He walked around the island and into the kitchen, his arms crossed. “Say, please help me wash the vegetables, Zhu Zhixi.”

Fu Rangyi imitated like a robot, “Please help me wash the vegetables, Zhu Zhixi.”

He moved closer, tilting his small face, his smile growing more smug. “Say, Zhu Zhixi, you’re so good.”

“Zhu Zhixi, you… are so good.” The corner of Fu Rangyi’s mouth twitched slightly.

He moved forward a tiny bit more, his chest almost pressing against him, and continued to issue commands as if without thinking, “Say, Zhu Zhixi, you’re really my good…”

But he paused. This heart-playing villain suddenly got stuck, as if he had bitten his tongue.

Fu Rangyi keenly grabbed the little tail that was almost flying up.

“Good what?” He recalled Zhu Zhixi’s words just now. “Good…”

“Good teacher!” Zhu Zhixi said, standing on his tiptoes to pat Fu Rangyi’s shoulder. “Little classmate Fu, today our roles are reversed. I am your teacher, and you are my student.”

“What can you teach me?” Fu Rangyi said, and then regretted it a little.

Did that sound too arrogant?

He handed the phone back to Zhu Zhixi. Before that, he deliberately exited the shopping app.

Zhu Zhixi took it without looking and said seriously, “I can teach you to be happy.”

His heart rate clearly rose.

Happy.

What happy things?

His brain, not yet fully recovered, automatically started providing answers, providing images.

Kissing. Holding hands. Caressing. Hugging. Hugging so tightly. So tight it was hard to breathe. Kissing until they were both wet. Mouths open. Eyes rolling back. Pushing in. Pulling out. Calling his name in a sobbing voice…

“Fu Rangyi.”

He snapped back to reality, looking at Zhu Zhixi with some horror.

“I want to drink mulled wine.”

Zhu Zhixi finished washing the vegetables and reached over with his wet hands, wiping them on his apron, issuing a new command. “You make it for me.”

Fu Rangyi looked at the wet marks on the apron.

Would he have wiped them like this before? Would he have been so lacking in a sense of boundaries?

Zhu Zhixi spoke, then took out his phone. “I’ll order a bottle now, have it delivered. Do you need any other ingredients?”

“Don’t buy it.”

Zhu Zhixi seemed to have expected his refusal and had a countermeasure ready. He looked up almost instantly, putting on a wronged expression. “Why won’t you make it for me? This is a command.” Another quick combo.

Only then did Fu Rangyi realize he had misunderstood.

He said in a deep voice, “The wine at home is much better. Go pick one yourself.”

Zhu Zhixi was immediately happy and ran off to the wine cabinet to pick a bottle with a grin.

After coming back, he wanted to help in the kitchen, but Fu Rangyi refused, saying he was afraid he would make a mess, and handed him a small bowl of fruit yogurt he had made at some point.

“For me?” Zhu Zhixi brought over his laptop, planning to work while he waited.

“Yes, eat it before it goes bad.”

Zhu Zhixi pouted, took a spoonful, and put it in his mouth.

It was so fresh.

In his line of sight, the duplicitous pretty widower was wearing an apron, glasses, and a muzzle, seriously chopping vegetables with his head down. This mix-and-match had a strange visual appeal.

How does he know how to cook? He clearly comes from a family where even simple tasks like pouring water are done by an aunt. And as the first child, he should have been doted on, right?

Just like Zhu Zeran, who wished someone would even change his clothes for him.

Fu Rangyi just quietly chopped and prepped the vegetables, turned on the oven, set the temperature, slowly and methodically. He was much calmer than during his susceptibility period, but not like the distant and cold university professor of usual days. He was somewhere in between—stable, gentle, and very caring.

Zhu Zhixi watched, mesmerized, for a while, and found that it was seriously affecting his work efficiency, so he quietly moved to the dining table to work.

Not long after he started working, Fu Rangyi produced a pile of dishes: salmon and vegetable miso hot pot, roasted prawns and baby carrots, and mulled wine, all laid out on the dining table.

“Wow.” Zhu Zhixi’s eyes lit up. “You’re amazing.”

Without another word, he first poured himself a large glass of mulled wine, and was about to pour a glass for Fu Rangyi, but put it down halfway and switched to hot water.

“You’re not feeling well today, so Teacher Zhu won’t command you to drink with me. You drink water.”

The rich aroma of mulled wine filled the air. The whole dining table was warmed by it. The baby carrots and prawns were roasted until slightly charred, arranged neatly on the plate, looking very delicious. The small pot brought to the table was still bubbling.

“This is like the food in the foreign cartoons I watched as a kid.”

After he spoke, he looked up, only to be presented with something even more like it came out of a cartoon. Fu Rangyi handed him the pale yellow fairy wand spice container.

“What’s this for?” Zhu Zhixi was stunned for a second, but received it reverently.

Fu Rangyi explained, “My sense of taste is affected during my susceptibility period. I don’t know if the seasoning is enough. If you think it’s bland, you can add some yourself.”

Zhu Zhixi raised the “fairy wand” over the small pot, shook his wrist, looked, and shook it again.

“Hey? Did it come out?” Zhu Zhixi looked closely. “It seems a bit hard to use. Why won’t the salt come out…”

He noticed that Zhu Zhixi had suddenly fallen silent. Very abruptly.

Not only that, but his expression also changed, and his ears became visibly red.

I want to pinch them.

Fu Rangyi was startled by his own thought.

“So that’s what it was about back then…” Zhu Zhixi muttered in a super low voice and put the fairy wand aside.

He touched his nose, then scratched his cheek, picked up his glass, and chugged down more than half of the mulled wine.

“Why are you drinking so fast?”

“I… want to drink it,” Zhu Zhixi put down his glass and licked his lips. “Can’t I?”

That small tip of his tongue only appeared for a moment, but Fu Rangyi felt something was very wrong.

It was as if it were his own lips, his own tongue that was being licked. The sensation was so real it was reproduced in his senses.

Inhale. Exhale.

Ding. Both of them snapped back from their daze.

“What was that sound?” Zhu Zhixi asked, rubbing his ear. “Is there more food?”

Fu Rangyi grunted in acknowledgement, got up to get it, and soon, he brought out the last dish, taking off the oven mitts and setting them aside.

Zhu Zhixi looked, and it was actually a Parma ham pizza. The crust was small, but the ham, arugula, and cheese on top were super-sized, so much so that if it were sold, it would definitely be a loss-making, bankrupt-and-close-shop level.

“When did you make this?” Zhu Zhixi’s eyes widened, pointing excitedly. “So cute, a mini version.”

Fu Rangyi thought he was complaining about the size. “It’s all for you.”

Zhu Zhixi was stunned for a moment after hearing this, then smiled. “Then I’ll eat it?”

Fu Rangyi nodded and helped him slice it with a bread knife.

Zhu Zhixi picked up a slice and took a satisfying bite, pulling out a long string of cheese.

“Mmm! So delicious!” His cheeks were puffed out. “Good thing I didn’t buy it. Yours is much more delicious than the frozen one.”

A secret sense of pleasure rose in Fu Rangyi’s heart. He stared motionlessly as Zhu Zhixi ate the pizza, then picked up a baby carrot and held it in his mouth, eating it section by section like a rabbit. The tip of the carrot gradually shortened and finally disappeared between his lips.

“Your cooking is really delicious.” He once again licked the corner of his mouth, took a sip of wine, his lips redder and fuller than before.

How can someone eat so…

Fu Rangyi lowered his head, rubbed his temples, glanced down at his lower half, and let out a breath.

…It’s my problem.

He adjusted the threshold of his wristband to the maximum, unlocked the muzzle, and also began to eat.

Zhu Zhixi ate while stealing glances. He was no different from usual, as if he had already left his susceptibility period—rational, restrained, with good table manners, eating slowly and methodically, and not looking up at him at all.

Not even a single glance.

He was so clingy yesterday.

The dining table was so quiet that only the crisp sound of cutlery clinking could be heard, dinging and clanging, overlapping with the rising steam, and dissipating into the aroma of mulled wine.

Zhu Zhixi picked up a large piece of salmon, blew on it hard, and the hot steam floated over, almost hitting Fu Rangyi’s face.

He stuffed it into his mouth with satisfaction, making a mushy but not unpleasant chewing sound.

Then, with a clang, Zhu Zhixi slammed his chopsticks down and covered his throat with his hand. “Cough, cough, cough—” He coughed desperately, his neck and face instantly turning red.

Fu Rangyi’s heart tightened. He immediately stood up and, without thinking, came to his side and bent down.

He knew that Zhu Zhixi easily got fish bones stuck. They had talked about it, written about it, and he remembered every line of the questionnaire. When preparing the food, he had removed the bones one by one and checked three times.

How did he still get one stuck?

Do we need to go to the hospital?

“Is it stuck?” He reached out, his two fingers lifting his chin, and somewhat forcefully tried to insert his thumb into the corner of his mouth to open it. “Let me see.”

But the next second, Zhu Zhixi, who was coughing until his face was red, suddenly panicked and froze.

There was clearly nothing in his mouth, and he was no longer coughing. Only his eyes were still welling up with glistening tears, the tip of his nose was red, and his lips were even redder, so red they were gorgeous, very moist, very hot, clamping down on his finger.

Fu Rangyi confirmed the fact that he had been deceived. His shoulders slumped, he withdrew his hand, letting it fall, and his expression quickly changed.

But when he was about to leave, his hand was grabbed again.

Zhu Zhixi, as always, blinked his innocent eyes, dragged out his tone, and softened his voice, as if coaxing him. “Don’t be angry. It was too quiet during the meal. I… I’m a little not used to it. I wanted to play a joke to tease you.”

Fu Rangyi lowered his eyes and stared at his held wrist for a while.

Perhaps because he had been drinking, Zhu Zhixi’s hand was hotter than usual, and his eyes had also turned slightly red, his whole body exuding a warm, sweet scent of fermented grapes.

“Don’t joke about things like this.”

“Okay,” Zhu Zhixi nodded obediently, but still didn’t let go. “Then you’re not angry, right?”

He poked his head out, his face tilted up, his tone stickier than usual. “I command you not to be angry with me today.”

Fu Rangyi pulled his arm back, returned to the opposite side, sat down, and deliberately avoided eye contact.

The red, moist lips kept flashing before his eyes, chewing, drinking, gulping. Even if he didn’t look, they would pop up in his mind, and his mouth would automatically replace them with things even harder to look at directly.

It was too terrible.

How can an Alpha be susceptible to a Beta? This simply doesn’t conform to biological logic.

After waiting for a long time without a response, Zhu Zhixi giggled again.

He seemed to be really getting drunk. He actually used the tip of his slipper to touch Fu Rangyi’s calf under the table, the movement very light, like tickling.

“Fu Rangyi,” the bad rabbit deliberately dragged out the end of his words. “Obey the command.”

“I’m not angry.” Fu Rangyi stared at the almost-disappeared mark on the web of his thumb, especially the two deepest little imprints.

“Your command is invalid.”

After speaking, he added, “You drink less, don’t get drunk. I haven’t completely passed my susceptibility period yet. You should be more on guard yourself.”

“Huh? Oh…” Zhu Zhixi was dizzy. He cupped his face with both hands and nodded.

It seems the reminder came too late. Fu Rangyi looked at him and confirmed that he was basically drunk.

Should I… take advantage of him being drunk… to ask clearly?

Did I really sleep with this bad rabbit?

Feeling that Fu Rangyi was finally willing to look at him directly, Zhu Zhixi also looked up, staring at him with those watery, reddish eyes, without blinking.

“Fu Rangyi, you… you…”

“Me what?” He’s even stuttering.

Zhu Zhixi stared at him, feeling that this time, he seemed to have… tricked him.

Pretending to choke on a fish bone failed for a reason. Anyone would be startled if their mouth was pried open like that. But pretending to be drunk…

He used the “drunkenness” to talk nonsense—or more accurately—to get information.

“The Omega… we met at the mall, the really pretty one… is he, your white moonlight?”

---

Author’s Note:

One wants to take advantage of the other being drunk to get information, the other wants to pretend to be drunk to get information from the other. You two are really a match made in heaven (in every sense). Don’t play too much and get yourself caught (but if you fall, you’ll fall into the same pit together, which is pretty good).