Lin Zhu’s heart nearly leaped right out of his throat.

In the brief window of time since he had arrived home, he had been completely caught off-guard—first by Yan Ruojun’s agonizing, soul-wrenching dry heaving, followed by the sight of the man dropping to his knees to crawl toward him across the floor, even explicitly blurting out the fact that he was inside a book world.

…Though the title of the book was a bit bizarre.

Lin Zhu felt as though his tongue was tying itself in knots. He stammered for what felt like an eternity, unable to utter a single coherent sentence.

Snapping back to his senses, he hurriedly extended his arms, hooking them under Yan Ruojun’s ribcage to forcefully hoist the man off the floor.

The scene just now had been far too shocking.

If it came down to kneeling, the man had knelt plenty of times during their intimate encounters; his knees were frequently rubbed a soft pink, and on rarer occasions, a few faint bruises would linger.

And if it came down to manual or oral intimacy, neither of them lacked experience in that department. They had thoroughly breached that modest line of defense early on in their relationship, to the point where even Yan Ruojun—who loved cleanliness and harbored a profound distaste for anything musky—could bring himself to go that far.

…It was truly unbelievable.

But a display like the one just now—a submissive, crawling advance that felt deeply degrading, as though a human being were reducing themselves to livestock—was something Lin Zhu had never witnessed, nor even fantasized about. He could never have anticipated that the man would suddenly act this way, completely casting aside his immense pride and rationality.

He had lowered himself into the very dust.

Most importantly, after executing such an act, Yan Ruojun’s mental state actually appeared significantly better than before. At the very least, he no longer reacted abnormally to Lin Zhu’s physical touch, passively allowing the youth to roll up his suit trousers to inspect his skin.

The man had dropped to his knees with absolute force earlier, and now his knees were already flushing red, highly susceptible to swelling and bruising.

Once the inspection was complete, Lin Zhu smoothed the trouser legs back down. The exact moment he straightened his back, Yan Ruojun buried himself fiercely into his embrace. The arms that had just traced the floor swept instantly around his neck, locking him in a tight hold.

“…Bro?”

Feeling a surge of panic in his chest, Lin Zhu called out in a low whisper.

In the next instant, Yan Ruojun’s voice sounded right against his ear.

The man let out a faint, muffled hum of acknowledgment. His voice still carried a touch of hoarseness, closely resembling his post-coital state after they had played wild, which instantly made one’s heart itch.

Yet right now, Lin Zhu didn’t feel a single shred of desire. He secretly worried that the shock to the man’s system had been too severe, leaving him entirely unhinged.

He took several deep breaths to gather his courage before asking bluntly, “Bro, why did you… why did you do that just now? And what did you mean by the things you said?”

He heard the man reply: “To make sure.”

Lin Zhu pressed further: “Make sure of what?”

The moment the words left his mouth, the man tightened his embrace further, burying his face deeply into the crook of the youth’s shoulder. He kept inhaling the scent of Lin Zhu’s pheromones, rendering his voice increasingly muffled, though still entirely audible.

“—To make sure that this isn’t a nightmare.”

A nightmare.

This particular word had materialized multiple times throughout the original novel. Every single time it appeared, the protagonist, Yan Ruojun, used it to characterize the state of his marriage to his toxic, scum ex-husband.

A distorted, oppressive nightmare.

Yet at this moment, the man murmured, “Puppy Lin, when I crawled toward you just now, I didn’t feel a single shred of the agony, despair, or shattered dignity described in that book. I simply…”

“I simply wanted you to hold me so badly.”

The hand Lin Zhu had resting against the small of the man’s back trembled violently. He instinctively held his breath, his throat tightening.

“…What book?”

Yan Ruojun remained silent for a long duration before muttering in a low tone: “Just a ghost story!”

The ghost story was titled Hormonal Illusion. Right now, it rested squarely upon the nightstand outside, its cover featuring stark white text against a black backdrop, bearing only that massive title.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Lin Zhu fixed his downcast eyes firmly on the volume.

Through the system’s internal display, he had read the original text countless times, yet he had never laid eyes on a physical copy. At this moment, a powerful sense of unreality washed over him.

Yan Ruojun remained straddled across his lap, his eyes closed in absolute silence. However, the deep, deliberate breaths he took as he inhaled the pheromones at the back of Lin Zhu’s neck indicated that the man was far from asleep.

After a long silence, Lin Zhu asked, “Bro, where did the book come from?”

In truth, he didn’t need the man to provide an answer; a theory had already crystallized in his mind—or rather, Lin Zhu knew with absolute certainty that no secondary explanation existed.

Within his mind, he called out: “System.”

Immediately following his call, he experienced that now-too-familiar sensation: his signal had been transmitted, yet the entity on the other side left it on “read” without offering a response.

He fell silent for a moment, instinctively reaching out to grab the physical copy of the original novel. Mid-motion, he discovered that a secondary, much thinner volume was pressed beneath it.

The cover of this second book was also pitch black, but the title font was a vivid, neon pink, looking thoroughly questionable.

The title itself was equally absurd: 《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 recognized every single character, yet when strung together, they defied all comprehension, sparking a powerful urge to criticize it heavily. Unfortunately, he was in absolutely no mood for sarcasm right now.

Driven by sheer curiosity, he opened the absurd volume, only for the opening passage to land an absolute critical hit directly on his psyche!

The text essentially served as a detailed log, documenting his thoughts and erratic experiences across several acting assignments. He didn’t dare examine the contents too closely, rapidly skimming through the pages until he reached the final sheet.

His eyes locked onto the very last sentence of the volume.

Beholding those words, Lin Zhu’s face erupted into a fiery blush. He forced himself to maintain a veneer of composure, setting the volume down on the vanity surface as he spoke:

“Bro, since you already know everything… then you must also know that my initial approach, the marking, and even our marriage registration were all strictly system requirements. Are you not angry with me?”

This was the exact dilemma Lin Zhu had been agonizing over. He felt that his actions had lacked genuine sincerity.

After a long pause, Yan Ruojun countered with a question: “I also harbored my own hidden motives when I first went to see you, Puppy Lin. Tell me, if there were no system assignments, would you have been unwilling to date me, mark me, and sign those marriage papers?”

Lin Zhu froze for a good while before responding, “No, that’s not it. If I had a choice, I simply wouldn’t have pushed things to progress so rapidly, rather than…”

Yan Ruojun cut in smoothly: “I understand. You are inherently conservative, you aren’t entirely adapted to our society, and you didn’t wish to drag me into bed so quickly. But ultimately, you still would have chosen to bring me to your bed.”

Lin Zhu’s throat caught. He nodded in silent validation. “…You’re right.”

Lin Zhu couldn’t resist confirming one more time, “But bro, are you truly not angry? Do you not feel that I deceived you?”

Yan Ruojun asked, “Do you want the truth, or a lie?”

Detecting the underlying implication in the man’s tone, Lin Zhu’s heart twinged with a faint ache. He hesitated for a few seconds before following his true instinct. “The truth.”

Yan Ruojun took a slow breath and said, “Initially, I was indeed a bit furious. But once the anger passed, my heart simply ached for you, and I wanted to curse at you so badly.”

Lin Zhu accepted it submissively: “Go ahead and curse.”

“Puppy Lin, you are truly so foolish,” Yan Ruojun said, pinching his earlobe gently. “Why must you constantly assume you’ve committed some grand wrong? You even secretly wallowed in misery for such a long time. Silly!”

“Furthermore, what exactly did you deceive me about?”

“Did you swindle me out of my fortune, or did you swindle me out of my body?”

Lin Zhu remained silent, finding himself entirely unable to interject.

As Yan Ruojun spoke, he nearly let out a frustrated laugh, suddenly recalling Lin Zhu’s exceptionally intense attitude regarding contraception.

There was a phase where Yan Ruojun had concealed all physical contraceptives, relying solely on medication. Yet Lin Zhu remained entirely uneasy, pinning him down multiple times to perform an incredibly thorough cleanup, inspecting everything with absolute rigor.

Yan Ruojun was by no means a coy or overly sensitive Omega.

Yet when forced to confront Lin Zhu’s completely expressionless face and eyes so fiercely determined they looked as though he were taking a solemn oath of allegiance… he simply felt his blood rushing backward through his veins, every inch of his body burning hot.

Because the youth’s stance on preventing pregnancy was so unyielding, coupled with his mysterious background, Yan Ruojun had instinctively assumed that Lin Zhu harbored a deep-seated aversion to the matter and thoroughly disliked children.

Or rather, that he had never once contemplated becoming a father.

At this thought, the rising cadence of Yan Ruojun’s voice suddenly dropped, his tone laced with a complex cocktail of emotions: “Puppy Lin, you’ve known I was pregnant for a long time already, haven’t you?”

Lin Zhu couldn’t help but close his eyes, letting out a soft grunt of confirmation.

This was another aspect where he felt his conduct had been thoroughly dishonorable. As the Omega carrying the child, Yan Ruojun had every right to curse him to his face.

Yet Yan Ruojun didn’t utter a single insult, simply offering a quiet question: “Then… do you want it?”

Lin Zhu asked himself the same question: Did he want it?

A protracted silence stretched between them.

Finally, he spoke: “Bro, but what about the plot?”

The moment the words left his lips, Lin Zhu pressed his mouth into a tight line, his chest wound tight with intense anxiety. Hearing this, the man instantly straightened his spine, his authoritative aura as a powerful superior flaring to life as he delivered a stern lecture directly into Lin Zhu’s face:

“I will handle it alongside you. Isn’t it just a matter of making a phone call to Dr. Xu? Even if that course of action fails, what of it if I actually have to lie down on an operating table?”

“Who says we cannot simply put on an act?”

“Even if we are forced to confront the absolute worst-case scenario, it isn’t something I cannot accept. Look at how dark the circles under your eyes are—did you grind yourself down to this state? I genuinely assumed you were simply exhausted from work and buckling under recent pressure…”

“Do you just not sleep? You are completely brainless!”

“In the future, when you encounter a problem, learn to seek assistance from an adult. Learn to rely on an adult once in a while.”

However, the “adult” delivering this grandiose lecture remained firmly straddled across Lin Zhu’s lap, showing absolutely zero intention of moving away.

Lin Zhu wondered if he harbored some latent masochistic tendencies; being subjected to such a fierce, aggressive scolding from the man actually left him feeling thoroughly refreshed. His brain short-circuited, his tongue slipped, and he blurted out out of nowhere:

“I never had anyone I could rely on before.”

The moment the words escaped, he snapped his mouth shut. The rims of his ears erupted into a fierce burn, and a wave of intense humiliation washed over him, making him want to find a crack in the floorboards to crawl into and hide. He scrambled to save face, adding hastily, “I am nearly nineteen years old. I am an adult too!”

The room fell into a profound silence for a brief moment.

Yan Ruojun cradled Lin Zhu’s face, forcing their eyes to lock. His voice remained raspy, yet his pronunciation was crystal clear: “Lin Zhu, you are an adult, but you are simultaneously my kid. You’ve consumed so much of my… fluid, you don’t get to deny it now.”

The man let out a soft chuckle before continuing:

“You are my Alpha, my husband, my man, and also my most cherished child… So stop overanalyzing every variable. Answer me using your absolute raw instinct: do you, or do you not, want to keep this child?”

Lin Zhu was thoroughly stunned once more.

It felt as though a hollow, dust-covered void that had existed deep within his heart for countless years had suddenly been filled to the brim, leaving him entirely frozen, unable to pull his consciousness back to reality.

In a daze, he heard the sound of his own voice: “…I want it. I want you, and I want you to give me a complete home.”

The moment the words fell, Yan Ruojun could no longer restrain himself.

He cradled Lin Zhu’s face and crashed his lips downward in a fierce kiss, his eyes snapped tightly shut. Within his mind, the final lines of that thin volume’s last page flashed vividly into view.

[“…I do not believe this world is a fabrication. Every breath I take here, every heartbeat, and the ability to equally experience love and being loved makes me feel that it is extraordinarily real.”]

[“System, I don’t want to leave anymore.”]

[“—I love him, and I love this world that came into existence because of him.”]