himself, a deep laugh sounded in the car.

“Don’t be afraid.” Huo Tinglan rubbed the pale blue blood vessels that were throbbing on his forehead. The furrow between his eyebrows deepened, but he endured it and reassured him with restraint: “I don’t need your help this time.”

“But,” Ye Ci swallowed and said with a dry mouth, “for, for more than a month, I have been helping . . . .”

Huo Tinglan sighed: “That was the early stages of susceptibility, and it was mild. This time, it won’t work.”

The sweet scent of vanilla silently diffused throughout the car.

Sweet and light.

Mixed with tonight’s particularly strong fragrance of tequila, it was difficult to detect it immediately.

Omega gland differentiation was a long process that often lasted the entire puberty of adolescents, and it generally took two to four years for the complete set of Omega organs to develop to maturity.

Ye Ci’s situation was special. The differentiation would be faster, but it would not come for a year.

In other words, he was not quite a full-fledged Omega yet. Therefore, the concentration of pheromones in their natural state was lower than the normal level, and the aroma was also weak, like a flower bud that would not bloom.

With such a pheromone level, it was fine to deal with the early stages of susceptibility, but this time, it was really unlikely.

“Your pheromones are too weak,” Huo Tinglan said truthfully.

Ye Ci was anxious: “Then how can they be concentrated?”

“Don’t ask.” Huo Tinglan laughed at himself, his tone soft and helpless. “I knew I shouldn’t be in the same car with you . . . . I didn’t plan to tell you. It’s been like this for over ten years, and this time will be nothing. When you get home, go back to your room . . . .” He paused. “Don’t worry about me.”

As he was talking, it was probably because his head hurt too much that he gasped slightly.

Almost inaudible, the hiss was lighter than a gust of wind, but it firmly impacted the soft part of Ye Ci’s heart and caused its swaying balance to tilt to one side with a bang.

Such a good Huo-shushu.

Huo-shushu was so kind to him . . . .

Blood rushed to Ye Ci’s face, and words that could not be beaten out of him rose from his warm chest and agitated the boy’s spirit. He briefly broke through the restraint of his shyness to blurt out: “Does phys, physical contact work?”

“Are you sure?” Huo Tinglan looked up, and a faint smile flashed in his dark eyes. Gently and apologetically, he warned his young lover: “I might need to hug you . . . . and my personality will be different than usual.”

Alphas would become paranoid, jealous, and clingy, and change in temperament during the susceptible period.

Huo Tinglan’s eyes were bloodshot in pain, but his expression remained patient.

He looked . . . . normal.

Ye Ci himself had been an A-level Alpha for three years. He felt that he was more irritable than Huo Tinglan during the susceptible period, and much more gloomy. In comparison, Huo Tinglan was very pure and harmless.

But, in fact . . . .

The huge gap between A+ and A-level was unknown to a high school student such as Ye Ci, who lacked physiological knowledge. Huo Tinglan was enduring an emotional storm that was a hundred times stronger than his own back then.

So, for an A+ grade Alpha in his susceptible period to look normal . . . . it was the biggest abnormality.

Ye Ci was ashamed in hindsight, and almost bit his tongue. “I’m . . . . I’m sure.”

After he finished speaking, he didn’t dare to look at Huo Tinglan again, and turned his head to look in front of him.

– – At some point, the privacy windows between the front and rear cabins had been switched from transparent to milky white.

Ye Ci was so nervous that his eyes went still, and he stared straight ahead at the window, not noticing the subtlety of it.

The rustling sound of suit fabric rubbed against his ears.

They were separated by a distance . . . .

And that distance was shrinking.

In the corner of Ye Ci’s sight, an arm wrapped in silver-gray fabric stretched out.

Huo Tinglan’s voice sounded above his head, low and magnetic, along with the heat exhaled from his lips against his outer ear –

“Hug Shushu.”

Ye Ci’s ears turned red, and he didn’t move.

Huo Tinglan approached further, his chest hard and supple, slowly but firmly pressing against him.

A hug.

Ye Ci turned his face away in embarrassment.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had been hugged by someone, or by whom.

Probably Ye Hongjun. Except for his mother, he was unlikely to let anyone else hug him.

But he couldn’t really remember when that was.

Most boys in their teens resisted intimacy with others, and avoided tender feelings as if they were snakes and scorpions, for fear of hurting their fragile rebelliousness.

Luckily, Huo Tinglan didn’t hold him tightly, and only rested against Ye Ci’s thin back. Like a heavy bough of pear blossoms lovingly hugging a bunch of new red haitang, unable to bear crushing it.

The fragrance of tequila pressed down on Ye Ci, and it was as heavy as an attack.

Ye Ci always took for granted putting himself in the position of a healer, but forgot that the pheromones between Alpha and Omega was never a one-way effect.

His Omega glands were densely covered in the fragrance of tequila.

The skilled Alpha pheromones solicited and plundered the Omega’s juvenile glands with ease and cunning. They were too inexperienced, and after being provoked a few times, they released a high concentration of pheromones without reservation. The sweetness of vanilla bubbled out, thick as sap, and set off a chain reaction —-

With just a hug, the vertebrae that held up his body seemed to disintegrate. Ye Ci was paralyzed, unable to raise his head, so he could only bury his cheeks against Huo Tinglan’s shoulder and gasp for breath. The heat from his nose and mouth dampened the fabric.

“Huo-shushu . . . .” He whispered, begging for mercy.

He was too ignorant, and didn’t even know what he was begging for mercy from. He just followed his instincts and refused to easily fall into the trap of the Alpha’s unrestrained eroticism.

“En?”

His unhurried voice sounded.

Huo Tinglan slowly tightened his arms. His strength was like cast iron, suppressing Ye Ci’s weak struggles.

“. . . . Why is this still attached?” In order to prevent possible withdrawal, he blocked the conversation and changed the subject with a glance at the back of Ye Ci’s neck. “The scent will be lighter this way.”

A narrow white strip peeked out from under Ye Ci’s formalwear, slightly wrinkled and damp, and printed with fine, water-blue flowers. It was a scent-blocking patch. Ye Ci had worn it for the whole day and forgot to replace it. It was ineffective. Not only could it not stop the scent, but because it was full of pheromones, the smell was stronger there than in other places.

Barrier patches were a private thing for Omegas.

Ye Ci was generally aware of this.

But he may not be as sensitive as other Omegas. After all, he was not so conscious of being an Omega . . . .

Huo Tinglan’s eyes darkened, and he tore off the patch. Craftily clenching it into his hand, he confiscated the small trophy.

Like a mad dog charging left and right at the border of sanity, the possessiveness and erotic desire were given a touch of comfort, and the madness was slightly reduced.

He did this same thing last time, but Ye Ci didn’t ask him about it at all.

“That, give it to me . . . . I’ll throw it out myself.” Ye Ci worked hard, and begged Huo Tinglan with a blushing face.

His time at school during this period had given him some glandular gender awareness.

The Omega students in his class, after replacing their barrier patches, wrapped the old ones in several layers of thick toilet paper before throwing them away, and an Alpha couldn’t even touch it. His nerves were too thick in this regard.

“. . . . . .” Huo Tinglan was silent for a while. He didn’t hand it over, but didn’t say he wouldn’t. Instead, he went off-topic and warned: “Don’t move around.”

What ‘don’t move around’ meant, any man could understand no matter how simple he was.

As expected, Ye Ci was well-behaved for a while.

“That patch, still . . . . give it to me.” Ye Ci held still for a minute, stuttering, then went to open Huo Tinglan’s hand again.

In fact, he didn’t mean to struggle, but Huo Tinglan hugged him too tightly, and he had to get rid of the confinement first if he wanted to lift his arm. But this escape-like move happened to hit the inverse scale^[1] of an Alpha during the susceptible period.

Huo Tinglan’s breathing suddenly became heavy. As if fearing that he would run away, he immediately hugged him tighter.

The tightness hurt Ye Ci, and he subconsciously struggled. Not only did he not break free, but Huo Tinglan pushed him even harder into the angle between the door and the back of the seat, using his entire body to hold him firmly.

“Wu . . . . . .”^[2]

“Sorry.” Huo Tinglan regained his precarious sanity, loosening his hold as he coaxed in a hoarse voice: “I’ll do as I’m told, I’ll throw it away in a moment . . . . let me take it for a while, just five minutes . . . .”

. . . . . .

An hour’s drive passed.

Ye Ci was held in the corner between the back of the seat and the door by Huo Tinglan, and even sniffed the whole way, not daring to move at all.

When he got out of the car, his legs were trembling, his eyes were red, and his heart was pounding.

The custom suit worth tens of thousands of yuan was wrinkled front and back like dried plums.

Ye Ci stepped into the Huo residence while clutching the hem of his clothing and pulling it down. He wanted to straighten it, and was still thinking about where to find an iron to iron it . . . .

Before taking a few steps, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.

When he turned around, his gaze fell flat on the light teal patterned knot of a silk tie.

Very close.

So incredibly close.

“You’re . . . .” Ye Ci was startled. “Still not good?”

Even an A-level Alpha could be normal for a long time after inhaling such a large amount of pheromones.

An A+ grade Alpha . . . . didn’t seem to be the same as he had imagined.

Sure enough –

“What good?” 

Huo Tinglan asked faintly, staring at him with a predatory look.

---

[1] According to legend, there is a white scale under the neck of a dragon that cannot be touched without misfortune falling upon you. The phrase “inverse scale” would be similar to “pushing someone’s buttons.” ⮐

[2] 唔, the sound of a cry or a whimper. ⮐

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Chapter Fifteen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Seventeen

Blame him?

How could he blame him?

“I won’t!” Ye Ci hurriedly denied.

The emotions in his chest nearly overflowing, he was afraid that he would look like an arrogant villain, so he tried his best to remain calm and commented objectively: “Chu Rui is indeed, yes, someone has to . . . . discipline him a bit.”

Because he was on the verge of susceptibility, the mask of a gentleman was more and more difficult to wear. Huo Tinglan smiled and looked down at Ye Ci’s thin lips that were closed like a clam shell. While staring, he skillfully prized out the nice things inside, using words to stroke out that clumsy little tongue: “En, I assisted you in disciplining them. What do you have to say to me?”

What did one say in this kind of moment?

Of course it was to say, “Thank you.” Even kindergartners knew that.

It was his duty under the circumstances to speak a sentence. Ye Ci didn’t know why, but he felt embarrassed and his voice was lower: “Thank, thank you, Huo-shushu.”

The room was silent for a few seconds.

Huo Tinglan didn’t receive enough sweetness, and finally failed in self-discipline. The corners of his mouth were slightly raised, and in a controlled and upright tone, he asked a shameless question.

“Is Huo-shushu good?”

. . . . . . 

Ten minutes later, when Huo Tinglan and Ye Ci arrived at the main banquet hall, the heat on Ye Ci’s cheeks was finally dispelled by the evening breeze.

The dusting of color was mellow, and not so red.

– – Is Huo-shushu good?

This question was so simple that he didn’t even have to think, but he was a mess and put on the spot. After dawdling for a while, Ye Ci squeezed out the word “good” with a red face.

Along the way, his palms were sweaty, clenching in embarrassment, and there was a faint sense of shame and confusion at what seemed to have been an off-color remark.

But that sentence had nothing to do with inappropriate matters, and the tone was normal.

He wasn’t disgusted, just embarrassed.

If it was really an adult joke, he wouldn’t have reacted like this. He would be angry.

So it wasn’t.

He thought and thought about it . . . .

It couldn’t have been.

Huo Tinglan helped him vent his anger, then turned towards him and also, also rubbed the back of his head for a while.

As a result, he speculated so wildly . . . . did he still have a conscience?

Ye Ci regained his senses and felt ashamed. He hurriedly shook off the thought of insulting Huo Tinglan’s noble character, and sat down with him at the banquet table.

The atmosphere of the banquet was not damaged by the temporary departure of Chu Wenlin and Ruan Jiayi. Chu Wenlin knew that he was wrong, and tried his best to act as if nothing had happened. When asked, he only said that his youngest son was unwell and was taken home by his wife to rest.

Since the season was suitable, the proportion of seafood and fish in the banquet dishes was relatively high. The ingredients were expensive and extravagant, and the layout was dazzling. Eight out of ten dishes were obscure to Ye Ci, and he didn’t even know where to place his chopsticks. But he had the leading role in this family dinner, in the center of everyone’s line of sight, and there were eyes on him at all times.

He was afraid of exposing his ignorance and inviting ridicule, making Huo Tinglan lose face by accompanying him. So he didn’t move his chopsticks, picking up his cup and taking a small sip of juice. After drinking, he put down his cup and paused, about to take another sip. Huo Tinglan received another pair of chopsticks from the waiter, put a piece of golden cheesy crab meat on his plate that was exactly the size of a bite, and whispered softly: “I don’t know if the chef’s craftsmanship here suits your tastes . . . . try it first?”

“. . . . En. Okay.” Ye Ci picked up the piece of crab meat as if he had been rescued.

“Try this, it looks good.” Huo Tinglan picked up a piece of raw fish sashimi with a snow pattern in a poised manner, selected some wasabi with the tip of his chopsticks, and then dipped the sauce-free side into the sauce plate that Ye Ci had at hand. The movement was just right, so that Ye Ci could clearly see the dipping process of eating sashimi.

Ye Ci was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it, his eyes shook slightly, as bright as a thin sheen of water.

Huo Tinglan had seen through his awkwardness, but he was not uncomfortable. He just felt warm.

Throughout the banquet, Huo Tinglan was always considerate. Acting humble and empathetic, he couldn’t stop serving the newly married little gentleman, filling the juice and blocking the wine . . . . He couldn’t wait to take care of the little things like dipping sauce, and all of his actions revealed a deep, cherishing love. Compared to his father’s wife-loving demeanor, he was no less coddling.

The relatives of the main family and the branch family gradually understood – No matter how many benefits were attached to the marriage, from now on, Ye Ci was a character whom the Huo family could not afford to offend. Then they stepped forward to toast to Ye Ci and make a good impression on him, chatting enthusiastically. Huo Tinglan drank almost all the wine toasted to Ye Ci.

“Huo-shushu.” In the second half of the banquet, Ye Ci couldn’t help it, and gently tugged Huo Tinglan’s cuff under the tablecloth.

“En?” Huo Tinglan turned his face slightly.

Ye Ci pointed to his cup: “Don’t, don’t stop me from drinking, I . . . . I can drink.”

Taking advantage of Huo Tinglan’s unpreparedness, he had secretly poured himself a beer. Golden bubbles bounced around the mouth of the cup, exuding the aroma of wheat. 

Huo Tinglan stared at him, the corners of his mouth curled up, and he repeated lightly, “You can drink?”

His throat was soaked with wine, and had a slight drunken hoarseness that rustled in his ears, a little more sensual than usual.

The articulation was light, almost coquettish.

Like he was teasing.

Ye Ci became increasingly convinced that Huo Tinglan was not too drunk, so he decided on the merciful way: “Yes, I’m afraid, I’m afraid you are drunk . . . . and you’ll have a headache tomorrow.” Seeing that Huo Tinglan was noncommittal, he frowned a little anxiously and raised his voice without realizing it: “I, I drink very well.”

Speaking of getting drunk . . . . Huo Tinlan had never been really “drunk.” The physique of a top Alpha was not for nothing, and the alcohol only excited his nerves.

He didn’t need a little eighteen-year-old Omega to stop him from drinking.

He shouldn’t condone Ye Ci’s drinking. After all, he was only a few months into adulthood, and it was good to stay away from tobacco and alcohol.

Ye Ci hadn’t finished his weekend homework, so he would need to take a rest after eating, and then write another set of papers.

Moreover, he remembered that Ye Ci in the previous life couldn’t tolerate alcohol. After three to five glasses of beer, he would be drunk and delirious. Right now, he was full of confidence in his drinking capacity.

Huo Tinglan slowly frowned.

The only explanation was that after differentiating into an Omega, Ye Ci’s constitution gradually changed. His tolerance to alcohol had dropped dramatically, but he didn’t know it yet.

He remembered what Ye Ci had looked like after drinking in the previous life – –

Terribly obedient.

Like a fluffy little drunken shrimp.

Even if someone picked it up and stripped the shell, licking all the raw, tender meat inside and eating it clean . . . . he feared he wouldn’t know how to resist.

Huo Tinglan’s eyes got darker.

Restrained for a long time, lava-like sensuous desire slowly overflowed with the wine and the restlessnes of the Alpha glands, boiling and searing him.

Even his veins and arteries were so affected that they shifted slightly.

“Are you okay, Huo-shushu?” Ye Ci acted recklessly, with an eagerness to help. His eyes were clear and innocent, wanting to share the burden with him.

The young man’s heart was pure and precious.

As if coming to a decision, Huo Tinglan slowly curved the corners of his lips and said with a hoarse voice: “Just this time . . . . but it mustn’t be repeated.”

“En!” Ye Ci held the beer glass, sat up straight, and stood up to intercept the alcohol for Huo-shushu.

He looked very handsome when drinking, calm and neat, no-nonsense, with a sullen face. When the guests who came to toast finished their greetings, he raised his head for a cup.

Huo Tinglan played with an empty glass, staring at Ye Ci and watching his small and angular Adam’s apple roll up and down. His eyes darkened.

One cup.

Two cups.

Three cups.

. . . . . .

When the waiter came up to pour the fourth cup for Ye Ci, Huo Tinglan suddenly used five fingers to cover the mouth of the cup and waved him away. Presently, he looked askance at Ye Ci and said teasingly: “The strength of an alcoholic drink like this came on so quickly . . . . and you still claim to have a tolerance to alcohol.”

Ye Ci blinked hard, staring around and squinting. Peering at the double images in front of him with confusion, he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Stop rubbing, your hands are dirty.” Huo Tinglan laughed and reservedly used two fingers to gently block Ye Ci’s hand from rubbing his eyes. “Didn’t you take the physical hygiene class in junior high or elementary school?”

“This beer.” Ye Ci turned his head, his face as pink as a peach as he attempted to compensate: “The degree, degree of alcohol should be quite high . . . .”

“All the beer you poured was 6% alcohol light beer”

Huo Tinglan smiled mildly as he reduced him to silence.

Ye Ci was dazed, and wilted.

As the banquet drew to a close, it was somewhat noisy. Huo Tinglan’s voice was low, and others couldn’t hear what he said. They saw that his expression was gentle and teasing, as he leaned close to Ye Ci’s bright red ear and whispered softly, as if the newlyweds were flirting.

Unexpectedly, Huo Tinglan was extremely ruthless. He exposed the alcohol content of the beer, and on this joyous occasion, still looked after a child in deadly earnest. “. . . . The physique will change after one differentiates into an Omega. A high alcohol tolerance before might become low later. You can still handle three glasses of this light beer, but if you changed to one with a higher potency, you might be lying down by now. Do you still dare to drink outside in the future?”

“I know, I understand, Huo-shushu, in the future . . . . I won’t dare.” Ye Ci hung his head with a look of shame.

That clear young voice was soaked in wine, soft as a feather.

He was indeed the same as the previous life.

So obedient when he was drunk.

“Will you follow my advice and not drink without Huo-shushu there?”

“. . . . En.”

Huo Tinglan lowered his head with a smile.

This could now be ruled out as a major safety hazard.

After the dinner was over, the guests came to say goodbye one after another.

Generally speaking, as the main focus of this family dinner, Huo Tinglan and Ye Ci should accompany Huo Changyu and Lin Yao to see off the guests. They should be the last ones to leave, or simply stay overnight. But in fact, Huo Tinglan took Ye Ci to the car before the guests had left. Before leaving, he spoke with Lin Yao but didn’t know what to tell her. The corners of Lin Yao’s mouth suddenly raised so much that she couldn’t hold back the smile, and she didn’t mention the matter of letting his husband stay overnight. Huo Tinglan happily drove away with him.

In the car, Huo Tinglan showed a rare look of fatigue and tilted his head slightly back. He closed his eyes and catnapped, his handsome face frowning slightly. The blue blood vessels in his temples jumped, as if he was not very comfortable, and the pungent aroma of tequila wafted through the car, stronger than usual.

Ye Ci was already used to Huo Tinglan’s pheromones, so he didn’t notice for a while. He was also worried that he was uncomfortable due to drinking so much, so he stammered in concern: “Huo-shushu, do you need, need the car to pull over for a moment? I’ll accompany you . . . . to get out for a walk, and get some fresh, fresh air.”

Huo Tinglan smiled with his eyes closed: “I’m not drunk . . . .”

Ye Ci shook his head in disbelief and wanted to persuade him, but heard Huo Tinglan gently toss out the second half of the sentence: “This is the susceptible period.”

---

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Chapter Fourteen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Sixteen