After the temporary marking, both of them were a little out of breath.
The basement ventilation wasn’t great. The second Ying Zhiyu pulled away from Li Xi’s neck, he triggered the smart system to switch on full air circulation.
He wrapped an arm around Li Xi’s waist, resting his forehead in the hollow of Li Xi’s shoulder for a moment.
Between a highly compatible Alpha and Omega, there’s always an invisible thread tying them together.
And during an information-scent marking, that thread becomes a chain—binding them tight until they’re completely fused.
Their bodies had reacted, but aside from the marking, the Alpha hadn’t taken a single step further.
Once he’d steadied himself, Ying Zhiyu lifted his head.
When Li Xi had yanked his collar earlier, he’d been a little rough. Thankfully his shirt was high-quality—only the collar was a bit crooked. Ying Zhiyu reached up and re-fastened the buttons, restoring their appearance as if nothing chaotic had just happened.
Once both of them were presentable again, they returned to their usual composure.
Ying Zhiyu got up first and opened the gaming room door, casually asking, “Did you come downstairs with your sister?”
Earlier, when Han Qiyu suddenly spoke up, he’d been so dizzy from his pre-heat that he hadn’t noticed the three people at the door.
Li Xi shook his head. “I came on my own. Dad kept her back for a bit.”
“Oh,” Ying Zhiyu replied, dropping the subject.
If he kept asking, it would go into Li Songqian’s private family matters or LI Group’s business—things he never pried into.
But since the Alpha didn’t ask further, Li Xi brought it up himself: “Dad asked where we’re planning to go for our honeymoon.”
Fresh off the chaos of a moment ago, Ying Zhiyu’s mind was still floating. “Honeymoon?”
Li Xi thought he meant he hadn’t considered it, so he shifted the topic: “If you don’t have time—”
“I do,” Ying Zhiyu cut in immediately.
If even the heir to a trillion-level conglomerate could make time for a honeymoon, why wouldn’t a little PhD like him?
He’d repeated the word only because… in their last life, they’d never honeymooned.
Hearing it suddenly now threw him off for a second.
So he asked directly, “Where do you want to go? I might not be able to leave the country right now—can we stay domestic?”
Their lab was working on a core national gene-tech project, so everyone involved was temporarily restricted from leaving the country.
Li Xi had majored in bio-information science himself. He understood perfectly.
“Sure. We’ll stay in China. Once the secretary drafts the options, pick whatever time works for you,” Li Xi said.
Ying Zhiyu nodded. “I’m fine with anything.”
After the ventilation finished, they left the room and said goodbye to Li Songqian.
Traffic was a mess before midnight in the city center—especially on a Friday.
Their car was stuck in a jam when Li Xi raised the partition between the front and back seats.
He spoke casually: “I had Zhang Jingrui find some properties. See if you like any.”
“Mm?” Ying Zhiyu looked up.
A detailed PPT popped up on the rear-seat screen—“New Home Purchase & Moving Plan.”
A new home? Moving?
Was Li Xi moving out? Li Songqian had just given him three properties downtown, all with approved flight paths. He could helicopter straight to LI Headquarters.
“Why are we moving?”
Ying Zhiyu didn’t flip to the next page. He turned to look directly at Li Xi instead.
Lì Xi turned his head to look out at the traffic outside the window. The glow of headlights and neon signs washed across half of his face.
He didn’t say a word, nor did he meet Ying Zhiyu’s eyes.
Ying Zhiyu paused, then turned back to the “Moving Plan” PPT.
All the listed properties were—quite coincidentally—located near the university district in the eastern part of the capital.
He was choosing to move out to the Fourth Ring’s university area instead of living in a luxurious high-rise right in the city center. The reason was obvious.
He just wanted to make Ying Zhiyu’s commute to school easier.
“…All right. I’ll go check out the houses.”
—
That weekend, because he had been following his advisor to seminars all week, Ying Zhiyu still had to return to the lab.
He left early in the morning. The moment the front door gave a soft click, Lì Xi, still in bed, opened his eyes.
Last night, Ying Zhiyu still hadn’t completed the full mark.
Lì Xi could feel the surge of Alpha pheromones from the young man’s heat, feel the tight muscles under his palms, the veins standing out on his forearms.
But every time they were just one step away… the Alpha held himself back.
Lì Xi suddenly remembered what Qin Baoyan once said: “Then he definitely has a problem—either in his head or in his body!”
Physically, there was nothing wrong with him.
He wasn’t the bulky, imposing type of Alpha, but both the prenuptial physical exam and Lì Xi’s own experience told him the young Alpha was perfectly healthy.
So… was it psychological?
Did he not want to mark him? Or was there someone else the Alpha actually wanted to mark?
Whenever he was with him, every word, every gesture was perfectly measured—like he had rehearsed all the “right answers” in advance.
Could it be that Ying Zhiyu… really had never been with another Omega before?
Lì Xi was off for the weekend, and Li Yue had made dinner plans with him.
Last night, aside from their second brother, Lì Lü, Li Yue hadn’t gone back to the family mansion either.
But unlike Lì Lü, who was making a point by not showing up—openly protesting their Alpha father—Li Yue simply didn’t want to deal with the sly, pretentious old foxes on the LI Group board.
When Lì Xi arrived at the restaurant’s VIP room, he waited over twenty minutes before Li Yue finally showed up.
He disliked lateness—but his twin sister was the one exception.
Once she sat down, he signaled the server to start bringing the dishes.
The first thing Li Yue asked after taking her seat was, “Where’s your little Alpha?”
Though they called each other “brother” and “sister,” they were basically the same age and spoke casually.
“He has a lab dinner tonight,” Lì Xi replied.
When Li Yue called him earlier that afternoon, he hadn’t even had a chance to tell Ying Zhiyu—because the Alpha had called first.
Ying Zhiyu told him over the phone that their advisor was treating the whole lab to dinner.
Since he never mentioned Li Yue’s invitation, Lì Xi didn’t either.
Fortunately, Li Yue didn’t care. Eating with just her brother was even better.
While waiting for the food, she complained, “I can’t stand dealing with that crowd. Alphas fighting for this and that all day—aren’t they tired?”
Over 80% of LI Group’s board were Alphas.
And in Li Yue’s mind, Alphas were nothing but stubborn, competitive, oversized wolves.
After she finished criticizing the board, she continued, “And don’t even get me started on big sis. Look at brother-in-law—he’s lost so much weight from that pregnancy!”
“People keep romanticizing the two of them because they came from big families and were childhood sweethearts for over a decade. Sure, his family isn’t lacking either, but the moment she marries her ‘true love,’ what happens? She gets turned into a baby-making machine.”
A knock on the door cut her off, and the server entered with the dishes.
Once the plates were all laid out and the server and his robot assistant left, Li Yue resumed, “Betas are the best—no drama, no competition, plenty of money and free time. Whatever they want, they just do it. And if the sky falls, there are always you AO types to hold it up.”
Lì Xi listened quietly, never responding.
Yes, Li Yue was a Beta. But she loved being a Beta because she was a Beta born into a wealthy, powerful family.
Her perspective was only hers.
Every group has people who are happy and people who are not—it usually has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with circumstances, upbringing, personality, and mindset.
Still, this was fine.
He wanted his sister to stay carefree and unrestrained her whole life.
Li Yue was used to his silence. After venting her whole view on ABO dynamics, she picked up her chopsticks—and froze.
Half the dishes on the table contained scallions, ginger, or garlic.
“What? Who ordered these? Didn’t they tell the kitchen?!”
She thought maybe management had changed, or the wrong dishes were brought.
Before she could press the service bell, Lì Xi picked up a piece of steamed spotted grouper—garnished with shredded scallion and ginger.
“No mistake. I ordered them.”
He said it calmly.
Li Yue stared.
He ordered them?!
This one had scallions. That one had garlic. That one was loaded with ginger!
She watched her brother eat that piece of fish—still sprinkled with scallions—and seriously wondered if he had been replaced by an imposter.
Of course he hadn’t.
It was just that after eating those onion beef buns, typhoon-shelter fried shrimp, and ginger-scallion chicken at the Ying household… he’d realized those strong-smelling ingredients weren’t actually that bad.
He hadn’t been forcing himself entirely.
Maybe the first bite, yes—because the Ying parents treated him with such respect, and the atmosphere at the table felt formal. He just didn’t want them to think he was picky or disliking their cooking.
But after that first bite—maybe the Ying parents really did have culinary skills—because everything tasted surprisingly good.
Even appetizing.
So now, sitting in the restaurant, Lì Xi simply said, “Sometimes it’s good to change things up.”
Li Yue had tried to convince him before—claiming he was missing out on 99% of the world’s flavors—and he never budged.
And now he says what? “Change things up”?
Li Yue’s mind spun—until a terrifying possibility hit her.
She leapt to her feet. “Hold on—did you get a checkup lately? You’re not pregnant, are you?!”
She’d heard that Omega cravings change during pregnancy!
Lì Xi paused with his chopsticks. “…”
When word got out that the LI Group’s Omega third young master had rushed his wedding, everyone assumed it was a shotgun marriage—that the ceremony was hastened before his belly started showing.
Strangers gossiping was one thing. But his sister?
Li Yue couldn’t smell pheromones, but unfortunately for him, last night had been an Alpha heat. And no matter how restrained Ying Zhiyu usually was, his temporary marks last night had been far more intense.
After the last mark, the bite marks extended from the back of Lì Xi’s neck toward his ear—very clearly.
It wasn’t cold yet, and it was the weekend—Lì Xi hadn’t bothered covering them.
Li Yue stared openly at the marks.
She was no naïve girl. At twenty-eight, she knew perfectly well how to please herself. One look at the marks and she knew exactly what had happened.
Lì Xi turned his head slightly, avoiding her stare.
He poured himself a drink and took a sip. “I’m not pregnant. Don’t overthink.”
Li Yue wasn’t fully convinced. With that kind of compatibility and that intensity, wasn’t pregnancy just a matter of time?
Still, knowing her brother was embarrassed, she prepared to sit down—when another detail caught her eye.
“Bro… that shirt you’re wearing? That’s not yours, is it?”
Li Xi’s shirt inevitably carried traces of the Alpha’s scent.
Holding it in his hands, he struggled for three seconds before finally giving in and lowering his head.
Rationally, he knew he shouldn’t be indulging in an Alpha’s pheromones.
They had only done a temporary mark last night. Li Xi knew perfectly well that what he should be doing now was weaning himself off it, not letting himself get addicted.
So he forced himself to put the Alpha’s shirt down.
But after washing up and stepping out of the bathroom—
At the doorway, he paused. Three more seconds. He shut his eyes, turned around, and walked right back.
You only live once.
Why was he forcing himself?
So what if he was addicted?
It wasn’t like that Alpha could ever belong to anyone else.
And that was how Li Xi ended up leaving for his appointment wearing a shirt soaked with Ying Zhiyu’s scent, his face perfectly blank the whole time.
He set down his glass and stopped avoiding the topic. “Yeah. It’s his shirt.”
There was no need to explain who “he” was.
As a Beta, Liyuè had always had only a vague idea of what pheromone attraction meant.
She only knew it was something like bees and butterflies being drawn to the particular flowers they liked—when an Alpha and Omega’s compatibility was high enough, the scent pulled them in like instinct.
But understanding it in theory was entirely different from actually seeing her always-calculating, always-rational older brother walk out wearing a shirt that another Alpha had worn.
“H-He…” Liyuè was momentarily speechless. “You really… like him?”
She couldn’t even bring herself to say love.
The idea of her clear-headed brother sincerely liking an Alpha felt downright surreal.
“Satisfied,” Li Xi replied honestly.
From the very first moment—when he’d only seen the Alpha through that one-way glass—Ying Zhiyu had been nothing but a surprise.
Even with the constant haze that seemed to surround him, even with all the little quirks that were “surprising” enough to make Li Xi suspect something was off…
So what?
He was Li Xi.
Whatever person or thing he wanted, he would keep in his hand.
Whatever that Alpha had behind him—motives, ambitions, schemes—
Bring them on.
❤️