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

Warning: Depictions of child abuse

Ye Ci was unable to withstand the tricky maneuver and hurriedly denied: “I, I’m not angry with you.”

He couldn’t figure out where the panic was coming from, but it absolutely wasn’t anger.

“Really?” Huo Tinglan confirmed.

The two were so close that Ye Ci could almost feel that velvet-thin Adam’s apple vibrating when Huo Tinglan spoke.

He felt tingly.

Scratching his intolerably itchy ears, he was inexplicably worried: “Really. Hurry, hurry and get busy.”

“I’ll go. By the way . . . .” Huo Tinglan smiled, staring at Ye Ci’s little red ears. Ultimately, because those ears were so red that it broke his heart, he unhurriedly leaned against the door and asked in a low voice: “Dinner may be a little later today. Are you hungry? Should I have someone bring some refreshments? What do you want to eat, sweet or salty . . . .”

What he said was clearly serious, but whether it was because his tone was too gentle or what, it sounded like charming, sultry lovers’ talk.

“. . . .What? That, sweet . . . .” Ye Ci was confused and didn’t know what was going on. He only knew that voice made his ears numb, and he looked at Huo Tinglan as if begging for help. “Salty too . . . . either way is fine.”

The Alpha glands on the back of his neck were restless. Huo Tinglan became increasingly enthusiastic and teased with a smile: “Want something to drink? Tea? Juice?”

“Which, whichever.”

“Does Darjeeling black tea sound good at the moment?”

“Okay, Huo-shushu, I still have a lot of homework, and I have to hurry up and write.”

“. . . . . .”

Seeing that Ye Ci would collapse if he kept teasing him, only then did Huo Tinglan restrain his remarkable abilities, turning around and closing the door. The room was quiet. Ye Ci sat at the desk and hurriedly spread out the papers, writing at a tremendous speed. He rubbed his ears from time to time and the tip of the pen made a rustling sound.

After grinding through the questions for a while, Ye Ci’s mood gradually settled down and his attention was successfully focused on the paper. 

Thanks to Huo Tinglan’s guidance these days, he had made rapid progress. Both sets of papers were stage test papers, and the knowledge points targeted were the new content learned in the classroom in the past two months. Not many of the topics gave him trouble.

The midterm exam was a few days later, and the ranking was hard to predict. After all, a large portion of the second-to-last exam since the beginning of school had thrown him, but his score should improve a lot.

After finishing the two sets of papers, Ye Ci finally got back some sense of how it had felt to do practice questions before he dropped out of school. In a rare carefree mood, he shook his sore hand and intended to rest for a few minutes before starting on language and literature.

Just then, a few cries from a cat came from outside the door.

Ye Ci raised his eyes, opened the door, and anxiously looked around the corridor.

A chubby Napoleon Bantam cat was in the corner, its bright satin-like fur puffed up slightly with anger. Ye Ci’s “half-sibling” younger brother, Chu Rui, was shooting rubber bullets at it with a toy gun that he had obtained from somewhere.

Chu Rui was eight years old this year. He had inherited the vicious selfishness in Chu Wenlin’s bones and was very spoiled by his grandmother, so willful that not the slightest bit of cultured upbringing from a prominent family could be seen. Chu Wenlin and his mother, Ruan Jaiyi, were attending the tea party just now, and although he reluctantly pretended to be obedient for a while, as soon as he slipped out of the jurisdiction of the adults, he immediately revealed his true nature.

Ye Ci hadn’t spoken to him much. Leaving aside not wanting to, there was just no chance.

– – If one little thing went wrong, he would scream like a scalded pig.

Ye Ci glanced at Chu Rui and didn’t say a word. He quietly picked up the cat, rubbed the place where it was hurt by the rubber bullet, and turned back to the room. In his arms, the fat little cat acted coy. Seeing that Ye Ci was treating him kindly, he wiggled around and meowed, complaining tenderly.

The corners of Ye Ci’s mouth turned up as he ignored Chu Rui’s loud shouts behind him.

He was simulating the sound of gunshots: “Bang! Bang, bang, bang!”

Immediately after, a rubber bullet hit him in the back of the head.

His skull was struck painfully, feeling as if the little boy had punched him with all this strength in his defenseless state. There was even a moment of darkness in front of Ye Ci’s eyes.

The destructive power of this toy gun was incredible, and if aimed at the eyes, it could knock a person out.

“Hahahaha!” Chu Rui laughed excitedly and jumped around. The fat mounds of his face were stained with a few uneven patches of red, with a pair of tiny eyes sunk into the flesh.

Even more like a pig.

Ye Ci took a deep breath and didn’t dare to look back.

He could imagine Chu Rui’s disgusting appearance at this time, and feared that he would not be able to resist the urge to use violence against an eight-year-old child.

However, reasoning with this little beast would only bring shame on himself, not to mention . . . . he also needed the medical expenses provided by Chu Wenlin, so he couldn’t be impulsive.

Ignoring him was the only way.

He walked back to the room, and an insult suddenly came from behind him: “Bastard.”

The child’s voice was crisp and bright, but had a natural maliciousness.

As well as a sick excitement.

Seeing that Ye Ci didn’t attack and just walked back quietly, Chu Rui became more courageous. He smiled and sang like a children’s song: “Bastard, lowlife . . . .”

He was as excited as a novice experimenter who had stolen several dangerous reagents and thrown them into the cage, impatiently observing the reactions of the lab animal.

The eight-year-old child could say childish things, but was terribly cunning in some ways. He knew that this cheap brother couldn’t afford to offend him, and if he wanted to bully him, he would bully him.

Ye Ci closed his eyes and pretended not to hear.

Seeing that he was unmoved and ignoring him, Chu Rui was flustered and took out his trump card, shouting: “My mom said your mom was –”

“ ! ”

With just these few words, Ye Ci’s eardrums buzzed.

His mother was his weakness, the place he couldn’t let others trample upon him no matter how hard he swallowed back his voice . . . .

But at this moment, Chu Rui’s provocation stopped abruptly.

Huo Tinglan’s voice came from behind, calm and quiet, with no emotion to be heard: “Which family are you from?”

Ye Ci was startled and turned around.

Huo Tinglan stood beside Chu Rui, one slender-fingered hand covering Chu Rui’s fleshy head. Lightly and delicately, he directed Chu Rui’s face toward him and turned it left and right.

The gesture seemed less like identifying a dignified living person, than looking for a signature on a spherical handicraft.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!” Chu Rui used his special skill and screamed loudly.

Huo Tinglan nodded knowingly and let go.

“Dad —-! Mom —-!” Chu Rui repeatedly bounced around and made an unreasonable scene, and then ran off to complain.

Ye Ci watched Chu Rui wailing away, his boiling blood cooled down, and he regained his sanity.

In fact, he had a very mild temper, and didn’t really get carried away by anger when he beat people up before, a habit that came from living in the slums. Most of the people there bullied the weak and feared the strong. If he didn’t fight and show his power when he encountered a challenge, he and his mother would live an uneasy life.

But Chu Rui wouldn’t really be able to affect him, there would be little chance to see him in the future, and the provocation just now had been interrupted.

So there was no need.

Taking a step back, he didn’t have the endless capital to get into it with someone just because of a few insults.

“Huo-shushu.” Ye Ci stood tall and straight, like bamboo that was impervious to wind and snow. He said with a calm tone: “Are, are you calling me to dinner?”

Huo Tinglan’s tall form stood quietly in the softly-lit corridor, looking at Ye Ci.

Ye Ci’s fingers on the cat’s ears were shaking.

He was pretending to be composed.

Seeking refuge and comfort in your own – if in name only – Alpha, acting like a spoiled child and complaining . . . . any of these things were justified in the eyes of an Omega. For Ye Ci, it was unimaginable.

In the face of difficulties, he always chose to be strong and brave.

After a moment of silence, Huo Tinglan smiled gently and said: “I just came up to see you . . . . you may have to wait a little longer for dinner, so why don’t you go back to your room and play with the cat?”

“Okay.” Ye Ci heaved a sigh of relief and hurried back to the room with the purring cat in his arms.

He had cat hair on his hands, and it was inconvenient to wipe his eyes.

Ye Ci turned his face to the side, rubbed the corners of his eyes on his shoulders, and then buried his wet face in the fluffy cat’s belly.

The cat’s body exuded the light fragrance of pet shampoo, and its soft, silky fur absorbed the scent well. Ye Ci was trampled on by those four soft feet for a while, and the knot in his heart dissipated a little.

At this moment, Chu Rui’s dying-pig squeal came through the floor from below.

He was probably being punished.

Ye Ci didn’t care, and was used to hearing it.

It was not necessarily the case that he was being punished – that kind of little brat could get into trouble eight hundred times a day.

But what was different from the past was that Chu Rui’s screams stopped abruptly after a few seconds. After a moment, the screams turned into howls. Even Meng Jiangnu^[1] couldn’t compete with that kind of grievance and sadness.

– – Chu Rui truly cried.

Not howling, shouting, or screaming, but crying.

As indifferent as Ye Ci felt, unimaginably, he wanted to know what was going on.

Afraid of scaring the cat, he put it on the bed and followed the sound to find it. He didn’t have to walk very far, and only after descending a few stairs, he saw a few people standing or sitting in a small side hall on the first floor. Chu Rui’s fat face was imprinted with two bright red symmetrical slap prints. Chu Wenlin’s face was as ugly as a pig’s liver, and he pointed at Chu Rui’s nose as he violently shouted: “Go ahead and cry! You cry one more time!”

Huo Tinglan sat on the sofa, calm and elegant. As if he disliked the specks of spittle that Chu Rui spattered when he howled, he wiped the front of his suit with a square napkin. After wiping, he threw the expensive silk scarf into the wastebasket with a light gesture.

Chu Wenlin’s wife, Ruan Jiayi, was crying and didn’t care about being dignified. She jumped up and grabbed Chu Wenlin’s raised palm, but was berated by her husband.

“It’s all the shit you taught him!” Chu Wenlin turned his head and pointed at Ruan Jiayi, performing for anyone to see and scolding her just as hard for not knowing how to teach her child.

The disturbance escalated again.

Ruan Jiayi couldn’t bear the humiliation, so with another round of crying, she left with Chu Rui and did not attend the dinner.

After his wife and son left, Chu Wenlin was humble and pleaded guilty. He patted his chest and promised that he would strictly discipline his son when he got home, for fear that the two families would be at odds because of the younger son’s unintentional remarks, affecting their future cooperation.

“. . . . Mr. Chu’s words are too much.” Huo Tinglan’s wording was estranged, no matter that this was his father-in-law. “Moreover, there is no need for you to apologize to me. The object of your apology should be my little gentleman.”

“Yes, yes, Mr. Huo is right.” Chu Wenlin bowed his back, bowed his waist, and nodded his head like he was mashing garlic.

“Xiao Ci . . . .” Huo Tinglan tilted his head and calmly swept a sidelong gaze towards the stairs.

The shadowy kitten who was squatting on the stairs a moment ago had slipped away, obviously unwilling to come into contact with Chu Wenlin and disdaining his false apology.

Huo Tinglan smiled lightly and, fearing that the little ears in the wall might not be able to hear it clearly, turned the conversation and raised his voice: “. . . . has a generous character and doesn’t bother to care about these little things. He might turn around and just forget it, so it can only be his husband who cares in his place.”

Husband . . . .

Ye Ci tripped and almost stumbled on the stairs.

. . . . . .

When Huo Tinglan went upstairs to call Ye Ci for dinner, Ye Ci had slipped back into the room and cuddled the cat for a while.

There was a lot of noise in the side hall, and unless one was deaf, it would be difficult not to hear it. But Ye Ci didn’t know what to say. Someone had helped him vent his anger and teach others a lesson for him. This experience was too unfamiliar, and his heart seemed to be in a ball behind his rib cage, so aching and warm that it practically melted him.

Huo Tinglan leaned against the door with his arms folded, thought for a moment, and calmly helped him broach the subject: “Did you hear that just now?”

“. . . . En.” Ye Ci’s thin eyelids twitched slightly.

“I was simply teaching them a few lessons downstairs,” Huo Tinglan mentioned casually. “The noise was a bit loud, did it affect your studying?”

‘Them’ obviously referred to the Chu Wenlin family of three.

In terms of friendly family relations, Chu Wenlin and Huo Tinglan were considered peers, and were at least ten years older than him. In terms of marriage relationship, the father-in-law was a proper elder, and the word “teaching” was used quite arrogantly and rudely.

Yet, it was enough to work off one’s anger.

Ye Ci’s lips thinned, and he defended the absolute legitimacy of Huo Tinglan’s actions: “No, it didn’t disturb my studies. I was playing with the cat.”

Playing with the cat . . . .

Huo Tinglan lowered his head to smile.

Immediately, he suppressed his smile and said resolutely: “A good family banquet was thrown into chaos because of me. It is also my fault that I have a bad temper and couldn’t hold back in public, and forgot to save some face for Mr. Chu . . . .”

He was doing the self-criticism review, but the tone was teasing, and in his dark eyes there was a sort of tacit mischief with Ye Ci.

“You won’t blame me, will you?” He asked knowingly.

He wanted to get some sweetness from his innocent little lover.

He was taking credit.

---

[1] Meng Jiangnu is a folk tale heroine whose tears broke down a stretch of the Great Wall to reveal her husband’s body. ⮐

---

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Chapter Thirteen<< Table of Contents >> Chapter Fifteen

“Huo-shushu, I’m done.” Just as Huo Tinglan tried to contain all kinds of “too early” thoughts in his heart, Ye Ci had already put on his clothes, opened the curtain, and walked out.

Huo Tinglan didn’t choose a calm black and gray fabric for him, for fear that it would appear too mature. An eighteen-year-old boy was just right for the clear blue water of a lake. His naturally white skin was dazzlingly set off by the azure blue, and that black hair and smooth rosy lips were so vivid and thrilling. A vest of the same color as the jacket cinched a slightly thin chest, and the waist was so thin that it made one want to hold it in their hands . . . .

“. . . . Not bad.” As if to avoid suspicion, Huo Tinglan’s eyes jumped from his waist to the tie in Ye Ci’s hands. He said in a low voice: “Come here, I’ll tie it for you.”

Ye Ci had never worn this sort of clothing, so he tugged at the hem of his clothes cautiously, young and inexperienced. Purer than lake water, he approached him.

Huo Tinglan raised the collar of his shirt and wrapped the tie around his neck. His fingertips accidentally brushed the back of Ye Ci’s neck through the shirt and the flesh was soft, exuding unnatural heat around the glands.

With just an inadvertent touch, Ye Ci was so sensitive that his breathing even stopped for a moment, like a kitten caught by the back of his neck by a big cat.

This was an Omega’s stress response, not for just any Alpha, but for those with a high degree of matching and a trusting relationship. It was probably to make it convenient for the Alpha . . . . a physiological mechanism. Huo Tinglan noticed that the little bit of Alpha wickedness in his bones couldn’t be contained. He fastened the tie, put down the collar for Ye Ci, and the knuckles of his hand brushed the back of his neck again. Sure enough, Ye Ci froze again, and his eyes widened.

Like a kitten.

Huo Tinglan smiled inwardly.

If a finger lightly scratching his nape made him this silly, then what if . . . .

Huo Tinglan’s smile faded and he said quietly: “Go and look in the mirror.”

Ye Ci was ignorant and didn’t understand what was going on. He thought that Huo Tinglan didn’t notice his two moments of abnormal behavior, so he calmed down and walked over to look in the mirror.

An Omega who didn’t know anything . . . . could be bullied too easily.

Huo Tinglan, who couldn’t help bullying the little gentleman a moment ago, was a little worried.

Ye Ci tried out the formal suit, and Huo Tinglan added some small things to him, and taught him carefully –

Gentlemen should carry a handkerchief with them, the Astaire-style folding method was more casual, and the Kennedy style was more suitable for serious business people; Silk-knot cufflinks were not suitable for dinner parties, but the chain style was elegant enough; Black lace-up Oxfords were suitable for all formal occasions in life . . . .

“The little ring under the collar on this side,” Huo Tinglan turned up Ye Ci’s left collar and picked up a rose from the vase beside him. He passed the fresh, thin stem through the button and hooked the end of the stem into a small ring, “can be used to affix flower stems.”

His tone was gentle and slow. Although he said things that Ye Ci didn’t understand, he didn’t appear arrogant and showy. He just gracefully led a young boy into the world of men.

Ye Ci looked down at the corner of the mirror, appearing unaffected, but in fact his ears were pricked up to listen, and his clear eyes trembled slightly.

When Huo Tinglan finished speaking and Ye Ci raised his head again, there was almost a hint of admiration in his eyes.

Ye Ci felt that everything was fine with the first formal suit in his life, but Huo Tinglan still picked out a few flaws and asked the tailor to fix them. When he came to pick up the clothes a few days later, even Huo Tinglan couldn’t find anything wrong with them. It was a weekend off, and Ye Ci wore this outfit to attend the family banquet at the old house.

The old Huo residence was located on the outskirts of the city. It was a manor, where Huo Changyu brought his beloved wife to enjoy life after delegating power to his son. A private horse farm, hot springs, and a golf course were all readily available at the manor. In order to ensure that the ingredients used by the family were natural and of sufficient quality, Huo Changyu also divided an area as a small pasture and picking garden, and hired experienced farmers to take care of it all year round. Drones responsible for real-time environmental monitoring hovered over the manor.

There were nearly 100 guests at this family dinner. When Huo Tinglan and Ye Ci arrived, it was only two o’clock in the afternoon, and it was still early for dinner to start.

In the early summer, the sunlight was warm and the wind was mild. Lin Yao instructed the housekeeping team to arrange an open-air afternoon tea for the guests by the lake. The waves on the water were as bright as gold foil, the green of the pastureland was deep, and the dining tables were covered with crisp white tablecloths. Decorated with flowering vines and spread out along the bay of the lake, the array was comparable to that of a wedding.

Too extravagant.

Ye Ci had only seen this kind of situation on the 8 o’clock TV series about rich and powerful families.

For a long time, the family banquet he conceptualized was a few large round tables set up in a restaurant. Seeing this arrangement in the distance, he was so nervous that his expression went rigid, and he walked a few steps in a stiff, robotic manner without realizing it.

Wasn’t it just supposed to be afternoon tea?

Was afternoon tea . . . . so momentous?

Huo Tinglan saw Ye Ci’s dazed eyes, and he stopped to laugh at himself: “Compared to Lao Huo, the arrogant and extravagant capitalist, I am just a laborer who barely makes a living being exploited by Lao Huo every day . . . . “ After a pause, he teased, “You won’t hold that against me, will you?”

This was a strange humble-brag, but Huo Tinglan’s expression was so serious.

Having said that, Huo Tinglan’s daily duties were indeed heavy, which was different from the full-time lover presidents in the rich and powerful dog blood dramas. When he was busy, he would work at the desk until late at night, and he needed to attend various banquets and entertainment outings. He often went to sleep later than when he was in high school and could still lay around in bed.

His state was indeed different from the Huo Changyu couple who enjoyed life wholeheartedly.

In the terminology of laborers, it was more tiring than 996, and was already approaching 007^[1] infinitely.

The Huo family was occupied with their own business, but . . . .

Ye Ci couldn’t help but think of the young, bald and overworked programmers on the social news.

He had to quickly glance at Huo Tinglan’s head.

His hair . . . . was rather thick.

With such a good figure, he must exercise, and his heart should also be healthy.

Huo Tinglan’s self-pitying tale had evoked some random thoughts, and Ye Ci had no time to be nervous anymore. He looked down at the green lawn under his feet and pursed his lips: “Then, then when I have the ability in the future, I’ll try to help, help you share your burden . . . . so that you won’t be so tired.”

These words from a high school student were inevitably vague and general, but Ye Ci looked serious. Huo Tinglan was stunned, and a playful smile flashed through his eyes.

“. . . . Are you not nervous anymore?” Huo Tinglan had achieved his goal and gestured to the other side of the lawn, “Some of my elders are over there. I’ll introduce them to you later, you can just say hello.”

The corners of his lips twitch into a smile, his tone soft: “I will say everything else for you. You are responsible for nodding and smiling . . . . can you handle such an arrangement?”

“I can.” This was exactly what Ye Ci had wished for, and he nodded.

“Head nods, well done.” Huo Tinglan puts his hands in his pockets. Bending down slightly, he tilted his head to observe that cold little face, and joked, “How about a smile?”

Ye Ci was surprised for a moment. The layer of ice on his face melted, the corners of his lips raised shyly, and he adjusted his demeanor, walking to the lake side by side with Huo Tinglan.

Lin Yao was drinking afternoon tea with several elders of the Huo family. Seeing someone approaching, she got up to hold Ye Ci’s arm gently and affectionately, and led him to sit beside her.

There were not many people at the table, so Ye Ci followed Huo Tinglan’s lead to greet them one by one. After the courtesies were over, Lin Yao hurriedly pulled Ye Ci into conversation. She was well-maintained and didn’t look old at all. When she opened her mouth, her voice was soft and gentle as she complained: “Tinglan said that you are shy and that your school workload is heavy, so he kept preventing you from coming to the old house. I see, he’s just a petty cheapskate who doesn’t want other people to see his gentleman.”

Huo Tinglan groaned and let Lin Yao happily scold him, as if tacitly agreeing, and only half-rose out of his chair to pour tea for Ye Ci.

“Alpha newlyweds are just like this, drinking vinegar and being unreasonable, and wishing they could hide their wife away in a vault, safe from danger. Chanyu and I were the same when we first got married. I wanted to go shopping with my friend, and he stood inside the door acting like a doorman, forcing me to lose my temper with him . . . .” Lin Yao pretended to be angry, and Huo Changyu apologized and pleaded guilty. Several Huo family members who were drinking tea at the table laughed one after another.

The Huo family was prosperous. Although Huo Tinglan was the only son of Huo Changyu’s family, there were many uncles, aunts, and cousins. These people knew that his susceptible period was getting worse year by year, and that it was extremely difficult to find a matching Omega to produce offspring. The power in his hands would not last long, and would be divided sooner or later, so they were happy to see it happen.

Unexpectedly, an Omega that matched him 100% appeared out of thin air in the Chu family. Now Huo Tinglan was not only cured, but also had hope for descendents. They naturally couldn’t have a good impression of this Omega.

Due to this, it could not be avoided that some vitriolic rumors circulated in the family, saying that the Omega was born poor and was an illegitimate child, he didn’t know his heritage, and he was not qualified to remain in the Huo family. It was said that Huo Tinglan’s family of three didn’t even care – he was just a jar of medicine to treat a disease, and the relationship between the two was not good. The high level of matching was useless, the probability of conception was low, and it would be difficult to have offspring. It was even said that the degree of matching between the two was fake, and was in fact not that high. It was just that Lin Yao was not reconciled, putting on a show for the other Huo family members with helpless forbearance . . . .

Lin Yao was high-spirited, and had been pampered by Huo Changyu. How could she bear this grievance? She was fuming with rage about these slanderous rumors. During this period of time, she had been holding herself back, looking forward to the opportunity to finally vent her anger and act intimate and enthusiastic. What’s more, the child was good-looking and quiet, which was really endearing. Although she was acting, there were also seven or eight points of truth to it.

Lin Yao playfully embraced Ye Ci’s shoulders like a young girl, deliberately irritating: “The more you didn’t show him to me, the more I wanted to see him. This time you can’t stop it.” She turned to Ye Ci and said softly: “Xiao Ci, you must stay here for a few days and accompany me.”

Ye Ci was taken aback by Lin Yao’s enthusiastic offensive. Not understanding this sort of social rhetoric, he nodded honestly and said, “Okay.”

What a well-behaved child.

Lin Yao felt tenderness in her heart and liked him a little bit more.

Huo Tinglan smiled and shook his head: “He has to go to school tomorrow. He’d have to get up half an hour early to get to school from here, and there is a lot of homework on weekends . . . .”

“Xiao Ci, don’t listen to him.” Lin Yao interrupted and angrily lectured her son, “It’s a rare day out, and you’re still keeping an eye on people’s homework. Aren’t you trying to cause trouble, ah? Later, you take Xiao Ci to relax and ride horses and play golf. Making your gentleman happy is your duty, your obligation.”

Huo Tinglan smiled gently and raised his hands to apologize: “No problem, I’ll take him there when I finish marking his homework.”

“You . . . .” Lin Yao was so angry that she couldn’t speak, and Huo Changyu laughed on the side.

The atmosphere at the table was warming up.

In fact, Lin Yao’s performance this time was to express her position to the Huo family – She was satisfied with the marriage, and also with Ye Ci. The family of four had a harmonious relationship, and it was not for outsiders to turn and point the finger of blame. Huo Tinglan’s aunts and uncles at the table were all sophisticated people, so how could they not be happy? They all put on friendly smiles to talk to Ye Ci, and their mouths were full of praise.

As previously planned, Huo Tinglan was able to respond for Ye Ci with ease. It wasn’t until Lin Yao gently complained about him rushing to speak before Ye Ci could, thinking that he was being a bully, that Huo Tinglan defended warmly: “My little gentleman has a quiet personality and doesn’t like to talk. I’ll say a few more words for him.” Saying that, he turned to look at Ye Ci, looking henpecked but also loving, and sighed with a smile, “How could I dare bully him . . . .”

The tone was too ambiguous. Ye Ci looked up apprehensively, and his gaze collided with a pair of dark eyes that were smiling and full of deep love, tender and heart-pounding.

His heart felt like it was suddenly suspended in midair. Ye Ci’s fingers tightened, almost  crushing his teacup, and lowered his eyes in confusion and panic.

. . . . He didn’t know where Huo-shushu had found his acting skills.

Business, business negotiations must be how he practiced.

Lin Yao’s eyebrows curved as she pondered the two of them with interest. Something had suddenly changed about this image, and the corners of her mouth started to rise more obviously.

At this time, Chu Wenlin and his wife and young son came to the table and greeted the Chu family members.

Chu Wenlin’s youngest son was named Chu Rui, and was Ye Ci’s half-sibling. He had specially picked up his parents’ shortcomings and inherited them. Born stupid and fat, like a cut and fried sausage, people found him unlikable at first glance. Huo Tinglan glanced at the three with a cold attitude and only nodded slightly in greeting, then took Ye Ci to depart on the grounds of a heavy workload for the upcoming mid-term.

He led Ye Ci to avoid the crowd and walked into the main house from the secluded garden path, coming to the prepared guest room, where he stood at the door: “I brought your school bag. You don’t need to come out and socialize in the afternoon, just study with peace of mind, and let me check your homework after you finish it . . . .”

“En.” Ye Ci turned his face away and looked a little evasive.

Huo Tinglan looked at him for a moment, understood, and smiled apologetically as he explained: “I didn’t want to seem too estranged from you in front of the elders, so I acted a little more intimate . . . .”

“I understand.” Ye Ci’s ears were hot and red. “I, I’ll do my homework . . . . you go take care of business.”

When he was done, he reached out and closed the door.

The door was half-closed when it was firmly blocked by a forearm. Huo Tinglan suppressed his smile, made his voice soft, and said lightly: “Are you mad at me?”

At first glance, it seemed that he was about to apologize for the ambiguous remarks at the banquet, extremely upright.

When you looked closely, there were all kinds of love hidden in those eyes, as if he was clearly in the right and was only willing to plead guilty to indulge the little gentleman.

Taking advantage of Ye Ci’s unpreparedness, he secretly coaxed him.

Secretly overstepping the rules.

---

[1] 996/007 references a nine-to-nine, six days a week working schedule and a midnight-to-midnight, seven days a week working schedule. ⮐

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Chapter Twelve << Table of Contents >> Chapter Fourteen

After the talk in the study room, Ye Ci didn’t know whether he had been influenced by it or was simply frightened of the phrase “move into my room to sleep.’ Not only did his work and rest routine become comparable to that of a robot, but he also followed Huo Tinglan’s instructions to set a medication reminder on his cell phone, and obediently followed the doctor’s orders to take his medicine.

The symptoms of reproductive cavity development had been relieved a lot. A few days had passed without a sign of fever, but there was still a subtle soreness in his lower abdomen. Although it seemed to be nothing, as soon as Ye Ci thought about what it was, he immediately fell apart and clenched his fists.

“. . . . Do you have a lot of homework today?”

Huo Tinglan held a folder, looking through the thick stack of different-sized lists inside, and asked this a bit nonchalantly.

“Quite a lot. I’ll write half of it today.” Friday plus two days on the weekend, a three-day workload was not ideal. Ye Ci took out his school bag and inadvertently glanced at the folder in Huo Tinglan’s hand.

Perhaps it was because he had accompanied Ye Hongjun to the hospital for so many appointments, but he felt that the paper Huo Tinglan was holding was a bit like a hospital medical report.

However, before he could take a closer look, Huo Tinglan had already closed the folder and set it aside, saying in an understated tone: “I had someone put something by your bedside, you can take some time to have a look at it.”

“En,” Ye Ci responded. Unable to hide his curiosity, he put his homework in order and went back to the bedroom to check.

In the room, there was a book beside his pillow.

Perhaps to avoid unintentional snooping by servants, the book cover was wrapped in solid kraft paper, its surface blank.

Ye Ci became more and more curious, picked up a book, and opened it unpreparedly. He glanced at the table of contents and blood rushed to his face.

This was actually an Omega-exclusive sex education book.

Like an encyclopedia, it was exhaustive and comprehensive.

“The first symptoms of an Omega’s fever,” “Self-protection during an Omega’s fever,” “Body structure changes brought about by the fever period,” “Precautions to take for the first fever.” These chapter titles had blue-black pen marks in front of them – – four little checkmarks.

– – Huo Tinglan had read this book and helped him identify the key points.

Ye Ci bit his lips white.

Like a red-hot slap to the chest, the secrets and shame in his heart evaporated into white steam.

After just flipping through the pages of the book, he was so embarrassed that his neck was flushed red.

In fact, he had never been able to accept his secondary differentiated glandular sex.

The sudden transformation from an Alpha, which symbolized strength and leadership, to the “soft and delicate” stereotype of an Omega, had caused a lingering sense of shame and displacement.

It was fine not to mention these things during ordinary times. He could deceive himself and pretend that there was no difference between being an Omega and being an Alpha. Once forced to face reality, he . . . .

In a daze, he turned another page.

There was one more pen-drawn “X” on the table of contents page. The title was “The Omega’s Character Guidance and Shaping.”

For some reason, Ye Ci first turned to the page marked with the X and glanced at it.

The content of this page contained mostly cliched advice like, “An Omega’s character is gentle, considerate, and demure,” and so on. Above the page number were two sharp and handsome penned characters.

– – Don’t read.

“. . . . . .”

Ye Ci turned another page.

– – Still reading.

It was like finding hidden easter eggs.

The corners of Ye Ci’s lips curved in amusement.

Aside from these two pages, most of the titles with a few sporadic X marks in the table of contents were in this pedantic style that made Ye Ci so annoyed that he wanted to tear up the book.

Huo Tinglan actually screened the book for him in advance. His work was obviously so busy, but he still took such responsibility . . . .

Ye Ci lightly sighed.

That small ball of warmth behind his ribcage reappeared, and the bridge of his nose went faintly tight.

He settled down and took a cigarette out of his pocket, lit it, and took a familiar drag from the filter.

After smoking more than half his cigarettes, he put out the butts, opened the pages that had been checked off, and bravely browsed through them.

. . . . . .

After mentally preparing himself, it was half an hour later that Ye Ci returned to the study.

Beside him at the desk, Huo Tinglan concentrated on his work and didn’t say a word.

Fearing that Huo Tinglan would ask him about his reading experience, Ye Ci stared straight at his paper but watched him out of the corner of his eye, feeling Huo Tinglan’s movements with his whole body.

After a stalemate, Ye Ci became more and more uncomfortable.

He felt that Huo Tinglan was staring at him.

Another illusion?

Ye Ci tilted his head stiffly, eyes flickering, and glanced at Huo Tinglan very quickly.

Huo Tinglan rested his chin on one hand leisurely, and caught his glance like a rabbit.

“. . . . . .”

Huo Tinglan was really staring at him.

After a moment of silence, Ye Ci retracted his eyes in shock. After hesitating, he glanced again.

Huo Tinglan’s lips curled into a cat-like smile, and he asked knowingly: “Why aren’t you concentrating . . . . do I have words on my face?”

“No, no words.” Ye Ci lowered his head down with a swoosh to read a question.

“Did you read the book?” Huo Tinglan asked to confirm.

“Uh, hm . . . .” Ye Ci answered vaguely.

He wanted to read it and insisted on reading a few pages. The problem was that the popular science book was too detailed. Not only were there detailed descriptions of Omega-exclusive organs, but even cross-sectional drawings and a description of permanent marking. He was so used to being an Alpha that he even took Physiology and Hygiene classes separately from Omegas when he was in junior high school. Not as full of yellow crap^[1] as some teenage alphas, the more he read, the more he blushed. Words like “knot,” “cavity,” and “lifetime mark” scorched his retinas.

He estimated that the yellow book^[2] was also like that.

He didn’t finish reading it.

Huo-shushu’s good intentions were wasted, and he stuffed the book into the bedside table with guilt and shame.

The atmosphere was awkward. Ye Ci was anxious to take the lid off the topic, and consciously told a small lie: “I, I finished reading.”

“Oh.” Huo Tinglan saw through it and smiled, but didn’t expose it.

He could almost picture Ye Ci’s mental journey in this short half hour.

His young lover was too pure and innocent.

That pure innocence made him . . . . ache.

It seemed that his science education still had to wait until the future.

“By the way, there is something I want to discuss with you.” Huo Tinglan stopped before going too far, and changed the subject. “You know, in name, we’ve been married for more than a month, and my mother is a little anxious . . . .”

Ye Ci was immediately tense, his eyes wide and vigilant.

The phrase, “we’ve been married . . . .”

Huo Tinglan’s mother was anxious . . . .

She wanted to urge, urge them to what?!

Ye Ci: “ ! ”

Before Huo Tinglan finished speaking, Ye Ci’s vigilance had turned into a pupil earthquake!^[3]

“. . . . Because we’ve never had a wedding, she plans to hold a simple family banquet, and the Huo and Chu families would get together for a meal. It could be regarded as a concession to the elders on both sides.” Huo Tinglan pondered Ye Ci’s demeanor while talking and endured, but couldn’t resist. Half in disbelief and half teasing, he asked, “Where did you think about going just now?”

“I didn’t, didn’t think that.” Ye Ci was afraid of spilling the beans, so he readily said, “I can do a banquet, no problem.”

Since getting married, all Huo Tinglan needed him to cooperate with was just a meal between the two families. Of course he wouldn’t refuse.

Ye Ci agreed straightforwardly, but the Huo family was a big family. No matter how small the family banquet was, there were still dozens of people, plus the people from the second branch of the Chu family who would attend . . . . there was no room for sloppy preparations in this last half of the month.

Huo Tinglan pondered for a moment, and said: “When you are free this weekend, I’ll take you to get formalwear for the family banquet.”

Ye Ci thought about the outfits in his closet – sportswear, sweaters, jeans. He really couldn’t wear those to the banquet, so he just nodded in agreement.

The next Saturday, Huo Tinglan took him to an artisan tailor shop. It was a time-honored brand, passed down from grandfather to grandson. Since its establishment in 1913, after years of turmoil, it was still stationed in a quiet and archaic site. The small two-story western-style building used as a storefront had a century-old history, and the courtyard gate was half-hidden behind lush sycamore trees. Disdainful of publicity, they only received familiar old customers, demonstrating a stubborn, aristocratic aloofness.

This was the first time Ye Ci had visited such a place. In his previous impressions, a tailor shop was a thing abandoned by the times, usually opened in a crowded downtown area, where people would change their clothes to be larger or smaller, or have buttons and zippers sewn on. He never knew there was such a tailor shop as this.

He cooperated with the shop owner to have his measurements taken, and sat on a soft velvet sofa while listening to the conversation going on beside him, almost suspecting that this was a black shop^[4] – there were tens of thousands of pieces of fabric, and the price of a set of clothes was enough for him to have to race for a month. He fidgeted like there was an open flame under his ass, trying to speak, and was afraid that he would have to intercede with Huo Tinglan in public. He finally got the chance after the shop owner left temporarily. Wringing his fingers in embarrassment, he whispered: “Huo-shushu, there’s no need . . . . this is too expensive.”

Huo Tinglan stood leisurely in front of the sofa with his hands in his pockets. He swept his eyes toward him when he heard this, and his tone was calm: “I don’t think it’s expensive, that kind of material suits you well.” After a pause, he said apologetically: “We’ve been married for more than a month, but I never thought to bring you out to buy you something. I hadn’t thought about it. If you refuse again . . . . I will feel that you are blaming me in your heart.”

‘Buy you something.’ Such intimate wording narrowed the distance between them automatically. Ye Ci was young, after all, and couldn’t handle it. His lips moved a few times, and he only denied: “I . . . . won’t blame you.”

Huo Tinglan tried to figure out his approach: “I’m taking you out to buy clothes, so you shouldn’t still want to pay me back.”

Ye Ci didn’t say anything, as if in tacit admission.

He was most afraid of being gratuitously favored by someone. Naturally, he was embarrassed to have such expensive clothes by relying on someone else’s charity.

Huo Tinglan was quiet for a moment, afraid of hurting his self-esteem, and teased softly: “I gave you a lot of lectures last night. Did I ask you to pay a tutoring fee?”

Ye Ci shook his head a few times: “No, that’s not what I meant.”

“ – It’s the same thing.” Huo Tinglan calmly herded him into his own territory: “Two people living together after marriage – if every account has to be calculated clearly, how is it any different from being roommates?”

A business marriage without an emotional foundation was indeed not much different from being roommates . . . . Ye Ci was dazed by Huo Tinglan, and wanted to refute, but the shopkeeper had already returned with several large books.

Huo Tinglan didn’t spend much time looking, and with an idle appearance, he discussed the style with the shopkeeper in a low voice and finalized the details: Lapel style, hidden pockets, clothing slits, the choice of buttons, even “dressing to the left or right”^[5] . . . . he usually left these trivial matters to Uncle He to worry about, but this was Ye Ci’s first formal suit after the age of eighteen, which was of great significance. In the last life, he failed to shelter Ye Ci from the wind and rain when he needed him the most. In this life, he naturally wanted to hold this person in the palm of his hand, pamper him, and take care of him properly. It was only that Ye Ci was still estranged from him, and he didn’t dare go too far. He had to make excuses when ordering a few sets of clothes, otherwise . . . .

Ye Ci looked at them for a while, but couldn’t intervene, and sat awkwardly on the sofa, using tea and refills to cover up his uneasiness at being cared for by others.

He had never experienced concern and care from a mature man. It was different from Ye Hongjun’s maternal love, and was a missing link in his upbringing.

His whole body was softened by the warmth, and gradually, he became less insistent on “drawing a line with Huo-shushu.” Huo Tinglan even whispered, “It’s okay,” when he was asked for his design opinions on some details.

“Anything will do,” Huo Tinglan said with a confident attitude. “Just listen to me.”

“. . . . En.”

Huo Tinglan turned his face calmly and glanced at Ye Ci.

His red ears were soft, and his expression was obedient.

Turning back before Ye Ci could notice his gaze, the corners of his lips lifted slightly.

. . . . . . 

It was a rare opportunity for Huo Tinglan to buy clothes for Ye Ci, and he ordered a lot in one go, filling the three-month schedule of the old shop owner. He purchased a special expedited service for the formal clothes to be worn at the family banquet, to have them made in a few days.

On this day, he took Ye Ci to try on the clothes. Knowing that the customer was an Omega, the shop owner avoided opening the dark red velvet curtain, and Huo Tinglan stood alone outside of it.

The expensive fabric rubbed together to make a pleasant sound, and Ye Ci fiddled with it for a while before suddenly opening the curtain a crack. Thin white fingers grasped a mess of black elastic cloth, and he hesitantly asked: “Huo-shushu, what, what is this?

Huo Tinglan maintained a dignified restraint. With a brief glance, he said: “It’s a shirt clip to prevent the shirt from slipping up.”

He, who had long been wearing formal clothes as naturally as if they were a second skin, had no habit of using shirt clips, but the owner of the shop was very thoughtful. Likely because Ye Ci was young, didn’t often wear formal clothes, and was a lively and active young man, he had prepared two.

Ye Ci was still confused and asked: “How do I wear it?”

Huo Tinglan turned his head and looked at the dark red gap in the dressing room curtain. Perhaps because of the static electricity when he took off his sweater, Ye Ci’s black hair was so disheveled that it was thought-provoking. The collar of his shirt was not buttoned tightly, and the vanilla scent of pheromones was getting sweeter in the diminutive dressing room, warmly pouring through the gap . . . .

Huo Tinglan was afraid that his eyes would reveal his secret, so he didn’t give himself a chance to look down at that neckline. He raised his hand and pulled the door curtain, covering the ambiguous gap.

“One goes on each side.” He closed his eyes and kept his composure. “Attach it to the leg band and pull the cloth strip with the metal buckle up to clamp the hem of the shirt.”

“. . . . En.” Ye Ci retracted his hand and fiddled with his shirt clip awkwardly.

The atmosphere outside the curtain was heavy.

Huo Tinglan fiddled with his cufflinks, thinking.

Ye Ci was not the same as he was more than a month ago.

It could be seen that his guard had been lowered a lot, probably because his good shushu wore his mask too well. Ye Ci had already welded labels such as “gentleman” and “noble” to him, and was sure that he wouldn’t have any crooked thoughts about him.

For better or for worse.

It was good to have a closer relationship, but he was afraid that Ye Ci would be accustomed to his role as an honest caregiver and guardian, and reject him with, “You’re a good person, but . . . .”

Once familial affection was formed, it was not easy to reverse it.

At this time, there was a “pa” sound from behind the curtain.

It was the slight sound of an elastic band on flesh, ambiguous and seductive.

The sound reminded him of the night Ye Ci came back from the police station. Ye Ci injured his ankle in a fight with someone, and he knelt down on one knee to check the injury, afraid that Ye Ci would step on the ground with his injured foot. He anxiously reached out to grasp it, but he couldn’t help but be unwilling to let go.

That grip was their only physical contact since they’d gotten married, and he couldn’t help but reminisce about it.

Those slender legs not lacking in strength, tough and lanky like a gazelle. He could feel the vigorous youth and vitality under that skin.

If such a pair of legs were restrained by the elastic band, no matter how firm the muscles were, they would inevitably be tightly bound . . . . 

Forget it.

After thinking about it but not being able to do anything, he was tortured in vain.

Huo Tinglan ridiculed those few colorful thoughts with self-deprecation.

The Alpha glands on the back of his neck were agitated again.

His susceptible period had been delayed by more than a month through pheromone pacification, and was almost reaching its limit . . . .

Ye Ci’s “you are very good” . . . . he couldn’t bear it. He didn’t want to bear it anymore.

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[1] Yellow crap, 黄色废料, means having sex on the mind all the time. ⮐

[2] Yellow book, 黄书, means erotic literature. ⮐

[3] A pupil earthquake, 瞳孔地震, is an expression of extreme shock. There is also an emoticon for it: ( ; ; @_@ ) ⮐

[4] Black shop, 黑店, is an unscrupulous business, perhaps a front for something illegal. ⮐

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Chapter Eleven << Table of Contents >> Chapter Thirteen