The man’s light and breezy sentence possessed a meaning that couldn’t possibly be summarized by a simple phrase like “astonishing.”

It could only be said that thankfully, they were the only two people in the hospital room.

Lin Zhu had already somewhat gotten used to Yan Ruoyun’s explosive remarks when they were alone, yet he still couldn’t stop his heart from heating up. Both of his hands pulled the man’s waist even tighter; for a long moment, he couldn’t speak, his heart feeling both sour and sweet.

Because Lin Zhu heard it.

The subtext of that sentence seemed to be…

He was willing.

He was willing to be permanently marked by him.

Lin Zhu remained silent for quite a while before dawdlingly lifting his head. Meeting the man’s eyes, he repeatedly asked: “Ge, are… are you sure…?”

Yan Ruoyun’s appearance and aura both exuded a refined and handsome elegance; he looked especially beautiful when wearing a slight smile.

But most of the time, his smiles were polite, hiding a thick sense of distance behind them.

Right now, facing this little boyfriend who was hugging his waist, whose eyes vaguely revealed an inexplicably pessimistic emotion, Yan Ruoyun had no smile on his face. However, that touch of grayish-green in his eyes flickered and danced, much like the dappled light leaping through a forest.

“If you have the capability, then give it a try,” he replied.

There didn’t sound to be anything wrong with this sentence.

But for some unknown reason, Lin Zhu’s originally dumbfounded brain seemed to have been waxed. His train of thought slipped like it was wearing roller skates, veering right off onto a tangent—

He thought:

What exactly did Yan Ruoyun mean by… ‘capability’??

This thought only flashed by for a second, but it made Lin Zhu’s face flush red with shame.

He hurriedly pulled his derailed thoughts back, cursing internally: It’s probably because the System forcibly stuffed terabytes of audio-visual trash into my brain a few days ago, causing me to…

The System, an innocent and pure sphere, couldn’t bear such slander. It immediately jumped out with a ziwa sound, protesting strongly: “I did stuff some little clips into the Host’s brain, but how many have you actually watched? This System will not take the blame for this!”

It first threw out a triple denial, skillfully washing its hands of the responsibility, before immediately pondering for a moment and offering a sharp critique:

“They say interest is the best teacher…”

“Host, in my opinion, it’s highly likely that you’ve developed a massive interest in the protagonist. Bracket: There are no homophones in my sentence, so don’t you go overthinking it. End bracket.”

Lin Zhu: “…”

This disclaimer was way too perfunctory.

After being subtly jabbed at by the System’s chatter, the lingering melancholy and daze in Lin Zhu’s heart dissipated like morning dew under the sunlight, temporarily vanishing without a trace.

In a daze.

He remembered what Yan Ruoyun had said that day.

—Don’t take out a loan on future tragedies.

—Live in the present, grasp every minute and second right in front of you.

Lin Zhu closed his eyes again, sniffing the unique scent of the sea breeze on the man’s body. He only felt that every wrinkle in his heart had been smoothed out by this gust of wind.

Time stopped in this moment.

He adjusted his posture and couldn’t resist burying his head into the man’s chest. His long, drawn-out breaths penetrated the cotton hospital gown, continuously spraying onto the man’s skin.

Lin Zhu was completely oblivious that he was greedily absorbing the reassuring and intoxicating scent from his older lover.

He was like a child who had nothing, walking alone on barren land, only to turn his head and find someone generously laying out a massive pile of treasure before him—that person hadn’t just given him many kisses, but also given him a lot of love.

So…

Lin Zhu whispered very softly in his heart, “So, I also want to give you…”

“Lots and lots of love.”

–

A little past one in the afternoon.

Chen Yuan visited the hospital room again.

When he entered, he was carrying quite a few things in his hands.

A formal suit, a hastily drafted preliminary plan rushed out by the PR team, and a thick copy of ‘Past Years’ College Entrance Exam Questions’.

The vibe of that last item was far too different from the rest, so much so that when Chen Yuan pulled it out of the shopping bag, his expression cracked slightly. “Mr. Lin, these are the college entrance exam materials you requested, and there are pens in the bag…”

Lin Zhu took it with both hands and earnestly thanked him.

After Chen Yuan left, Yan Ruoyun walked out of the bathroom having changed his clothes. As he buttoned up his jacket, he glanced at the blond youth who was flipping through the exam papers.

“Little dog Lin, working this hard?”

Lin Zhu pulled the cap off his gel pen and nodded hesitantly: “Yeah, I can only change classes if I get good grades on the midterms.”

Actually, for him, this could only be considered an incredibly ordinary daily routine; there was no such thing as ‘working particularly hard.’

But who could blame him when his current character setting was a scumbag ex-husband who completely ignored his studies…

Fortunately, the System had said that he only needed to act according to the original novel’s script during key plot points; in other aspects, he was completely unrestricted.

So Lin Zhu just acted according to his own habits.

It was rare for the weather to clear up today. The afternoon sun was wonderful, with warm-toned rays of light leisurely spilling inside.

The area by the window in the hospital room was divided into two sections: on one side lay the unfolded three-fold exam papers, and on the other sat a black business laptop.

The blond youth and the suit-clad man sat face-to-face, each busy with their own matters.

Lin Zhu pinched his pen, looking sharp, perfectly enacting a single sentence.

—Even in an ABO world, I’ll still study for you to see!

The System, which had just completed a task settlement, let out the sound of a village auntie cracking melon seeds.

“Oh my, Host, couldn’t you allocate a little bit of this formidable subjective initiative to your role-playing tasks?”

Just as It finished speaking, It let out a hearty laugh, rebutting Itself:

“Just follow the normal pace; otherwise, this System might have to worry about something else…!”

Lin Zhu scribbled rapidly, finishing a few questions before multitasking to reply, “Worry about what?”

“Based on the fact that you and the protagonist’s gazes practically pull strings of sugar right now…” the System said in a profound tone, “Honestly, I’m kind of worried that before you even finish compensating for the next marriage plot point task, you’ll have already knocked him up.”

“Scratch—!”

The tip of Lin Zhu’s pen instantly pierced through the back of the paper, nearly slicing the exam sheet completely in half, drawing a look of concern from the man opposite him.

Yan Ruoyun’s online meeting hadn’t officially started yet. Thinking his little boyfriend’s academic foundation was too poor and couldn’t help venting his frustration on the utterly incomprehensible exam paper, he calmly said:

“If you don’t know how to answer, just leave it; take it slow… It really doesn’t matter if you can’t learn it. It’s not like I’m asking you to test into a top-tier university.”

He actually didn’t care about what scores his little boyfriend got. The reason he made such a request before was merely to give the youth something to do.

What else consumed more energy than studying?

High school students should just honestly go to school.

Misunderstood as being in a state of ‘incompetent fury of a poor student,’ Lin Zhu fell silent for a short while, managed a difficult “Mn,” and then went back to burying his head in the questions.

The System, like a super virus that had slipped through the firewall, continued to chatter endlessly in Lin Zhu’s consciousness, its demonic voice piercing his ears.

“Right, right, Host, I went to the docks and scored some AO marking study materials for your reference. It’s mostly text-based, do you want it?”

“Huhu… When the time comes, you have to perform well; you absolutely must make the protagonist feel so good he can’t even open his eyes!”

Lin Zhu couldn’t even get a word in. Before he could speak… Crash!

In an instant.

His brain had acquired several more terabytes of trash.

The next second, Lin Zhu heard the System proactively say: “No need to thank me; this is what a considerate System should do.”

Lin Zhu: “…”

Perhaps sensing the intense fluctuations in its Host’s heart, the System’s tone became slightly hesitant as It asked, deeply pained:

“If the Host really doesn’t want it, this System can delete it, so do… do you want to delete it?”

Expressionlessly writing down a few answers, Lin Zhu paused for a long time before stiffly saying:

“…Forget it, just leave it like this.”

The moment his words fell.

A strange sound rang out in his mind.

“Pfft.”

Lin Zhu: “System, are you…”

“Nope, this System didn’t laugh at all.”

Before Lin Zhu could finish his sentence, the System immediately defended itself with the innocent tone of a young girl. “I am an official System who has undergone professional training. No matter how funny the situation is, I wouldn’t… Pfft!”

Lin Zhu…

Lin Zhu chose to keep a cold face and continue doing exam questions!

–

Despite the System worrying its heart out for its Host, in the following few days, nothing too overtly intimate happened between him and Yan Ruoyun.

Perhaps it was because Lin Zhu appeared right on time, or perhaps their pheromones were too compatible, compounded by the warming of their feelings…

The man never exhibited symptoms of acute estrus again. He very safely passed the observation period and was cleared by Dr. Xu to process his discharge paperwork.

During these few days, Yan Ruoyun was exceptionally busy.

He spent most of his time hugging his laptop to work, sometimes making phone calls to his subordinates at the company, occasionally talking face-to-face with Chen Yuan…

Even though Lin Zhu didn’t really understand much about running a business, he always consciously made himself scarce, leaving the man independent space to handle his work.

One was busy studying and doing exam questions, while the other was busy handling work. Only at night, when they hugged each other to sleep, did they engage in some couple’s activities.

But it was strictly limited to hugging and kissing.

Lin Zhu never forgot that Yan Ruoyun had entered the hospital as a patient.

As long as the man wasn’t experiencing acute estrus, he wouldn’t engage in excessive exploratory behavior.

Which resulted in…

Even though their feelings for each other were clearly heating up, their physical distance had been pulled apart.

It was as if there was a layer of transparent water film between them.

Visible, yet untouchable.

It needlessly stoked the fire in one’s heart. The flames were extremely vigorous, surging straight upward, almost burning their eyebrows.

The only thing worth celebrating was:

In these few days of spending day and night together, Lin Zhu’s kissing skills had improved by leaps and bounds. He finally stopped fiercely sucking on Yan Ruoyun’s tongue the moment he caught it, biting while he ate.

That posture had been like a wolf pup going vicious, determined to swallow the prey beneath him whole into his stomach.

There were several times Yan Ruoyun was kissed nearly to the point of suffocation. Afterwards, he couldn’t resist using his index finger to hook open the corner of Lin Zhu’s mouth, making him open wide—he observed carefully from top to bottom, but didn’t find the youth’s tongue to be a section longer than an ordinary person’s.

How did it jab straight into his throat?

Fortunately, the little boyfriend’s learning ability was very strong. By the day of discharge, the elevated level of his kissing skills greatly surprised Yan Ruoyun, yet also left him unable to resist being led and sinking into it.

The position of the guide seemed to have undergone a subtle shift.

Regarding this point.

Yan Ruoyun expressed strong dissatisfaction.

“Little dog Lin, my jaw is about to dislocate… Can’t you pull your own tongue back? My mouth isn’t your storage locker.”

Due to certain preferences of Lin Zhu’s, when they kissed, Yan Ruoyun often couldn’t hold back his own saliva, causing it to run down the corners of his mouth…

This drove the man, who had mild mysophobia, slightly crazy.

Lin Zhu would lower his head and honestly accept the scolding, but he could never get rid of this behavior, which was somewhat akin to a puppy claiming its territory.

Pinching his cheeks, Yan Ruoyun lectured him repeatedly, yet before Lin Zhu could change it…

He had already gotten used to it a step earlier.

There really was nowhere to reason this out.

A traffic light ahead.

The driver stepped on the brakes, and the two people in the back seat shifted slightly forward due to inertia.

The partition in the middle served to block both sight and sound between the front and back seats.

A faint layer of red flushed Yan Ruoyun’s face due to a lack of oxygen. Helplessly, he used the tip of his tongue to wipe away the silver thread at the corner of his mouth, instructing: “We’ll drop you off at home first. Tomorrow is Thursday… Remember to cancel your leave and go to class.”

Lin Zhu’s condition was much better than his; at least he didn’t have to gasp for air in large mouthfuls.

He nodded: “Oh.”

This was what Lin Zhu had planned to do anyway, so naturally he had no objections. He paused, then asked: “Ge, are you still going to be very busy next?”

Yan Ruoyun nodded: “Mn.”

As for what he was busy doing—

He’d keep it a secret for now.

Soon, the car stopped at the entrance of the residential compound.

Carrying a small bag, Lin Zhu got out of the car. He happened to see Yan Ruoyun roll down the window, quietly staring at him, and saying: “…Go on up, I’ll head straight back to the company after this.”

“Mn.”

It was around ten-thirty in the morning at this time.

Beidu City’s autumn rain season had quietly passed during their hospitalization. The dark clouds had dispersed, and the weather forecast showed it would be sunny for the next half a month.

The weather wasn’t too hot, and the sun was pleasantly warm.

Walking a few steps into the compound, Lin Zhu couldn’t help but turn his head for a look.

The car hadn’t started yet, and the window hadn’t rolled up either. Yan Ruoyun was leaning against the car door, watching him enter the compound. Seeing him turn back to look, he waved at him again.

Lin Zhu also waved back, then turned his head and continued walking.

When he entered the main gate of the compound, he couldn’t help but turn his head for another look, only to find Yan Ruoyun’s car still in the same spot.

Through the car window, Lin Zhu saw the man with his head lowered, seemingly fiddling with something.

At the same time.

The phone in his pants pocket vibrated.

As if sensing something, Lin Zhu swiftly pulled out his phone to check—sure enough, Yan Ruoyun had sent him a message.

There was no text in the WeChat chat box, only a casually taken photo.

It was a photo of Lin Zhu’s back.

The youth had a tall and slender figure, and the combination of a short-sleeved shirt and knee-length shorts made him look exceptionally youthful. His blond hair was messed up by the wind, shining brightly under the sun, looking extremely conspicuous walking on the road.

“Buzz.”

The phone vibrated again.

[President Yan: What is the handsome little guy always turning his head to look at?]

Lin Zhu pursed his lips, slowly typing out two words. His thumb hovered over the send button for a long time before he finally made up his mind and pressed it.

The second he pressed down.

A small green bubble popped out with a whoosh next to his avatar.

Sent successfully.

…

[Lin Zhu: Looking at my wife.]