Chapter 29

The reason Ying Zhiyu asked Li Xi to come upstairs tonight… was to request their honeymoon leave.

Li Xi’s assistant, Zhang Jingrui, was incredibly efficient. Li Xi had only asked about the honeymoon last night, yet before noon today, Zhang Jingrui had already emailed three fully prepared domestic honeymoon itineraries to Ying Zhiyu.

Three plans, completely different in style and concept—each emphasizing a different idea of what a honeymoon should be.

Zhiyu guessed that multiple custom travel agencies must’ve been working on them simultaneously.

Considering he’d only mentioned yesterday that he couldn’t travel abroad for now, yet domestic options were ready today… it wasn’t hard to reason that the preparations had started long before he even brought it up.

And quite possibly, in a hurry.

At least, Zhang Jingrui clearly felt the matter was urgent.

Zhiyu figured maybe the board-of-directors situation had just wrapped up, giving Li Xi a brief buffer period. His schedule was freer than usual.

Li Xi himself hadn’t said anything, but in Zhang Jingrui’s subconscious, it was clear the honeymoon should happen during this window—ideally as soon as possible.

Since that was the case, it was time for Zhiyu to ask his advisor for leave.

He’d just announced his marriage at dinner. Originally, even though he’d asked Li Xi to come upstairs, he hadn’t intended to introduce him to the professors from the lab.

Li Xi’s identity was too prominent. If Zhiyu wanted to spend the next two years quietly finishing his PhD in biomedical science, staying low-key and keeping the marriage hidden was far safer than publicizing it.

But that thought shifted the moment the elevator doors opened and he saw Li Xi.

He’d only asked Li Xi to come because he needed a bit of his pheromone, so he could confirm his “married” status with his advisor and naturally segue into asking for honeymoon leave.

But the moment he saw Li Xi standing there—wearing his dress shirt—his plans suddenly changed.

On impulse, he asked Li Xi if he wanted to meet his advisor.

Which led to that toast Li Xi made in front of the faculty.

On the way home, Li Xi touched the back of his hand to Zhiyu’s forehead right after getting into the car. “Feeling sick?”

He still hadn’t buckled his seatbelt. Zhiyu shook his head and gestured for him to sit properly first.

Once Li Xi buckled in and the car was moving, Zhiyu chuckled. “I’m not that bad with alcohol. And I wasn’t the main character today. Nobody was going to gang up on me.”

Every circle had its own social rules. Zhiyu’s rule was simple—don’t stand out, don’t be the odd one out.

So if there was alcohol, he drank. Blend in, and no one paid extra attention.

Li Xi pressed his lips together. “Even if they tried to push drinks on you, you can refuse.”

Clearly, he wasn’t thrilled about Omegas drinking during sensitivity periods.

Zhiyu laughed again. “Got it.”

With “Li Xi” backing him from now on, even people like that Alpha PhD student tonight—who clearly had a quiet hostility toward him—would think twice before challenging him.

Who would dare force drinks on him now?

When they got home, Zhiyu said he wanted to shower.

Li Xi stopped him. “Can you manage on your own?”

Zhiyu looked back with an odd expression. “If I can’t, are you planning to help me?”

Alcohol aggravated sensitivity periods, but from Li Xi’s Alpha gaze, he could tell Zhiyu wasn’t drunk to the point of being helpless.

He stepped aside.

Just as Zhiyu walked into the bathroom, Li Xi added, “Don’t close the door.”

“Okay.”

“And don’t soak in the bathtub.”

A flicker of amusement passed through Zhiyu’s eyes. “Okay.”

After washing off the smell of alcohol, Zhiyu came out.

The bedroom was empty. He stepped outside and saw the lights on in the open kitchen.

When he walked over, he saw a plate on the counter—on it lay a whole banana, already peeled.

Li Xi was squeezing honey into a cup.

“Need help?” Zhiyu asked from across the island. “Don’t burn yourself.”

Li Xi looked up, expression speechless.

“I’m not that useless at basic living skills.”

Once the honey water was ready, he brought the cup and the plate with the banana to the island.

They stood on opposite sides. After Zhiyu took a sip of the honey water, Li Xi said, “You’re supposed to use warm water for honey. That’s basic common sense.”

Zhiyu set the cup down and laughed. “My mistake. I underestimated you.”

Li Xi: “…”

Zhiyu picked up a fork and casually cut the peeled banana into pieces. Only then did Li Xi realize—he should’ve chopped it first instead of leaving it whole.

Catching the flicker of regret in Li Xi’s face, Zhiyu speared a piece of banana and echoed his earlier line:

“I’m not that helpless at basic living skills either.”

Meaning: a whole banana wasn’t exactly a hardship—he could divide it himself just fine. No need for Li Xi to be upset over it.

But Li Xi, who had always demanded perfection from himself since childhood, didn’t see it that way.

When it came to household tasks, this wasn’t his first time fussing over Zhiyu.

Once, back at the Ying household, Zhiyu’s sister dropped and shattered a rice bowl. Li Xi tried to kneel and help pick up the pieces, only to be immediately pulled away by a worried Alpha (his father).

As Zhiyu sat eating, he noticed Li Xi staring fixedly at him.

He held up another piece of banana. “You want some?”

Li Xi looked at him, expression complicated. “Am I… incompetent at basic life stuff?”

No Omega bride in the world had a spouse like him—someone who forgot to cut up a banana and had to be reminded not to burn themselves making honey water.

Zhiyu didn’t answer right away.

In his understanding, Li Xi genuinely never did housework.

In their previous life, Li Xi didn’t even know how to use a microwave. When he studied abroad, he’d had a dedicated housekeeper the entire time.

And that housekeeper happened to be the current chief steward of the Li family—Zhou Shen.

When Li Xi was sent abroad at a young age, Zhou Shen had just joined the Li household after graduating college. Li Songqian assigned him to accompany Li Xi overseas.

Zhou Shen was famously meticulous. He took care of Li Xi for ten years until Li Xi finished college. When the elder housekeeper back home was about to retire, Zhou Shen was transferred back to take over.

And Li Xi, who stayed abroad for grad school, was assigned new household staff—handpicked by Zhou Shen.

So yes—saying Li Xi had “never touched housework a day in his life” wasn’t an exaggeration.

But lack of housework didn’t mean incompetence.

And honestly, with his family background, Li Xi had never needed to worry about everyday chores.

Zhiyu lifted a piece of banana to Li Xi’s lips.

Li Xi blinked, a little stunned at being fed so suddenly.

Zhiyu smiled. Under the warm overhead lighting, a soft warmth glowed in his eyes.

He said, “If it’s something you’ll never need in your life, there’s no point wasting energy on it. You’re fine just the way you are.”

Li Xi seemed to always have his thoughts read by him.

He’d barely begun wondering if he should learn life skills properly—only for Zhiyu’s “you’ll never need it” to flatten the thought instantly.

Right. He’d been overthinking.

Everyone had their strengths. Spending time on something useless to him was just wasting his life.

—

Zhiyu was still in his sensitivity period tonight, and he’d drunk alcohol.

The nighttime routine didn’t need saying aloud.

After the honey water and the snack, they headed toward the bedroom almost in sync. Li Xi went to shower, while Zhiyu brushed his teeth again.

By the time Li Xi came out, Zhiyu was already in bed, leaning against the headboard scrolling through something on his tablet.

When Li Xi approached, Zhiyu put the tablet down and held out a hand.

So Li Xi lay into his Alpha’s arms naturally.

Zhiyu didn’t rush into marking. Instead, he gently traced Li Xi’s nape with his fingertips.

Last night, during the later part of his sensitivity period, he’d lost control a bit and left several bite marks on Li Xi’s neck.

Zhiyu’s fingers brushed over them as he leaned in and asked softly near his ear, “Why were you wearing my shirt?”

Li Xi froze.

He’d thought Zhiyu hadn’t noticed.

When Li Xi didn’t answer, Zhiyu didn’t push. After a moment, he asked something else.

“What were you planning to do tonight before I called?”

The restaurant where Zhiyu’s group dinner was held wasn’t close to Li Xi’s penthouse downtown, and it was even further from the LI Group headquarters.

For Li Xi to get there within ten minutes in weekend traffic… he must’ve already been nearby.

So what had he been doing?

This was easier to answer. Li Xi replied straightforwardly, “Nothing special. Li Yue asked me to have dinner with her. After we ate, I went shopping with her for a bit.”

He paused for a moment, then, probably afraid Ying Zhiyu would misunderstand and think Liyue was avoiding him, added, “She actually invited you too.”

He let the Alpha’s slightly rough fingertips stroke the back of his neck. Maybe he thought Ying Zhiyu was preparing to mark that spot, because Li Xi even cooperated by lowering his head a little.

Above him, Ying Zhiyu gave a quiet “mm.”

His fingers brushed over the bite mark, yet what he was thinking was how, in this life, Li Xi had always been accommodating toward him.

The birthday celebration he never mentioned. The meals at his house that Li Xi wasn’t used to but still forced himself to eat. The cake that suddenly appeared in the fridge the next morning.

The move, the honeymoon plans… all of it.

And now Ying Zhiyu realized that it wasn’t just accommodation—it was indulgence.

Just because Ying Zhiyu had a dinner gathering, Li Xi never even brought up his sister’s invitation.

He let himself be marked again and again outside of a heat cycle, offering up the most vulnerable part of his neck without any guard. As an Alpha, Ying Zhiyu had no way of knowing the Omega’s true feelings.

But with an Alpha’s heat-season bite mark on his neck—one that screamed “claimed”—and wearing Ying Zhiyu’s shirt, Li Xi had gone to meet his sister like that…

Li Xi felt sudden heat at the back of his neck as the Alpha’s teeth broke his gland.

Ying Zhiyu had had a dream.

He dreamt of the fifth year of their marriage in his previous life.

After a dinner with colleagues from the National Institute of Biological Sciences, the drunken and disoriented Ying Zhiyu performed a lifelong mark on Li Xi.

Back then, he happened to be in his susceptibility period, while Li Xi had just returned from more than half a month of business travel abroad.

He remembered lying on the bed, not even sure if he’d showered.

Through the haze, he felt someone straddling his waist.

Because he’d been drunk and his susceptibility reaction had intensified, he could barely recall any details from the marking.

But in this dream, he saw clearly that Li Xi had been the one to hook an arm around him first.

Li Xi’s eyes had been bloodshot—so red—and he never looked away the entire time.

Throughout the lifelong marking, those reddened eyes, threaded with veins, stayed locked on him.

The day after, Li Xi had all their clothes from the night before thrown out.

At the time, Ying Zhiyu assumed it was Li Xi’s way of expressing disgust toward that lifelong mark.

But from the dream’s vantage point, he realized—

Li Xi wasn’t forced.

There was something he had missed.

In the dream, Ying Zhiyu looked toward the pile of clothes the housekeeper was carrying away.

Alcohol…

Clothing…

Pheromones?

Ying Zhiyu jolted awake.

He opened his eyes and slowly—almost disbelieving—turned his head toward Li Xi sleeping beside him.

At some point, the man who used to sleep perfectly straight on his back had begun trying to sleep on his side.

Li Xi was currently facing him, his forehead lightly resting near Ying Zhiyu’s left shoulder.

Resting wasn’t quite right.

His forehead didn’t actually touch Ying Zhiyu. His head merely leaned close, without making contact.

Maybe he was afraid of disturbing his sleep?

Li Xi woke to a gentle push.

He frowned first, his eyes moving beneath his lids, then abruptly opened them.

Seeing the Alpha sitting beside him, his first reaction—voice still hoarse—was, “Are you feeling sick?”

He still remembered the Alpha had drunk last night. But Ying Zhiyu shook his head. “I remembered something. I’m afraid I’ll forget, so I want to tell you now.”

For someone with a perfect memory to say he was “afraid of forgetting” was clearly illogical.

But Li Xi still sat up, slightly tense. “What happened?”

Ying Zhiyu had dreamt of the lifelong marking from their previous life and suddenly grasped a possibility.

In the fifth year of their marriage, he had joined a research team in the institute.

The project focused on artificial pheromones.

As ABO society’s economy surged, the AO birthrate had plummeted in contrast. Each year, fewer Alphas and Omegas were being born.

The nation couldn’t let that trend continue indefinitely, and so the artificial-pheromone project was launched under the institute.

In truth, “artificial pheromones” weren’t much different from the “inducing agents” LI Group had once produced before they were banned.

Just a gentler name.

But in essence, both artificial pheromones and inducing agents were external interventions designed to rapidly boost AO pheromone compatibility during a complete mark.

As a member of the research team, Ying Zhiyu unavoidably came into contact with various pheromones—not from any living individual, but from experimental samples, some even artificially synthesized.

They themselves were also test subjects.

Ying Zhiyu had experimented with using his own pheromones to study compatibility patterns.

The moment he remembered this, many things that had once seemed impossible suddenly aligned.

Why hadn’t Li Xi fought back that night?

There was a strength gap between Alphas and Omegas, but between Ying Zhiyu and Li Xi, that gap barely existed.

Given Li Xi’s lifelong physical training, subduing a drunken Alpha should’ve been easy.

Yet he didn’t resist.

Not only that—they completed a lifelong mark that required both partners’ cooperation, including deep penetration into the reproductive cavity.

After that accidental lifelong mark, Ying Zhiyu had felt guilty.

The project also directly competed with LI Group’s pheromone products.

So he withdrew from the team and shifted his focus to AO genetic differentiation research.

Ying Zhiyu looked at him and said, “My field is actually connected to pheromone studies.”

Li Xi made a soft sound of acknowledgment, surprised that the topic started there.

Ying Zhiyu continued, “During experiments, it’s possible to come into contact with pheromones of all kinds—not from actual individuals, but samples, even artificial ones.”

Li Xi stiffened slightly, immediately realizing this was related to a project Ying Zhiyu might be involved in.

He hesitated. “Are you even allowed to tell me this? Aren’t there confidentiality restrictions?”

Li Xi’s identity was tied to LI Group’s pheromone empire, and what Ying Zhiyu was saying touched directly on matters affecting the company.

In the previous life, that project had indeed been classified.

That was why Ying Zhiyu never mentioned it—not when he joined, nor when he withdrew.

But in this life, he’d never actually entered the project. The project wasn’t even established yet.

There was nothing to leak.

And more importantly, he trusted Li Xi—across two lifetimes—to handle this information without twisting it.

Li Xi wasn’t trying to inherit LI for money or power.

Ying Zhiyu understood now that it had everything to do with his late Omega mother.

Li Xi might have been born a businessman, but under that exterior, with constant public pressure and the risk of extremist Alpha attacks—

Was he really doing all this for profit?

He already had more money than he could use.

“It’s fine,” Ying Zhiyu said. “I just want you to know—my field overlaps with pheromone research. If you ever smell someone else’s pheromones on me—Alpha, Omega, even a perfect match—”

“If you ever doubt anything, just ask me.”

Then he added, “But I know my identity is sensitive. I’ll avoid contact with—”

Before he could finish, Li Xi straightened and cut him off. “Do whatever research you want.”

Li Xi was too smart. With just that, he understood that one of their university labs was working on a pheromone-related project.

“LI can’t stay on top forever.”

He wasn’t surprised other labs were researching pheromone agents. It was practically an open secret. No country wanted one corporation monopolizing the entire pheromone market.

It was just that, so far, no other lab had come close to LI’s results.

After thinking for a moment, Li Xi added, “But we have to keep this from my dad.”

“Jin and Lu will also have people watching you. I’ll cover for you.”