Carrying the hair dryer, Yan Ruojun turned back—then suddenly stopped in front of Lin Zhu.

Whenever those deep-set eyes looked over, they always carried a faint trace of scrutiny, yet Lin Zhu did not find it annoying.

He just felt a little awkward.

Lin Zhu straightened where he sat, just about to speak, when he saw the bathrobe-clad man bend down toward him. The distance between them closed more and more…

Subconsciously, he shut his mouth and turned his head aside to avoid him. But from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of an arm passing by his side and hooking up the paper bag that he had been blocking halfway.

Taking the paper bag, Yan Ruojun glanced inside and asked in an indifferent tone, “What are you dodging for?”

Lin Zhu: “…Nothing.”

Just a moment ago, he had been thinking that the protagonist had a good personality—telling him to go take a shower so he wouldn’t catch cold, even preparing clothes for him.

At this moment, though, he only felt that the man was deliberately teasing him.

Was it his imagination?

Before Yan Ruojun could turn and go back into the bedroom to change, Lin Zhu hurriedly added, “I left my phone in the bathroom. I want to go get it first.”

Yan Ruojun shifted slightly to the side, signaling for him to go in ahead.

The warmth in the bathroom had not yet dissipated.

The faint scent of sea-salt body wash still lingered in the air, rich and fragrant.

Lin Zhu headed straight for his goal. He picked up the phone that had been left on the storage shelf for quite a while, wiped away the water droplets that had accidentally splashed onto the screen, and at the same time gathered up the dirty clothes he had worn earlier, intending to stuff them into the now-empty paper bag and take them away later.

As he walked around the large bed in the middle of the room toward the exit, Lin Zhu caught sight, from the corner of his eye, of an entire suit lying in a messy heap on the floor by the bedside.

It was the clothing Yan Ruojun had changed out of.

One glance was enough to tell it had cost a fortune, yet it had been casually thrown onto the floor.

The light-colored suit jacket lay on top, covering the clothes beneath. With his sharp eyes, Lin Zhu noticed a nearly invisible pale pink bloodstain at the collar.

Lin Zhu: “…”

If he remembered correctly, Yan Ruojun had a mild obsession with cleanliness. Since he had tossed his changed clothes onto the floor so casually, he probably did not intend to keep them, right?

Ah.

Lin Zhu sighed inwardly, completely failing to notice that just moments ago he had been privately complaining that Yan Ruojun had a bit of a wicked sense of humor, and now was instead sheepishly feeling as though he had caused the man trouble.

Thinking that, he took a few extra steps to the foot of the bed, crouched down, and reached to pick up the clothes from the floor, intending to place them on the bed or on a chair.

Whether Yan Ruojun wanted them anymore was one thing.

Since he had seen them, he might as well pick them up.

It was not as if it took any effort.

—

In the living room—

Yan Ruojun tossed the bag of clean clothes and the hair dryer back onto the sofa, a hint of restlessness hidden in his expression. He paced back and forth around the coffee table a few times before finally unable to resist lowering his head and taking a light sniff…

Only the scent of body wash remained in the air.

At that instant, Yan Ruojun felt a hollow emptiness inside, like a hydrogen balloon with its string cut loose, drifting unsteadily upward without knowing where it was headed, with nothing but dizzying empty sky beneath it.

He took a deep breath and thought: This is normal.

An Omega who had been marked for the first time would develop a strong physiological dependence on the Alpha, wanting to stay close to them at all times. If they could not see the other person, negative emotions like disappointment and depression would uncontrollably arise.

Of course, he was not depressed. At most… there was just the tiniest bit of disappointment.

Suddenly, Yan Ruojun’s pacing stopped. Lowering his eyes, he looked toward the barrier gloves and collar on the coffee table, his expression holding both resistance and desire.

A few seconds passed.

The man bent down, picked up the black collar, and slowly fastened it around his own neck.

The leather surface of the collar was slightly cool. The moment it touched his skin, Yan Ruojun felt a tingling, electric sensation rise from the gland at the back of his neck, covering the dull pain that had been there before and replacing it with an entirely different feeling.

…It was an indescribable feeling, one full of contradiction.

As though that drifting hydrogen balloon had suddenly had its string caught in someone’s hand; while losing its freedom, it gained a kind of satisfaction it could not bear to part with.

Hesitation lingered in Yan Ruojun’s heart. One hand rose to rub the barrier collar he had put back on as he recalled everything that had happened that night, along with the boy’s face—always blank and stunned, always seeming to want to say something and then stopping.

Setting aside the effect of the temporary mark between an Alpha and an Omega, he really had developed a bit of fondness for Lin Zhu himself. It was only that the time they had spent together had been too short, leaving him somewhat hesitant.

But that hesitation did not last long.

Yan Ruojun was a businessman.

And a businessman’s instincts told him—

Don’t hesitate.

Only by acting ruthlessly and swiftly could one get what one wanted.

Very soon, the corners of his lips curved upward.

The hesitation in his eyes faded away as well, revealing the edge he usually carried.

Once he had figured it out, Yan Ruojun leisurely padded back toward the bedroom in his slippers. The door was half open, and from quite a distance away he could already see Lin Zhu crouching down, seeming to be about to pick something up.

…Hm??

The smile hanging at Yan Ruojun’s lips froze.

In an instant, his long legs moved at remarkable speed, nearly covering three steps in one. He finally reached the boy at the exact moment Lin Zhu picked up the coat, snatched the sleeve from his hand, and threw it back onto the floor.

A syringe-shaped object slipped out of the coat pocket, rolling across the carpet several times before coming to a stop, but neither of them noticed.

Least of all Yan Ruojun.

A piercing pain shot up from his little toe like a bolt of lightning, instantly racing up to the back of his head. His brows knitted together, and he could not help letting out a sharp hiss of pain.

—He had kicked the bed frame.

Lin Zhu was also full of shock, having no idea why Yan Ruojun had suddenly rushed in so frantically… just to stop him from picking up some dirty clothes?

The thought passed in a flash. Seeing that Yan Ruojun was in too much pain to keep standing, Lin Zhu quickly supported his forearm and helped him sit down on the edge of the bed.

“Are you okay?” he asked tensely.

At that moment, one of Yan Ruojun’s feet was on the ground while the other braced against the edge of the bed. He had lowered his head and was pressing one hand tightly over the top of the foot he had struck.

When Lin Zhu got no answer, he simply crouched down, tilted his head closer, and pressed, “Does it hurt a lot?”

The moment he leaned in, his face was pushed away by Yan Ruojun’s other hand.

“Don’t worry about me.”

Lin Zhu blinked, not reacting for a moment.

…That had not been his imagination just now, had it?

It looked like… Yan Ruojun had cried??

The man buried his face against his bent knee, half his face sunken in shadow. The corners of his eyes seemed damp, moisture gathering on his eyelashes into a tiny, tiny droplet that looked as though it might fall at any moment.

Lin Zhu could not help inhaling sharply too.

He had stubbed his toe before as well.

This kind of injury might not be serious and would get better after a little while, but when it hurt, it really was hard to endure.

So Lin Zhu leaned in again.

Crouching directly in front of Yan Ruojun, he reached up, caught the wrist covering the top of the man’s foot, and softened his voice. “Let me take a look?”

He had to say it two more times before the man finally loosened his strength and let Lin Zhu pull his hand away, revealing the injured part of his foot.

Yan Ruojun’s instep was very pale, bluish veins growing silently beneath the skin. Lin Zhu noticed a bright little red mole decorating the inner side of his ankle, vivid enough to sting the eye.

Probably because he was bracing himself against the bed edge and because of the pain, his toes were curled tightly together. The nails were rounded and neat, only the outer side of the little toe showing red, with a thin patch of skin lifted there.

Fortunately, the wound was not deep. It was not bleeding, and there were no signs that the nail had split.

Lin Zhu let out a breath of relief. “That’s good. It’s not serious.”

After a few seconds, he asked in confusion, “Why were you in such a hurry just now? I only wanted to pick up the clothes…”

That was exactly the problem.

Yan Ruojun thought silently to himself.

Letting this freshly-of-age kid see the overflow of fluids from his heat?

—He truly could not afford that level of humiliation.

Suppressing his irritation, Yan Ruojun quickly regained the composure of an adult. Resting his chin on his knee, he looked down slightly at the boy crouching before him and changed the subject.

“Lin Zhu.”

“Mm?”

The blond-haired boy lifted his eyes to look over, revealing those eyes that gave off a gloomy, world-weary impression.

Yan Ruojun openly studied his gaze, his expression, his body language. Then, in an offhand tone, he asked, “Do you… have something you want to say to me?”

The boy’s eyes could never hide anything. He always looked over as though he wanted to speak, and the moment Yan Ruojun noticed, he would pull his gaze back again at once.

Yan Ruojun found it rather amusing and had simply pretended not to notice.

But now he wanted to hear Lin Zhu say something, so he added, “Just say it.”

At those words, the boy crouching on the floor ran a hand through his hair twice, giving Yan Ruojun the illusion for a second of a golden retriever that had gotten into trouble.

The big dog’s expression was not very rich, but those highly deceptive eyes hid an entire world.

He cautiously confirmed, “Then… I’m really saying it?”

Yan Ruojun nodded. “Say it.”

Lin Zhu pressed his lips together, a little delighted, and with a trace of expectation said the key line:

“…Does it feel good?”

He did not dare pause, and without even taking a breath he hurriedly blurted out the second half:

“Remember, only I can give that to you!”

Yan Ruojun’s silence was deafening.

After a long while, he asked, “You stared at me all night just because you wanted to say that?”

As the system shouted joyfully in his head, “Yay, the first key plot point has been successfully repaired! Mission—great success!”, Lin Zhu finally showed his first smile of the night.

Happily, he nodded. “Mm.”

Yan Ruojun: “…………”

Xia Feng was right.

You really could not underestimate the pride of a virgin Alpha.