Yan Ruojun was teasing him.

But how could a pure-hearted student like Lin Zhu, who had never been in a relationship before, possibly handle a confession scene like this? He immediately jerked backward in panic, nearly stumbling and collapsing onto the floor.

The tingling numbness in his legs surged upward in an instant, like an electric shock, making him press his lips into a hard line, his expression turning especially ugly.

Yan Ruojun had been watching his every reaction. Smoothly, he said, “Of course, you can refuse too. This kind of thing can’t be forced.”

Seeing Lin Zhu raise those drooping eyes to look at him, with what seemed to be shock and uncertainty flickering inside them, the man smiled and lowered the leg he had been bracing against the bedside.

With an unreadable half-smile, he said, “You don’t need to worry about the pheromone compatibility issue between you and me. Even without you, I can live normally. As for what happened tonight…”

“Just treat it as an accident.”

Yan Ruojun stood up and, as if naturally, moved to leave, speaking in an airy tone. “In that case, let’s just pretend we never met tonight?”

“There’ll be no need for us to meet again in the future…”

Lin Zhu couldn’t get a word in the entire time. He could only stare blankly as Yan Ruojun’s retreating figure disappeared from the bedroom with calm, unhurried steps, completely unable to understand how the atmosphere that had been so ambiguous and heart-racing one second could suddenly plunge downhill the next.

It left him utterly bewildered, and his chest felt inexplicably tight.

Lin Zhu stood up and was suddenly dazzled by a fleeting flash of white light.

The source of that light came from a hidden corner of the nightstand. If he hadn’t stood up just then, he never would have noticed it.

Lin Zhu looked carefully—and his breathing instantly stalled. His heartbeat rose and fell violently as if deprived of oxygen, pounding inside his chest with echoing thuds.

It was a high-potency inhibitor for Alphas.

Earlier, in the first-floor restroom, Lin Zhu had thought the man had come empty-handed. He had no idea that inside Yan Ruojun’s suit jacket was the newest high-potency inhibitor on the market.

And yet, under those circumstances, Yan Ruojun had never taken out the inhibitor. Instead, tense and hesitant, he had allowed Lin Zhu to mark him.

What had he been thinking?

Lin Zhu couldn’t figure it out.

Hadn’t he already heard a whole string of terrible things about this scumbag ex-husband-type guy? Hadn’t tonight originally been nothing more than going through the motions for the sake of family?

Then why was it still—still—

Just as Lin Zhu couldn’t understand Yan Ruojun’s choice, he also couldn’t understand why he was suddenly so angry that it seemed to burst out of nowhere. In the end, he gave up trying to find an answer and, almost on instinct, walked out.

In the living room—

Yan Ruojun was standing at an angle with his back partly toward him. Lin Zhu could only see one of his arms bent at his side, draped with the clean clothes he had taken out of a paper bag. His other hand was raised near his ear, as though he were brushing back his hair or doing something else.

He was about to leave.

Lin Zhu realized that with perfect clarity.

Yan Ruojun was the kind of person who never dragged things out. Once he made a decision, he did not regret it, nor did he look back. Lin Zhu, who had read the original novel, knew that better than anyone.

Even though when the next heat arrived the two of them would most likely meet again because of Yan Ruojun’s condition, Lin Zhu still felt inexplicably unhappy.

A sudden car accident, the utterly unbelievable transmigration into a novel, the role-playing task he had no way of escaping… too many things had happened in too short a time, all of them beyond what Lin Zhu could handle, leaving him overwhelmed.

And Yan Ruojun’s speech—something very much like a confession—became the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Lin Zhu’s already fraying nerves short-circuited completely, and he could only act according to the deepest desire in his heart.

“Smack—!”

Lin Zhu strode forward in silence and grabbed the arm that was holding the clothes, his grip somewhat too forceful.

Yan Ruojun was abruptly seized by the upper arm by the younger man, and his body froze for an instant. He turned his face to look over, and only after waiting several seconds did he hear Lin Zhu labor out two words.

“…Don’t go.”

Yan Ruojun’s expression remained calm. Suddenly, he said, “About what I mentioned earlier… just pretend I never said it.”

At those words, Lin Zhu pressed his lips together even more tightly. His hand gripped the man’s upper arm like iron, and like a broken record he forced out the same sentence again: “Don’t go. I’m begging you.”

The man turned around.

Only then did Lin Zhu finally see what the hand by Yan Ruojun’s ear had actually been doing…

He was on the phone???

Holding up his cellphone, Yan Ruojun said flatly, “That’s all for now. I’m hanging up first.”

On the other end of the call—

The driver looked utterly confused. “Oh, okay, President Yan, so I’m not coming over after all?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a few beeps came from the other side.

His wife leaned over beside him and asked curiously, “Does President Yan have a business engagement tonight? Is he making you work overtime again?” There wasn’t the slightest hint of disappointment or dissatisfaction on her face.

After all, working for President Yan meant good pay and generous benefits. Faced with his frequent requests for overtime driving, any complaints she might have had were more than smoothed over by thick red envelopes.

“No,” the driver shook his head. “President Yan had Secretary Chen cancel tonight’s business dinner ahead of time, and he even specifically gave me time off. So this should be a private matter, right?”

When President Yan was handling private matters, he rarely had the driver pick him up or drop him off. And besides… somehow, the way President Yan had spoken just now felt a little strange?

…Emmm.

Why did it sound a bit like the tone President Yan used when he was setting someone up??

—

On the other side—

The hotel living room was open and brightly lit, so quiet there was no human sound to be heard, only the artificial tapping noises of fingers against a phone screen.

Click, click-click—

Yan Ruojun was still wearing that pure white bathrobe. At the moment, he was sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other, head lowered as he poked at his phone.

Lin Zhu was crouching by his feet, his bright golden head buried in his arms, the tips of his ears that peeked out faintly red with shame and indignation.

Yan Ruojun moved one leg and casually said, “I’m leaving.”

The yellow-orange head shook from side to side, silently saying no.

Yan Ruojun kept tapping at his screen with his thumb and said with the same air of indifference, “You won’t date me, but you don’t want me to leave either. Do you really want to hook up with me that badly?”

Lin Zhu softly objected, “…No.”

Yan Ruojun turned off the screen, casually tossed the phone onto the sofa, and looked down at the blond puppy at his feet, who was still burying his head. “Then what do you mean?”

He waited a little, but no answer came. So he clicked his tongue lightly and said, “Let go.”

The boy’s fingers twitched, but he still didn’t release the hem of the bathrobe he was clutching tightly.

Yan Ruojun clicked his tongue again. “If you’ve got nothing better to do, then…” He paused, then said the second half lightly and casually.

“Help me dry my hair.”

Without a word, Lin Zhu picked up the hair dryer from the sofa beside him, found an outlet in the base behind the side of the couch, plugged it in, and began drying Yan Ruojun’s hair.

Warm air hummed out from the machine.

Lin Zhu held the dryer in one hand and moved it back and forth, while the fingers of his other hand carefully sifted through Yan Ruojun’s hair, taking great care not to touch his skin.

Yan Ruojun’s hair was rather soft. Although it was impressively thick, it dried quickly. Without any styling, he looked unexpectedly young, completely unlike someone nearing thirty—more like a refined and gentle university student.

Lin Zhu clicked the dryer off with a snap, then once again had no idea what he should do. Whether he crouched or stood, he felt awkward. But if he was supposed to say something to Yan Ruojun, no words would come out of his mouth at all.

A complete clam.

The system, which had been silently observing everything as the recorder of the plot, asked flatly, “Host, I have to say… don’t you think the protagonist is baiting you???”

Lin Zhu: “…I don’t think so?”

Right at that moment—

Yan Ruojun tilted his head back and crooked a finger at him, signaling for Lin Zhu to come closer.

Lin Zhu bent down hesitantly, and then heard him speak almost in a breath, in an extremely, extremely soft voice—

“Thanks.”