Chapter 54

Outside, the wind and rain raged.

Ying Zhiyu reached the porch, took Li Xi’s hand, and led him inside.

The rain soaked his fingertips, but Li Xi didn’t mind at all, holding his hand tightly.

As soon as the two of them returned to their room, Li Xi was already kissing him.

At thirty weeks pregnant, his round, taut belly pressed firmly against Ying Zhiyu. It was as if the baby, sensing the Omega father’s fluctuating emotions, was restless too.

Ying Zhiyu gently soothed him with his hand. “Your clothes are soaked. You know I’ll be fine—next time, you don’t have to wait for me outside.”

Li Xi didn’t answer. He only kept kissing him.

If Ying Zhiyu could think about safety, of course Li Xi could too.

Wen Xinrui wouldn’t dare do anything to him out in the open. Knowing that was one thing—worrying was another.

Unless the Alpha was within sight, Li Xi could never be completely at ease.

Ying Zhiyu’s arms loosely circled Li Xi’s waist, steadying and absorbing the Omega’s turbulent emotions.

Pregnancy hormones affected the mother’s body—mood swings came with the territory.

He couldn’t forbid emotional fluctuations. All he needed to do was catch them and hold him through it.

So Ying Zhiyu let Li Xi touch him and kiss him, simply holding his Omega in a calm, forgiving embrace, waiting for him to reestablish that sense of security and presence.

Li Xi loved Ying Zhiyu’s face—loved touching it.

His chin, his eyes, his eyebrows.

And gradually, Ying Zhiyu felt that the look in the Omega’s eyes was almost predatory.

Well… that was indeed the look of someone who wanted a bite.

When Li Xi leaned in for yet another kiss, Ying Zhiyu fought to stay rational, supporting the pregnant Omega’s round, surprisingly comfortable waist.

“I should shower first. I’m soaked.”

The rain hadn’t stopped the whole way back to LI headquarters. He’d gotten wet switching from the Maybach to the G-wagon, and again walking from the villa gate to the house.

And in this kind of weather, rainwater wasn’t exactly clean.

After rinsing off in the bathroom, it was no surprise that the young couple, brimming with affection, ended up in a very intimate exchange.

With the Omega controlling depth, angle, and movement, it was the safest and most comfortable way during pregnancy.

Conveniently, their Third Young Master Li had excellent stamina and a natural talent for handling that position.

The next morning, Ying Zhiyu needed to leave early because there was a morning meeting at the lab.

When he arrived at the dining room at six, he was surprised to find that besides the head butler Zhou Shen, Li Qin was also there.

He nodded to Zhou Shen.

Zhou Shen returned politely, “Good morning, Young Master Ying.”

“Morning.”

Ying Zhiyu took his place at the table, and the servants quickly served his breakfast.

Li Qin’s seat was across from his. The Li family preferred Western-style breakfasts, and her plate looked completely different from his.

Ying Zhiyu leisurely finished a peppercorn soup dumpling specially made for him by the chef, swallowed, and suddenly said—without any preamble:

“If it’s convenient, I’d like to invite Ms. Wen to dinner.”

Li Qin’s hand paused around her fork. She lifted her eyes. “What?”

Still smiling, Ying Zhiyu repeated, “To thank your mother for giving me a ride last night, I’d like to treat her to dinner.”

Li Qin stared at him. The Alpha always looked harmless and polite in public, but she knew very well her third brother’s Alpha was no pushover.

She replied coolly, “It was on the way. There’s no need.”

It seemed he had expected that answer. Calmly, he continued, “There’s actually something else as well.”

Li Qin kept her eyes on him and said plainly, “If my third brother suspects my mother did anything, tell him to investigate someone else. My mother didn’t do it.”

Yesterday she had gone to question her mother about the online rumors of Li Xi’s pregnancy leaking. Wen Xinrui had denied it.

Li Qin knew her mother well—she took responsibility for what she did. If she said she hadn’t, then it wasn’t the Wen family.

Feigning surprise, Ying Zhiyu shook his head. “Of course not. How could Li Xi suspect President Wen?

“Actually, it’s about a research project of mine. I’d like to invite Ms. Wen to take part in a survey.”

“A survey?”

He nodded. “It’s for an AO differentiation research topic. I think you’ve heard my second brother mention it before?”

The statement was also a subtle hint—he knew Li Lü had previously investigated their lab, so he might as well mention the project openly.

Li Qin stared at him for a long moment. Ying Zhiyu met her gaze openly.

Finally, she said, “I’ll ask my mother and get back to you.”

Then she rose and left the dining room first.

Ying Zhiyu smiled politely behind her. “Thank you, Big Sister.”

That evening, Ying Zhiyu worked overtime in the study, reviewing information and refining the survey questionnaire.

Li Xi had once told him that when he asked about Wen Xinrui, he also revealed that she was the one who had informed Li Xi’s mother about Li Songqian’s use of inducement agents to fake a high pheromone match all those years ago.

In terms of genetic superiority, the upper class had always believed in pheromone supremacy.

Setting aside inheritance issues, Omega offspring were highly valued among wealthy families.

For aristocratic families obsessed with lineage, marriage alliances and producing AO offspring were crucial; Omegas held an irreplaceable status.

So most powerful families favored Alpha and Omega children.

In contrast, Beta children often occupied an awkward position.

Ying Zhiyu had long suspected that high society had developed its own reproductive medical system—methods to increase the probability of producing Alpha and Omega children.

Even the Li family’s medical team, though never explicit, had emphasized the importance of Alpha companionship ever since Li Xi became pregnant. His private doctor Qin Baoyan and the maternal–child specialists all stressed the need to maintain the Omega’s emotional well-being.

More importantly, they prescribed minimum required intimacy frequency during pregnancy.

They even conducted regular follow-ups and recorded the results.

This overlapped significantly with Ying Zhiyu’s own theories: that the mother’s sense of security and AO pheromone interaction created a safer reproductive environment.

Ying Zhiyu suspected that high society indeed possessed a fairly mature “AO pregnancy” framework—
not yet backed by formal research, but built upon accumulated experience and case summaries.

And if this framework truly existed… then twenty-plus years ago, when Gan Ruyuan—pregnant with twins—learned the devastating truth, the shock must have been overwhelming.

Was the timing of the message she received a little too coincidental?

Wen Xinrui might not care about a loveless ex-husband remarrying—but her two children’s future inheritance? Would she really not care about that either?

Li Xi understood what Ying Zhiyu had been busy with lately.

But he didn’t want the young Alpha stepping into that mess.

Whether Wen Xinrui had another motive when she told Li Xi’s mother the truth back then didn’t matter. What happened was done personally by Li Songqian. Wen Xinrui had every right to choose when to expose it.

Ying Zhiyu fully understood that.

In fact, using the “AO Differentiation” research project as a pretext to approach Wen Xinrui did conceal a bit of his intent to probe her.

But he wasn’t targeting the grudges of the previous generation—those tangled issues weren’t for someone as young as him to judge or intervene in.

The real reason Ying Zhiyu wanted contact with Wen Xinrui was to determine whether his death in his past life had anything to do with the Wen family.

At the same time, there was another question that had bothered him for years.

Back then, Li Xi had added so many layers of security around him. Even if some extremist group—or even another major family—wanted him gone because of conflicting interests…

How did they succeed?

The previous night, after puzzling over it endlessly, Ying Zhiyu couldn’t help asking Li Xi directly—

If there were enough bodyguards, what were the chances of him being silently kidnapped?

Li Xi’s first reaction was to think the Alpha had encountered some kind of security threat.

But these past few days, Ying Zhiyu had been entirely relaxed—not like someone who’d just experienced something unnerving. The bodyguards had also reported that nothing unusual had occurred around him.

Still, Li Xi knew the young Alpha wasn’t the type to ask such a question casually. He wanted to talk to him about it again.

Li Xi opened the study door.

Ying Zhiyu looked up from the desk.

When the Alpha worked or studied at night, he sometimes wore glasses.

Right now, a pair of thin metal frames rested on his nose.

Seen through those glasses, the Alpha’s student-like softness was completely gone—replaced by a cool restraint, even a quiet kind of sensuality.

Li Xi walked over and watched him for a moment, gazing up at him with those glasses on. Then he reached out and took them off.

Ying Zhiyu let him remove them without resistance, only narrowing his eyes slightly when the frame brushed his eye corner.

After taking them off, Li Xi gently rubbed the faint red marks left on the sides of the Alpha’s nose.

Ying Zhiyu stayed silent for a moment, then caught Li Xi’s hand, his tone a little hesitant.

“If we do it too often… wouldn’t that be bad?”

Even though moderate intimacy during pregnancy helped nourish the fetus through pheromones and benefited both father and baby, Li Xi had already worked so hard last night—and today, again…

Li Xi paused. “…I wasn’t thinking about that.”

He only felt that being stared at so seriously by an Alpha wearing glasses made it very hard to focus on serious topics!

But clearly, Ying Zhiyu didn’t fully believe him. He still looked unsure.

Li Xi: “…”

In this young Alpha’s eyes, was he really just an Omega who was constantly hungry for his body and incapable of self-restraint?

Seeing how Ying Zhiyu still looked like he genuinely wanted to discuss it thoroughly—and was even considering asking their private doctor before making any decisions—Li Xi was left speechless.

Li Xi no longer felt the need to worry about whether the Alpha had encountered anything dangerous lately.

If something had happened, the Alpha absolutely wouldn’t be acting like this right now.

Ying Zhiyu, of course, had no idea what was going through Li Xi’s head.

After seriously thinking it over, he still felt that Li Xi had been so worked up last night he could practically feel the baby move inside him.

That wasn’t good. That really shouldn’t happen.

Resting his hand on the Omega’s round belly, Ying Zhiyu finally refused with utter righteousness: “Let’s wait until tomorrow. The baby should rest for a day.”

Li Xi: “………………”