Lu Shangjin pulled the slightly trembling little rabbit into his arms, sitting cross-legged on the bed. His hand, still carrying a calming pheromone scent, rested on the other’s cheek and slowly stroked back toward the ear.
“Did I scare you?” Lu Shangjin lowered his head and took Yan Yi’s tightly clenched hand, placing it into his own palm. “I won’t hurt Yan Yan anymore. Don’t be afraid of me.”
Yan Yi was just a little white rabbit who had learned to disguise himself as cold and human-like. He was easily startled, timid, afraid of everything—yet for him, he would do anything.
Yan Yi placed both hands over his lower abdomen, his tense breathing finally easing. Leaning against Lu Shangjin’s shoulder, he exhaled softly, cold sweat dampening his hair.
“I want to be an alpha.” His pale lips parted slightly as he forced a faint smile and whispered, “Then I wouldn’t be this fragile.”
“Not fragile.” Lu Shangjin patiently stroked him. “You’ve already marked me, haven’t you? You even drew me a Rilakkuma rabbit. If you’re happy tomorrow, draw another one.”
Yan Yi bit his lip, his ears suddenly burning hot with blood, turning red as they hid into his hair.
“Want me to bite you again?” Lu Shangjin bent down and kissed his lips, chuckling softly. “You can be an alpha here with me.”
He guided Yan Yi’s attention away, deliberately avoiding touching his lower abdomen again so as not to startle him.
The alpha’s voice was low and deep, like cigar smoke curling around the vocal cords, carrying a slightly hoarse, lingering tone.
Yan Yi couldn’t avoid the kiss. Tense, he clenched his teeth—only to realize Lu Shangjin had merely brushed his lips lightly.
After Yan Yi’s emotions fully calmed, Lu Shangjin pulled him into his arms to sleep, patting his back like soothing a child. He maintained a steady level of calming pheromones throughout the entire night.
Early the next morning, Lu Shangjin had a meeting. After finishing breakfast, he didn’t have time to eat with Yan Yi and left a note on the table.
When Yan Yi woke up and went downstairs, he picked up the note. It contained three lines of instructions: breakfast needed reheating, there was something to handle at noon and he wouldn’t be back, an assistant would deliver lunch, and fruit should only be the pre-cut ones in the kitchen—no sneaking cold fruit from the fridge.
Lu Shangjin’s handwriting never changed—sharp, swift strokes, but never careless.
He went to the kitchen and checked. The cut fruit was in a sealed container, and breakfast was still warm in the pot.
Perhaps because he was four months into the pregnancy, his appetite had improved, and he actually felt that Lu Shangjin’s cooking was passable.
After eating, he wandered around the house twice, moved two pots of daffodils from Lu Shangjin’s study to the balcony, trimmed some withered leaves, and watered them with a bit of plant nutrient solution.
At four in the afternoon, Lu Shangjin’s car stopped outside a high-end bathhouse. A waiter bowed and opened the door, leading him to a private KTV room in the basement.
The deafening noise of chaotic singing and screaming echoed through the dim hallway. The usual young rich heirs in the private rooms were either singing wildly or taking drugs.
He entered the innermost room. Someone was already waiting in the booth.
Xia Pingtian had one foot on the coffee table, feeding wine mouth-to-mouth to a soft and delicate omega. Bi Ruijing casually flicked a lighter in his hand, the occasional snap of the metal lid punctuating the air as he looked up gravely. “You’re late.”
“There was a meeting. It ran late.” Lu Shangjin unbuttoned his suit one by one, tossed his jacket aside, and leaned back. His gaze landed on the beta kneeling on the floor with a black hood over his head.
Xia Pingtian slid a room card into the omega’s slender waistband, coaxed him softly to leave, then closed the door—pinching the omega’s rounded backside on the way out.
Lu Shangjin turned the music up to maximum volume, pulled a cigar from a sandalwood box on the table, cut it open, and slowly inserted a micro earpiece. “A gift from Shao Gongzi. A trusted subordinate of Lu Lin.”
The deafening music drowned out the heart-wrenching screams in the room.
Lu Shangjin leaned slightly forward, forearms resting on his knees, staring coldly at the beta strapped to the chair, a pair of cigar cutters stained with dried blood in his hand.
Xia Pingtian leaned back with his legs crossed, hands on the back of the sofa, smiling as he held his drink. “Come on, Uncle Jiang. If you just talk, we wouldn’t have to get rough, right?”
The middle-aged beta was covered in blood, head tilted back against the chair, barely any breath left in him.
Lu Shangjin narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the veins bulging on the beta’s neck. He tossed the cigar cutter aside, walked over, placed both hands on the chair arm, and stared down at him. His deep eyes looked like a swamp and magma ready to swallow everything.
“Uncle Jiang, don’t hold out. My father is Lu Lin. Whatever you’ve done against him now, just tell me—it won’t count as betrayal.”
Lu Shangjin exhaled slowly, the cigar between his fingers pressing against the beta’s neck, the faint smell of burning flesh filling the air.
The beta screamed and struggled wildly, begging for mercy. Lu Shangjin’s expression remained utterly indifferent. His fingers dug into the skin of the beta’s neck, forcibly ripping out a bloodied chip from within.
At that moment, Bi Ruijing’s fingertips extended into black vines that crawled over the corpse. In an instant, the body dissolved into a steaming pool of blood—bone and flesh disappearing without a trace.
Arrow Poison Wood clan’s innate ability: “Dissolution.”
Bi Ruijing clapped his hands. “Done.”
A service worker came in to clean up. Seeing the large pool of blood on the floor, his face turned ghostly pale. Lu Shangjin took off his bloodstained gloves and placed them on the tray. “We got a bit rough. Clean it up.”
The three alphas went upstairs to bathe. Lu Shangjin’s wounds couldn’t be soaked, so he rinsed off in the shower to wash away the blood.
Xia Pingtian lounged in the hot pool and sighed lazily. “I think Brother Lu has violent tendencies. Being around him makes me freeze up.”
“Yeah, a bit.” Bi Ruijing smiled.
Back when they were in the military together, on the first day of training, Lu Shangjin dislocated the instructor’s jaw. That same day, when leadership came for inspection, he also took them down.
A rebellious youth who usually didn’t talk much, pinned down by a group of alpha instructors, had multiple bone fractures kicked into him, yet still mocked the military high command right in their faces. He was sent home that same day.
“I know him.” Bi Ruijing flicked ash outside the pool. “When he was young, he had someone he cared about. He refused to stay in the military and built his influence outside instead, trying every way possible to get Yan Yi out from inside.”
“After that… well, life happens. Let them deal with it themselves.”
Xia Pingtian couldn’t understand what was so special about that little rabbit that had completely bewitched Lu Shangjin, so on impulse he called Doctor Zhong and flirted a bit, asking him to say something nice to cheer himself up.
Lu Shangjin showered three times. Only after confirming there was no trace of blood smell left did he change into fresh clothes and come out.
A passing omega in a bathrobe came out of the opposite changing room. Seeing Lu Shangjin, his eyes lit up slightly when he noticed the wet, muscular chest exposed at the collar.
Lu Shangjin, distracted and thinking about dinner, accidentally met the omega’s gaze.
“Hey, sir.” The omega lightly brushed his fingertips along Lu Shangjin’s back. The air filled with a faint, elegant water lily pheromone—aggressive and oppressive enough that ordinary omegas would struggle to resist.
“I think our compatibility is very high…” The omega circled in front of him, hooking his fingers onto Lu Shangjin’s belt, sliding them inward as he looked up through his lashes. “Come to my room and play?”
A sticky, sweet pheromone of invitation wrapped around Lu Shangjin’s gland.
Lu Shangjin didn’t stop walking. He removed the omega’s hand from his belt. “Go serve Xia Zong over there. You’ll make money faster than from me.”
“I’m not here for money. I’m here for you.” The omega frowned, increasing his pheromone output. “You’re already here—why pretend to be so proper?”
Lu Shangjin suddenly grabbed his wrist and slammed him against the wall with one hand, causing the omega to cry out in pain.
His voice was impatient, already near the edge of irritation. “Put away your slutty smell. I still have to go wash again.”
So he returned home more than half an hour later than expected.
Yan Yi had brewed a cup of tea at six and placed it on the study desk.
By 6:30, the sky had gone completely dark. Yan Yi sat holding his phone, silently scrolling through messages.
There were no new messages after the afternoon.
He returned to the study, poured out the cold tea, washed the cup, and put it back in the cabinet as if nothing had happened.
At 6:35, Lu Shangjin opened the door and came in, placing a small bouquet of roses and a box of Timothy hay on the shoe cabinet before looking for Yan Yi.
He found him upstairs in the bedroom, sitting on the bed hugging a pillow and reading.
“Baby, I’m back.” Lu Shangjin leaned over the bed, hands on the edge, looking at him apologetically. “Something came up today, and my phone died. You’re not hungry, are you?”
Yan Yi looked up at him. His hair was still damp, and he carried a faint, deliberately masked scent of shower gel.
Lu Shangjin felt a little guilty, unsure if he had washed off all the chaotic smells. He had used extra body wash in the shower.
Seeing Yan Yi’s expression shift from clear to cloudy in real time, Lu Shangjin scratched his head. “Don’t be mad. I had a meeting today. I’ll spend the whole weekend with you tomorrow.”
Yan Yi’s expression darkened completely, and he showed Lu Shangjin his chat history.
Tan Meng had said Bi Ruijing and the others were at a bathhouse.
Yan Yi asked, “A meeting at a bathhouse? What kind of international conference is held there?”
Lu Shangjin froze for a moment, then suddenly smiled.
“You think I went out to mess around?”
Yan Yi turned his head away, as if his thoughts had been exposed. Before he could react, Lu Shangjin climbed onto the bed, pulled him into his lap, and lifted his face.
“My wife finally wants to keep an eye on me?”
Yan Yi pushed against his chest but was pulled even tighter into an embrace. Lu Shangjin calmly explained his entire schedule and then added softly:
“I washed myself very clean. Don’t dislike me.”
That left Yan Yi at a loss.
Before going to sleep, Lu Shangjin had to apply medicine to his wounds. The sting was intense when the liquid entered the injury, but he was used to pain and didn’t show much reaction.
Applying medicine to his shoulder blades was more difficult. His left hand couldn’t reach, so he had to awkwardly pour the medicine over his back.
In the mirror, he suddenly saw Yan Yi standing outside the bedroom door.
The little rabbit didn’t come in. He simply held onto the doorframe and watched quietly. He seemed to step forward slightly, then hesitated and pulled back again, holding the dried hay snack Lu Shangjin had brought back.
Lu Shangjin turned and softly asked, “Wife, I can’t reach my back.”
Only then did Yan Yi walk over, take the medicine bottle and cotton swabs, and carefully apply them to the wounds on his shoulder blades without speaking much.
Lu Shangjin closed his eyes, feeling moved. Suddenly, in a moment of impulse, he said, “Baby, I also want calming pheromones…”
He had gotten carried away.
Yan Yi frowned, placed the medicine bottle on the table, and turned to leave.
“Hey, don’t go. I don’t want it anymore. I don’t want it.”