The paper was fastened at the corners with paper clips, four separate plans neatly stacked. As he turned each page, a faint scent of paper and ink drifted up.
Yan Yi knew Lu Shangjin worked with extreme efficiency. When he was working, he was always intensely focused.
As his fingertips brushed over each line of precise, tightly structured proposals, he could easily imagine the alpha sitting in his study all night, treating Yan Yi’s seemingly absurd idea like an official contract.
He carefully read through all four plans twice.
Then quietly placed them into a drawer, pressing them down over the ring beneath, and walked downstairs in his soft fleece slippers.
Lu Shangjin was sitting at the dining table scrolling through news on his phone. Two bowls of noodles were placed on the table, steaming hot.
“Handmade noodles…?” Yan Yi picked up a couple of strands with his chopsticks. They were evenly thick. The broth, simmered from beef bones, was pale and rich. One side of the bowl was topped with green vegetables, the other with beef meatballs.
The alpha’s cooking skills were getting better and better. Even the flavor had become difficult to criticize.
Lu Shangjin said he had already separated the company from Lu Lin’s control. The family members who had once been loyal to Lu Lin had defected. From now on, no financial flow would be monitored by him.
“Before… I never gave you money. No house, no car either…” He took out two bank cards and a set of car keys and pushed them toward Yan Yi. “Because Lu Lin could trace the transactions. I just didn’t want you to be entangled with him, but I also didn’t think it through at the time.”
“I know this probably looks like I’m keeping you, but that’s not what I mean. After all, you don’t want to marry me right now… I just want to give you everything. All of it. Even my salary card.”
After speaking, Lu Shangjin himself let out an awkward laugh. He was usually sharp-tongued in meetings, but when it came to emotional honesty, he became clumsy.
Yan Yi took the two cards and glanced at them—the passwords were all his birthday. That was indeed the kind of thing a practiced romantic would do. It was enough to make someone happy.
But that alone was enough.
Yan Yi pushed everything back toward Lu Shangjin. “Return the previous card to you as well.”
Lu Shangjin pressed his lips together and looked at him. “You misunderstand.”
“The plan… is good. I’ll accept it.” Yan Yi avoided his gaze slightly, then looked back up. “Money and weapons—I can get them myself.”
Lu Shangjin raised his eyebrows, studying him again.
He tapped the table lightly with his fingers, took Yan Yi’s pen, leaned down, crossed out a line, and wrote a new note underneath.
“Yan-ge, the place you picked overlaps with someone I know. Another boss is also after that land. Leave it to me.”
Yan Yi’s eyes lit up when he saw the annotation. He immediately switched to a red pen and marked Lu Shangjin’s correction.
He was about to continue revising when Lu Shangjin checked the time, turned off the lights, and lifted him up to carry him to bed.
“It’s ten o’clock. You need to sleep. The baby needs rest too.”
The soothing scent of water lilies filled the bedroom, easing the fatigue of the entire day.
The little life inside his belly seemed to sense the alpha’s presence and pressed forward slightly, forming a soft little bump on his abdomen. It looked like it wanted to reach out and hug its father, making anyone who saw it soften.
Lu Shangjin reached out, desperately wanting to touch it, but his hand stopped just before making contact.
He lowered his head and gently kissed the unborn child through the soft layer of skin.
The room no longer needed a night light for Yan Yi’s comfort. Lu Shangjin lay beside him, propping himself on one arm in the darkness, and finally gathered the courage to ask in a low voice:
“Do you really dislike the scent of water lilies that much?”
“It’s fine,” Yan Yi replied.
“Just fine?”
That phrase lingered in Lu Shangjin’s mind for a long time. He adjusted the blanket for him, and the calming scent of his pheromones gradually faded as he stopped releasing it.
In the blur of his thoughts, he kept recalling his school days.
Back then, with his age and rank, he had already been a top-tier talent in a school full of elites.
In his first semester, he achieved sixteen S-rank scores and an overall S rating. Even the most cold and distant children would, at that moment of achievement, want to show it to their parents.
He casually placed his report on the table, pretending to read while secretly watching Lu Lin’s reaction.
Lu Lin only glanced at it, then told him to proceed with breakthrough training toward M2-level differentiation.
That day, Lu Shangjin argued back. He coldly questioned how a J1-level alpha like Lu Lin had any right to demand that his son reach A3, saying there had to be limits to such expectations.
Lu Lin, who had barely ever struck him before, slapped him in front of more than ten bodyguards, telling him to get out and stop bringing that disgusting water lily scent into his presence.
Hot water from the shower hit his wounds that night, forcing him back to clarity.
He showered, masking his pheromones with body wash, and then returned to bed to hold Yan Yi through a thin blanket.
“Maybe,” he murmured softly, brushing his nose against Yan Yi’s gland, “it really is a bit unpleasant after hearing it too much.”
“My wife smells good,” he added with a faint smile. “No one could dislike it.”
Yan Yi lay with his back to him, silently biting his lip where he couldn’t see.
That weekend, Lu Shangjin got off work a little late. The roses at the flower shop had already sold out, so he brought back a small bouquet of baby’s breath attached to a box of pastries.
When Yan Yi passed the entrance, he noticed Lu Shangjin looked tired, but the moment he saw him, he immediately brightened and handed him the gift.
The alpha’s gaze looked a little unfamiliar—like a puppy abandoned in the rain.
Maybe work had been difficult lately. Yan Yi thought there was no need to keep pushing him away at home, so he accepted the gift.
“You’re being very well-behaved today,” Lu Shangjin smiled, relieved. He came over, wrapped his arms around Yan Yi’s waist, and kissed his forehead. “Did the baby bully you today? I’ll discipline him later.”
Yan Yi pushed his chest. “No.”
“You look really good today,” Lu Shangjin lingered on him. Only when Yan Yi said he was hungry did he go into the kitchen.
He brought out a pot of lotus root and pork rib soup. Yan Yi stood on the balcony, arranging the baby’s breath into a vase he had found in storage, placing it by the floor-to-ceiling window.
Lu Shangjin watched him from the kitchen doorway. The sight made him so distracted that he burned his hand on spilled soup and didn’t even notice.
At dinner, he carefully separated bones, placed tender meat into Yan Yi’s plate, and poured soup into his bowl.
He casually mentioned that things at the company had finally stabilized. Yan Yi relaxed upon hearing that.
Lu Shangjin ate quietly, his sleeves neatly rolled up to his elbows. The former young master’s refined demeanor still remained, but the cold arrogance was gone. Every look he gave Yan Yi was sincere.
His pheromone output had become less frequent, but each release was denser, as if compressed to its limit. Afterward, he would quickly go take a shower.
Yan Yi couldn’t sleep later that night and watched an online lecture replay by Doctor Zhong.
The topic was anatomical differences between alpha and omega bodies.
He listened quietly until Lu Shangjin came in wearing a robe, water still dripping from his hair onto his collarbone.
Sitting on the bed’s edge, he gently massaged Yan Yi’s slightly swollen calf.
“Starting tomorrow, I’ll be on parental leave,” he said. “I’ll stay home with you and the baby.”
Yan Yi set down his tablet. “You should work.”
“Then I’d be useless,” Lu Shangjin said, kissing the bottom of his foot. Yan Yi kicked him lightly, ticklish and retreating into the blanket.
As they settled in bed, Lu Shangjin hesitantly asked, “Can I touch the baby?”
Yan Yi stiffened slightly but didn’t refuse.
When his hand finally rested on the belly, the tension remained—but so did the life inside, gently responding beneath the skin.
Lu Shangjin suddenly pulled him into his arms, holding him tightly. His heartbeat grew louder and faster.
“Does your waist hurt?” he asked.
“It’s manageable,” Yan Yi said softly.
Lu Shangjin sighed, rubbing his back gently. Then, almost unconsciously, he released a bit of calming pheromone—before immediately stopping himself again.
“Yan Yi…” he murmured. “Do you like me?”
The question lingered in the air.
There was no answer.
Yan Yi had already fallen asleep.
Lu Shangjin stared at his sleeping face, then leaned down and kissed his cheek.
That night, unable to restrain himself, he later went to the bathroom alone.
When he came back, he did not return to bed, but sat by the window in silence, smoking, watching the city lights slowly go out one by one.