Chapter 32

Tonight, Li Xi gave him a lot of face.

Whatever portion Ying Zhiyu gave him, he finished it.

After he finished his first bowl, Ying Zhiyu asked if he wanted more.

Li Xi took both his own bowl and Ying Zhiyu’s, went to the kitchen, and filled them with two big servings of rice.

When he emptied that bowl too, Ying Zhiyu casually asked again, “Still want more?”

So Li Xi went for seconds—his third bowl tonight.

When Ying Zhiyu realized Li Xi’s bowl was empty again, he hesitated and asked, “Want some more?”

Li Xi didn’t answer.

Ying Zhiyu pretended to reach for his bowl. Li Xi opened his mouth slightly, but when Ying Zhiyu stood up with the empty bowl, he still didn’t speak.

Ying Zhiyu stood… then sat back down.

“Why can’t you just say no?” he asked helplessly.

He touched Li Xi’s already swollen stomach. “You don’t need to diet, but you can’t eat like this. You’re gonna lose those abs.”

Li Xi: “…”

After a moment, the Third Young Master muttered, “I won’t. I’ll just work out longer.”

“Mm,” Ying Zhiyu said agreeably.

He placed Li Xi’s empty bowl in front of himself. With nothing left to hold, Li Xi set his chopsticks down too.

Then Ying Zhiyu asked, “You’re full. So why not say so?”

Li Xi lowered his gaze again, silent.

He didn’t know how to reassure the Alpha. And the food was good—he didn’t want to waste it.

Ying Zhiyu continued, “If you’re upset, you can say it. If you’re full, say it. If you don’t like something, say it. If you planned something for your birthday, tell me. If your sister invited you, you should tell me that too.”

“I won’t make things hard for you. I’ll make decisions based on what’s best.”

Li Xi stayed quiet for a long time.

When Ying Zhiyu finally stood to clear the table, Li Xi stood as well.

“If I don’t say it,” Li Xi said quietly, “then I can’t be… the one you choose. If you choose—and you don’t pick me—I’ll probably get angry.”

Ying Zhiyu froze mid-movement.

After saying that, Li Xi dropped his gaze again and mimicked Ying Zhiyu’s motions, clearing the table.

As he piled leftovers into one bowl, a splash of grease hit his fingers. Ying Zhiyu realized the young master probably had never touched a cold leftover bowl in his life.

He couldn’t bring himself to promise that he would always choose Li Xi.

There were just too many variables in life. Every situation had to be judged on its own. He could say it now—speak boldly, swear that no matter what happened he’d stand by him.

But when something truly unexpected came—accidents, force majeure, situations they couldn’t even imagine yet?

That wasn’t realistic.

Words like that, no matter who said them, were just lies.

So Ying Zhiyu looked at Li Xi for a moment, then followed him into the kitchen. Neither spoke. They simply finished the chores together in silence.

After washing the dishes, Ying Zhiyu wiped down the counter.

Then he reached out and took Li Xi’s hand. “Then go ahead and be mad. I’ll coax you.”

In day-to-day life, if a rare situation came up and Ying Zhiyu chose something else instead of him, Li Xi had every right to be upset.

Getting upset didn’t mean divorce.

Marriage wasn’t about never arguing or never rubbing each other the wrong way. Real life was: Li Xi gets angry—he coaxes him. He gets angry—Li Xi can coax him too.

Li Xi’s fingers twitched, then finally tightened around Ying Zhiyu’s hand.

Very tightly.

They returned to the living room.

Ying Zhiyu sat on the couch and tugged Li Xi down beside him. While absentmindedly playing with his fingers, he smiled. “So… can you tell me now? Why were you angry before dinner?”

Right after borrowing soy sauce, he came back and said nothing.

If Ying Zhiyu hadn’t brought up the “shared meal” topic at the table, he would’ve thought His Highness the Third was planning to follow ancient etiquette—no talking while eating—until dinner ended.

Li Xi glanced at him.

If an elementary school seatmate knew how to “avoid suspicion,” then there was no way this Alpha sitting here didn’t know exactly why.

He wasn’t denying it anymore. “I don’t like other people touching my things.”

Even just a few sentences with a strange Omega—he hated it.

“I’m a thing now?” Ying Zhiyu deliberately twisted the meaning.

Li Xi shot him a look—the kind he saved for an Alpha who couldn’t stay serious for even one minute.

“Whatever it is, it’s mine.”

Maybe at first, Li Xi didn’t expect any “shared heart and mind” type of bond with his Alpha. He had enough power to keep this person, who occupied that position, tightly trapped at his side.

That alone was enough.

But some things… had changed.

Li Xi studied him. Then he raised a hand and pinched Ying Zhiyu’s handsome face. “I don’t do the whole act—no cutesy pleading, none of that soft Omega behavior like that girl in the park. I can’t stroke an Alpha’s ego or show off so they feel needed.”

At the playground, if a little girl lost her balloon, Li Xi wasn’t going to ask the Alpha beside him—he’d get it himself.

Ring toss, shooting games—he only trusted his own eyes and hands.

He’d always fought alone. What he wanted, he earned with his own ability.

“I am different from other Omegas. That’s just the truth. I can’t do housework, I’m not pretty, I’m not soft…”

He paused, then pulled his hand away and turned his face aside. “But if you have expectations, just say them. I’ll find ways to make up for it.”

Ying Zhiyu didn’t speak.

Li Xi waited. When there was still no reaction, he looked back—only to find Ying Zhiyu had been waiting for him to turn around.

The Alpha leaned in and kissed him squarely on the cheek.

Li Xi’s body froze for a beat.

Ying Zhiyu tilted his head, eyes crinkling. “It’s fine. I can be the one who acts spoiled.”

If Li Xi couldn’t learn to soften up, then he didn’t need to.

An Omega who felt this secure—that suited Ying Zhiyu perfectly.

“So I’ll be counting on Director Li to protect me from now on. If something happens, Director Li charges forward, and I’ll be behind you waving the flag~”

Li Xi: “…”

On their way home that night, they stopped by a cake shop for an ice-cream cake.

Since it wouldn’t keep well, Ying Zhiyu brought it out after they finished talking, placing it on the coffee table.

Li Xi frowned. “I’m really full.”

This time he didn’t bottle it up—he voiced it honestly.

Ying Zhiyu opened the box, smiling again. “Good. That’s exactly right. If you don’t want it, just say so.”

Then he scooped a bit of ice-cream frosting and drew a tiny flower on Li Xi’s cheek.

“A reward. A little gold star.”

Li Xi blinked.

The Alpha had already withdrawn his hand and cut a slice for himself.

When he finished and found Li Xi staring at him, he asked, “It’s pretty good. Want some?”

Li Xi shook his head—but his gaze drifted to the Alpha’s lips. Before he knew it, he leaned in and brushed against them.

Ying Zhiyu’s throat bobbed. He lowered his head and kissed him back.

After the kiss, Li Xi licked the faint sweetness lingering on his lips and narrowed his eyes. “Not bad.”

Ying Zhiyu couldn’t hold in a laugh.

“…Then try a little more.”

And so, despite one Alpha insisting he didn’t want any ice-cream cake, more than half of it disappeared. Every bite accompanied by:

“Gege, will you ride the pirate ship with me? I’m scared to go alone.”

“Gege, can you shoot and win me LinaBell? Iron Man? Squirtle?”

“Gege, can you—”

Their mixed scents filled the small, shabby apartment.

Li Xi was panting, coated in the cool, sweet smell of ice-cream, when he shoved the fully-clothed Alpha—whose hands had been anything but well-behaved—onto the sofa.

“Bedroom. Ying Zhiyu!”

Seeing the Prince’s eyes red—just like the night of their lifelong mark in the previous life—Ying Zhiyu lifted a thumb and wiped away a bead of sweat from his lashes.

He could see how hard Li Xi was holding back.

He thought: maybe he wasn’t sure whether he liked a soft Omega—but Li Xi definitely liked a soft Alpha.

—

In the tiny ten-square-meter bedroom, Li Xi’s voice squeezed out from deep in his throat.

“Ying Zhiyu, what is wrong with you?!”

Right at the last moment, the Alpha had stopped again.

Ying Zhiyu chuckled. “Haven’t I always been not-as-capable as Director Li?”

No Alpha would ever admit they weren’t “Omega-capable,” but Ying Zhiyu was doing it on purpose.

Li Xi hated being passive. Even if he was the one being marked, being entered, he always fought for control.

Ying Zhiyu remembered the previous life—those blood-red eyes staring at him while completing the lifelong mark, taking the lead even in misunderstanding, even in heartbreak. What had he been thinking then?

Softly, he asked, “Have you decided?”

Li Xi frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Ying Zhiyu looked him in the eyes. He remembered how the last lifelong mark had been anything but pleasant. This time, he wanted Li Xi to be clear, to choose with a steady mind.

Not because of impulse.

“We’re not in a hurry. We can take it slow.”

His long fingers brushed the sweat at Li Xi’s temples with restrained gentleness.

“Sleep,” he murmured.

“….”

Li Xi stared at him for three seconds, then flipped over sharply and turned his back—furious.

Ying Zhiyu watched the angry back of Li Xi’s head, thinking about explaining—but one glance at the clock told him it was already late. In the end, he switched off the light.

Sometime in the night, he jolted awake.

His whole body felt like it was on fire.

He blinked—and found a shadowy figure straddling him.

“…Li Xi?”

He reached out.

Li Xi’s breaths were quick, determined. “Don’t move.”

Forty minutes later, when the person on top finally slowed down, Ying Zhiyu tried to sit up a bit—only to trigger a sharp reaction.

Li Xi grabbed his arm, pinning him down with a vicious whisper:

“Ying Zhiyu, think it through if you want. But if you don’t—then don’t bother. In this life, you have no other choice but me.”

His breathing was still uneven, hot against Ying Zhiyu’s skin. Every blink of the Alpha’s pounding heartbeat beneath him kept reminding Ying Zhiyu—

This was a living, breathing Li Xi.

A Li Xi reborn into this world.

An exception to every rule about OA strength differences.

A lifelong marker’s endurance—intense, drawn-out, consuming.

Every time Ying Zhiyu tried to tell him to rest, Li Xi shut him up with a single, reckless command:

“Shut up.”

By the time daylight seeped in, even Ying Zhiyu—who had spent most of the night barely able to move—felt exhausted. But the one who had been working nonstop still refused to stop.

When Ying Zhiyu caught a faint noise outside—

He finally held Li Xi still.

“Shh.”

He sat up slightly against the headboard, one arm looping around the overheated, trembling body collapsing against him.

Li Xi’s chest pressed flush against his. The Alpha’s voice was low. “Listen.”

Li Xi couldn’t hear anything. His ear rested beneath Ying Zhiyu’s sharp jawline—he could only feel the vibration of his voice, the subtle movement of his Adam’s apple, and the steady thrum of the Alpha’s heartbeat syncing with his own ragged one.

Then Ying Zhiyu whispered at his ear:

“Someone’s in the house.”

A thief.