Lu Shangjin stood frozen in the doorway for a full ten seconds, as if a thunderclap had exploded across his scalp. A bone-deep chill surged through his entire body.
He rushed forward and pulled Ye Wan into his arms. Blood had pooled across the floor, yet what he smelled was not the heavy stench of iron, but a faint lily-scented pheromone—gentle, soothing—offering Lu Shangjin the last trace of tenderness left in this world, as if taking Ye Wan’s place to caress his face.
“Dad… Dad… Dad…” Lu Shangjin could feel the feather-light body in his arms slowly losing all warmth. A life already at its end let the last grain slip through the hourglass—never to be turned over again.
He wanted to run out of the basement immediately with Ye Wan in his arms, to escape this hell. But a specialized steel collar was locked around his neck—without Lu Lin’s voiceprint password, it could not be opened. He had tried recording Lu Lin’s voice before, countless times, and failed every time.
The child in Ye Wan’s belly was already full-term. In just a few days, it would have been born. Maybe there was still a chance. Maybe a sliver of life could still be saved. Lu Shangjin’s eyes split with fury as he knelt helplessly in the pool of blood.
Perhaps Ye Wan simply did not want this child to enter the world only to learn its cruelty. So he made the decision for him, taking his precious treasure back to heaven.
A photograph slipped from Ye Wan’s pocket and landed face-up beside Lu Shangjin’s hand.
In the photo, two boys had their arms slung over each other’s shoulders. Yan Yi was pouting, tugging at his own little ear, while Lu Shangjin tilted his head, smiling at him.
So Ye Wan had kept a copy for himself after taking the picture. He had preserved it all this time. The photo was badly worn—handled, cherished, and longed over for years. Behind that thin piece of paper lay an unbearable tenderness born of despair.
Lu Shangjin stared at the photo, at Yan Yi’s smiling face, for a long time. His heart ached.
He reached down to pick it up, but hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway. The door was suddenly thrown open—Lu Lin burst in.
“Then you go die too!” Lu Shangjin snatched the gun from Ye Wan’s hand and fired at Lu Lin’s forehead without hesitation.
A deafening bang.
Lu Shangjin’s left shoulder was struck. The force hurled him backward into the wall. A muffled groan slipped through his clenched teeth as he clutched his bleeding shoulder.
Lu Lin stood there holding his pistol, a wisp of smoke still curling from the barrel. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes were filled with sorrow.
“Xiao Jin… you actually shot at me.”
Lu Shangjin stared in disbelief at the gun in his hand. Panting in pain, he ejected the magazine—empty. Not a single bullet left. He had loaded it full before coming.
He looked at Ye Wan lying on the ground—several removed bullets clenched in his hand.
“Why?!” Lu Shangjin roared at the cold corpse on the floor, his voice breaking with madness. “Why protect him even after he drove you to death?! Dad! Why?! Why would you still save him?! He… he’s a heartless bastard. He’s not worth it!”
His gaze drifted back to the photo, to the adorable smiling little rabbit.
“I… I’m the same.” He murmured, sliding slowly down the wall to sit on the floor. “I’m the same.”
He had still grown into the person he hated most—betraying the one he loved, blind to what mattered.
Lu Lin walked over to Ye Wan and knelt on one knee. He bent down, lifting Ye Wan into his arms, and whispered softly into his ear:
“Wan Wan, I love you.”
No recording device could ever reproduce the depth of emotion in those words.
The voiceprint lock around Ye Wan’s neck beeped and fell to the ground.
Clutching his still-bleeding shoulder, his face pale, Lu Shangjin glared at Lu Lin with venom. “You disgust me. You’re not worthy of saying that to my dad.”
Lu Lin did not care. He let Ye Wan’s colorless face rest against his shoulder, kissed his eyes, and walked out without another word.
No one knew when that password had been set.
No one knew how long Ye Wan had waited before finally realizing in despair… that Lu Lin would never come to unlock it.
The password remained.
The love did not.
—
Lu Shangjin wandered down the pebbled path in a daze. His car was parked a kilometer away from the Lu residence to avoid alerting Lu Lin. Now he could only clutch his wounded shoulder and make his way back.
When he was whole, he had been invulnerable. But now, endless loneliness and fear seemed to seep into his body through the bleeding wound, gnawing at his heart. Like a traveler sinking into a swamp, the little rabbit who once would have dragged him out of hell at any cost was nowhere to be found.
They used to keep each other warm, struggling to survive under brutal rules. Later, he wrapped his heart in a layer of barbed armor, shutting Yan Yi out.
Every day, the little rabbit would hop over, knock on his heart, and ask, “Are you there?” Only to be pierced all over by his thorns, yet still say through the pain, “Then I’ll come ask again tomorrow.”
Lu Shangjin pressed a hand to his chest. It throbbed with pain. He had always thought heartbreak was just a metaphor—turns out, it really hurt.
He got into the car, cigarette between his lips, but couldn’t light it for a long time. Finally, he snapped, throwing both cigarette and lighter out the window and slamming his fist against the steering wheel.
When he was young, he had seen a box of gleaming military medals neatly arranged in Ye Wan’s drawer. That A3 chameleon omega had once been a legend in the special forces. Back then, even Bi Ruijing had only been a squad member under him.
That once-elite warrior had been imprisoned in a basement and turned into a breeding machine. The only son of the Lu family—admired by countless people—was nothing more than a parasitic creature raised on the blood of his own kin, merely an “acceptable but replaceable experimental subject” in Lu Lin’s eyes.
Lu Shangjin drove aimlessly in circles on the road. He took out his phone and dialed Yan Yi’s number.
More than a dozen calls in a row—all busy. He ran his fingers roughly through his hair. The little rabbit he used to toy with at will no longer seemed to be waiting for him.
Where was Yan Yi? Why couldn’t he be located?
Was he in danger?
Until just moments ago, he had been certain Yan Yi would come running back to beg him to open the door.
Used to Yan Yi’s strength, he had carelessly thrown him out even when his gland was dormant. Only after watching an A3 chameleon go stiff and cold into a corpse before his eyes did he realize—no one is invincible.
He never meant for Yan Yi to die.
—
The car stopped downstairs at Bi Ruijing’s home.
He knocked on the door in the middle of the night.
Unexpectedly, someone was still awake. The door opened after only a couple of knocks.
Bi Ruijing stood there in casual homewear, wearing ridiculously cute giraffe slippers. In his right hand was a baby bottle; in his left, he held an omega boy who might not even be a month old yet. He tested the milk temperature against his cheek, then stared blankly at the blood-soaked Lu Shangjin at the door.
In the next instant, Bi Ruijing pulled out a gun from his apron pocket, dragged Lu Shangjin inside, and pointed it warily toward the door.
“Brother Rui, it’s just me.” Lu Shangjin slumped into the corner of the sofa, clutching his wounded shoulder, his voice hoarse.
“Shh. Xiao Meng’s upstairs—just fell asleep.” Bi Ruijing let out a breath, gently closing the door. Soon, soft shuffling footsteps sounded from the second floor. An omega stepped out of the bedroom, rubbing his sleepy eyes and leaning on the railing to look down.
He had light chestnut short hair curling softly at the ends, big round eyes, young and delicate like a budding cherry blossom. Standing next to Bi Ruijing, he made the thirty-two-year-old elite look almost like an old man.
Soon, the omega came downstairs in a robe and greeted them. He had only met Lu Shangjin a few times but managed to recognize him. “I’ll get you some tea.”
Bi Ruijing shot him an apologetic look. The omega rubbed his eyes, took the baby, and went into the dining room.
“My dad…” Lu Shangjin began carefully, unsure how to bring up his father—someone the world believed had been dead for years.
“Your dad?” Bi Ruijing lit a cigarette and raised an eyebrow. “Lu Lin? Hey—who shot your shoulder? Go clean it and wrap it. Is the bullet still inside? There’s a first aid kit on the rack.”
Ye Wan had once been Bi Ruijing’s captain. Now that Ye Wan was gone, he had the right to know the truth.
From the dining room came an annoyed shout from the omega: “Bi Ruijing, put out that cigarette! You’re making the baby cry!”
“That far away and it can still make him cry?” Bi Ruijing shot back, but still smiled bitterly and stubbed it out, tucking it under the coffee table. He grinned lazily at Lu Shangjin. “Spoiled brat—no respect, calling me by name.”
There was unmistakable indulgence in his smile.
The words reached Lu Shangjin’s lips, but he swallowed them back down. Some pain was better borne alone.
The omega brought over two cups of tea. He handed one to Lu Shangjin. Bi Ruijing looked expectantly, but the omega ignored him, set the other cup on the table, took the tray, and left.
A refined, elegant fragrance lingered on him—a butterfly omega whose gland had awakened. He matched well with Bi Ruijing, a man like a deadly arrow-poison tree.
“Sigh.” Bi Ruijing picked up the tea himself and muttered softly, “My fault for losing the ring. Made him furious. Still won’t talk to me. I tried to order a new one—he won’t take it. Heh, little drama queen.”
Lu Shangjin took a sip. The warmth slid down his cold throat into his stomach, finally bringing him a bit of heat.
“Help me find Yan Yi. If I investigate myself, it’ll alert Lu Lin.” After a long silence, Lu Shangjin looked at the ring finger of his left hand. It had been a long time since he wore a ring—so long that even the pale mark had faded. But Yan Yi had never taken his off.
Maybe it really was something important—a symbol of belonging, of family, of security.
“Go find the ring,” Lu Shangjin said.
Bi Ruijing stared at him, stunned.
“Otherwise… he won’t forgive you.”