With a sharp rustle of paper.

Yan Ruojun sat on the edge of the bed. He had maintained his downward-gazing, reading posture for several hours already, and now, he had finally turned the book to its very last page.

His eyes lowered, he stared intently at the sentences trailing off at the bottom of the page. His chest felt as though it were being tightly constricted; he felt cold, yet simultaneously burning hot, his body drenched in a heavy sweat.

After a long pause.

Yan Ruojun shifted his stiffened fingers, turning the pages backward without pause until he stopped at one particular chapter.

Once again, he laid eyes upon his own name.

[…The light inside the bathroom was a ghastly, sterile white.]

[Yan Ruojun stood in front of the mirror. Before he even had the chance to undo his necktie, he caught the scent of a familiar, violent, and highly irritating pheromone drifting over from behind him.]

[At the same time.]

[The person behind him spoke in an exceptionally mocking tone, “I heard you participated in an interview alongside Lin Xiujie? Returning home this late tonight, could it be that you simply couldn’t bear to leave him?”]

[“President Yan, do not forget exactly whose Omega you are!”]

[…Here it came again.]

[Yan Ruojun closed his eyes in sheer exhaustion.]

[If it weren’t for the recent abnormalities occurring within his body, he wouldn’t have insisted on Lin Zhu moving in to live with him in the first place. He had absolutely no desire to engage in these constant, relentless arguments with Lin Zhu, and so he responded coldly, “I haven’t forgotten.”]

[Yan Ruojun understood with absolute clarity that Lin Zhu wasn’t repeatedly declaring ownership out of jealousy or love. Rather, it stemmed from a fierce, intensely distorted sense of envy toward Lin Xiujie…]

[And because his past relationship with Lin Xiujie as his widely known ex-fiancé was public knowledge—consequently, he was merely a necessary tool for Lin Zhu to satisfy his own ego and desires.]

[Beyond that, he possessed no other meaning.]

[Choosing to marry Lin Zhu was the most catastrophic mistake he had ever committed in his life, Yan Ruojun thought silently to himself.]

[Yet right at this juncture, he unexpectedly discovered that he…]

[Through the pristine surface of the mirror, Yan Ruojun saw Lin Zhu standing just outside the bathroom door. His expression was terrifyingly dark, clearly highly displeased by the older man’s detached demeanor.]

[With his back turned toward him, Yan Ruojun let his lowered palm linger over his lower abdomen for a few brief seconds. Ultimately, his stance softened by a fraction, and he murmured softly, “I am exhausted. I want to rest.”]

[The moment the words left his lips.]

[The figure behind him stepped forward, his voice dripping with venomous sarcasm, “Right, the two of you share such deep, mutual respect. Naturally, you have nothing worth discussing with a failure like me…”]

[Lin Zhu violently yanked the man’s arm, forcefully spinning him around. His words became direct and vulgar to the absolute extreme, “But you still had no choice but to marry me, be marked by me, kneel before me like a dog, and whimper like a dog!”]

[Driven beyond the limits of his endurance, Yan Ruojun shoved the person before him away. His chest heaved violently as he raised his voice, “Have you said enough? Suppress your pheromones!”]

[Hearing this, Lin Zhu suddenly let out a low chuckle.]

[The bathroom space was inherently confined, and the harsh, tobacco-scented pheromones abruptly grew dense—suffocatingly dense. It not only claimed every pocket of air but poured directly into Yan Ruojun’s lungs with every breath.]

[This was Lin Zhu’s absolute favorite tactic to deploy.]

[A flash of resistance flared deep within Yan Ruojun’s eyes, yet he succumbed at an even faster rate. A 100% pheromone compatibility left him entirely defenseless; the gland at the back of his neck rapidly flushed red, swelling and burning hot.]

[He had been forced into induced heat once again.]

[Yan Ruojun’s entire body went limp, rendering him almost unable to stand. He took a staggered step backward, his lower back pressing against the edge of the vanity as he gasped out in desperation, “Don’t… Lin Zhu, I cannot right now…”]

[But the moment his refusal registered, the expression on the youth’s face grew uglier, and he closed the distance further, bringing with him the cold, biting scent of tobacco. He reached out and ripped Yan Ruojun’s necktie straight off, pinning the man’s slender wrists together and roughly binding them behind his back.]

[Yan Ruojun struggled with all his might, yet he was utterly defeated under the absolute absolute dominance of the pheromones, unable to muster a single ounce of strength.]

[In the next instant, Lin Zhu spun him back around. One hand clamped firmly onto the back of his neck, forcing him downward despite his struggles, forcing the man into a bent-over posture over the vanity table.]

[Yan Ruojun’s face was pressed directly against the glass mirror.]

[For a moment, the only sound that registered in his ears was the rustling and clicking of his belt buckle being undone.]

[Yan Ruojun’s arms were forced backward, his hands clenched tightly into fists as his wrists strained against the fabric, leaving deep red welts, yet he remained entirely unable to break free.]

[Immediately following that, a sharp clatter echoed!]

[Yan Ruojun’s belt, dragging his trousers along with it, slid completely down to the polished tile floor, producing a crisp metallic ring.]

[A wave of icy cold hit his front.]

[From behind, Lin Zhu advanced without a single shred of hesitation.]

[Yan Ruojun descended into absolute panic. Pressing his forehead against the mirror, he took the initiative to bend his neck lower, passively surrendering his gland into the youth’s grasping palm to be toyed with. He rasped hoarsely, “As long as you don’t do… that, anything else, I will let you have your way.”]

[Lin Zhu’s movements paused upon hearing this, uttering a strange, questioning grunt before asking with a sudden surge of excitement, “Really?”]

[Yan Ruojun bumped his head against the mirror, producing a few dull, heavy thuds. However, his brain was completely clouded by the oppressive pheromones, his rationality shattered into fragmented pieces…]

[…He knew exactly what the other intended to do.]

[Thus, Yan Ruojun bit his lower lip, closing his eyes tightly as he responded, “…Really.”]

[Lin Zhu released the hand that had been pinning him down with such force.]

[He took several steps backward, retreating all the way to the bathroom doorway. During this brief window, a sharp, metallic zip cut through the air—brief, fast, and unmistakable.]

[Yan Ruojun straightened his spine, catching sight of Lin Zhu smiling at him through the mirror. The youth’s sharp, fierce features were uncharacteristically gentle. He deliberately slowed his speech to the absolute minimum, issuing a command word by word:]

[“—Kneel, and crawl over here.”]

[Hearing this, Yan Ruojun’s entire body shuddered violently. His eyes instantly lost focus, his expression turning completely blank.]

[Within the cramped, suffocating space, Lin Zhu spoke.]

[Lin Zhu never stopped speaking.]

[He said,]

[“You are not allowed to spit it out.”]

[He also said,]

[“It’s a pity I didn’t bring my phone in here, otherwise I could have recorded a video for you… Tell me, if Lin Xiujie were to see this, how would he react? Will you even be able to look him in the eye normally after this?”]

[Yan Ruojun coughed violently for a continuous two to three minutes. A wave of physiological and psychological nausea surged up simultaneously, causing him to dry heave repeatedly. Devoid of all strength, he lay sideways on the cold tiled floor, his entire body thoroughly soaked in sweat.]

[Faced with Lin Zhu’s unhinged, deeply twisted psychological state, Yan Ruojun was simply too exhausted to cope. He merely lay there on the ground in a wretched state, a dull, throbbing ache radiating from his throat, rendering his voice raspy and broken, “How boring. Do you honestly believe everyone is as twisted as you?”]

[These words struck an absolute raw nerve within Lin Zhu.]

[He dropped down abruptly, fiercely clamping his fingers around Yan Ruojun’s throat. He leaned in close to the man’s ear, whispering venomously, “You’re right, he isn’t like me!”]

[Immediately following that, he added, “Then Lin Xiujie… has my brother also tasted you like this before?”]

[Having spoken, Lin Zhu savagely tore into Yan Ruojun’s gland with his teeth. His sharp canines pierced the flesh, injecting a massive flood of pheromones, drawing thin, crimson streaks of blood.]

[This was not a marking, nor could it even be considered a bite.]

[This was nothing short of a one-sided act of sheer violence.]

[And within this endless abyss of violence, Yan Ruojun’s soul finally achieved a detached state of transcendence. Closing his eyes, he could vividly perceive his own utterly shattered dignity. The harsh bathroom light beat down upon his form, and the residual trace of milky white clinging to the corner of his mouth left him with absolutely nowhere to hide.]

[Right then, a resounding crash echoed from outside.]

[Lin Zhu had stormed out, thoroughly enraged by his words, abandoning him inside the bathroom with his hands still tightly bound behind his back.]

[In that sudden flash of absolute silence, Yan Ruojun realized that his life over the past year or so closely resembled a dream. A highly distorted, oppressive nightmare.]

[—And now, he simply wished to wake up.]

[No matter the cost of that awakening, no matter what he was forced to cast aside. Yan Ruojun harbored a fierce, desperate craving to wake up.]

[The man’s breath hitched violently several times as he couldn’t resist whispering softly:]

[“I’m sorry… I am truly so sorry…”]

[Yet he was unmistakably the only living soul present inside the bathroom.]

Forcing himself to endure that horrific, ghost-story-like passage a second time, Yan Ruojun felt his stomach erupt into a violent upheaval. He hurled the book back onto the nightstand and bolted into the bathroom to throw up.

Yet his stomach yielded absolutely nothing; he could only dry heave relentlessly, to the extent that he failed to notice the sound of Lin Zhu returning home.

When he finally managed to lift his head.

Yan Ruojun caught sight of Lin Zhu’s reflection within the mirror.

The youth had already grown slightly taller than him. His features were deep and razor-sharp, having shed the residual innocence of boyhood to gradually adopt a grounded, steady composure.

The visual before his eyes intertwined vividly with the words printed on those pages, causing Yan Ruojun to instinctively flinch.

He couldn’t bring himself to look at his husband’s face through the mirror. Turning his head away, a question slipped from his lips entirely unbidden:

“Lin Zhu, have you ever doubted the reality of this world?”

The question landed like a sudden thunderclap, detonating violently against Lin Zhu’s nerves. A sharp, piercing ringing erupted within his mind, shattering his thoughts into fractured pieces that defied all synchronization.

Lin Zhu parted his lips. It took a long duration before he managed to reclaim his voice, asking dryly, “…Bro, what are you talking about?”

Yan Ruojun’s expression appeared profoundly sorrowful. He turned his body around, his beautiful eyes gazing deeply into the youth’s gaze as he suddenly asked something completely unrelated: “Will you help me confirm something?”

Something is terribly wrong.

Lin Zhu felt a powerful intuition—during the window of time he had been away from home, something completely unhinged must have occurred.

He froze for a few seconds before responding, “Confirm what?”

Yan Ruojun simply murmured, “Take a step back. Step back a bit further.”

Beholding the man’s erratic, rapid breathing and visibly disoriented state, Lin Zhu’s heart wound tight with immense anxiety. Left with no alternative, he retreated several paces in a daze until his back neared the bathroom doorway, only then hearing the man speak once more:

“…That’s far enough.”

However, what unfolded in the very next instant caused Lin Zhu’s eyes to snap wide open. His cognitive faculties ground to an absolute halt once more, thoroughly wrecked like a speeding train colliding with solid rock!

Because he watched as the impeccably dressed man slowly lowered his left knee to the floor, producing a faint, barely audible thud, followed immediately by his right knee, and then his left and right hands…

Lin Zhu stood entirely speechless, his brain resembling a long-neglected computer trapped in a state of total system failure. It took an eternity to register what had just transpired.

Yan Ruojun was kneeling.

And it didn’t simply end there.

The man, who was inherently proud and arrogant to the outside world, was not merely resting on his knees; he was actively using all four limbs to crawl forward across the floor—crawling directly toward his position!

Lin Zhu stared at the sight in sheer horror, as though he were personally witnessing a living ghost story, unable to muster a single ounce of suggestive or romantic thought.

The scene unfolding before his eyes wasn’t entirely unfamiliar; it felt faintly recognizable.

It wasn’t until Yan Ruojun had crawled all the way to his feet that Lin Zhu’s delayed realization finally clicked as to why this looked so familiar…

He had read this exact scenario inside the original novel.

Beholding text transform into a real-world reality delivered an unimaginably massive psychological shock. Lin Zhu firmly caught the man’s hand just as it made a move to undo his belt. After a long silence, he forced out a single sentence:

“Bro, do you… do you know something?”

Resting on both knees, Yan Ruojun tilted his neck upward to look at Lin Zhu. The heavy shadows dwelling within his eyes gradually receded, as though he had just successfully verified an essential truth. A faint smile suddenly graced his lips:

“I only know—”

“The true nature of this world has finally manifested before me.”

He paused for a single second.

The man continued smoothly, “Regarding the fact that I am the protagonist’s wife in the book titled 《After Traveling to an Alternate World and Binding with a System, I Have No Choice but to Become a Wealthy Old Man’s Dog》.”

Lin Zhu: “…………?”