Li Xi, born on Christmas Eve—“Xi Xi Peace.”
This was Ying Zhiyu’s heartfelt blessing for him.
Since they had decided to have children, they didn’t waste a single day during the final fertile period of the year.
They began working out together, hoping for a healthy baby.
During workouts, it was especially easy for sparks to fly. Ying Zhiyu noticed that Li Xi seemed to enjoy his breathing; sometimes, even when he did nothing but breathe heavily on the equipment, the Omega would be drawn to him.
Besides sleeping and exercising, Li Xi began regular medical check-ups more frequently.
Almost once a month, Ying Zhiyu even had dinner with Li Xi’s private doctor, Qin Baoyan.
The doctor commented during the meal: congratulations in advance on having a child soon.
Omega arousal was the best fertility aid.
Li Xi’s love for Ying Zhiyu was never hidden in front of acquaintances.
In their circle, Li Xi’s attitude toward his Alpha dictated how others treated Ying Zhiyu.
Li Xi didn’t want anyone to look down on Ying Zhiyu, so he never hid his feelings.
Ying Zhiyu still worried: “Would the LI board think…”
“They won’t think anything matters. I won’t pretend for them my whole life.”
Before Ying Zhiyu could finish, Li Xi cut him off:
“Whether they accept it or not, they have to. And not just accept—you’ll be respected by them.”
Since Li Xi intended to succeed as chairman of LI Group and have heirs with Ying Zhiyu, Ying Zhiyu, even without engaging in LI affairs, would inevitably become a public figure representing the company.
Li Xi could handle the board; no one at LI had the influence or ability to replace him.
The trickier part was the extremists online.
Half a year had passed since their marriage and more than four months since their wedding ceremony. Together, they had moved to the university town, and rumors of Li Xi’s secret marriage had already started online.
But the extremists were still denying the marriage.
After Li Xi’s previous scandal with the so-called socialite Alpha, online rumors were rampant:
“Why is it a problem if an Omega has fun?”
“Did the Alpha get played?”
“Will they still go to A for children?”
And so on.
Li Xi publicly responded that he didn’t oppose any lawful Alpha and had never set himself up as single, unmarried, or childless.
But extremists interpreted everything through their own lens, regardless of what Li Xi said.
Now…
Li Xi was slowly letting the media release his marriage news, gradually, while security for Ying Zhiyu naturally increased.
Approaching the Lunar New Year, LI Group would be at its busiest, while Ying Zhiyu had the most free time.
The university was on winter break, and though Ying Zhiyu occasionally visited the lab, his schedule was far more relaxed than before.
During this period, they moved back to Li Xi’s penthouse in the city center.
Originally, with the year-end workload, President Liqian had offered Li Xi and Ying Zhiyu to stay at the family estate, but Li Xi refused.
Ying Zhiyu didn’t know exactly how Li Xi turned down the offer, but he understood that Li Xi simply didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable at the estate.
At the LI Group year-end gala, Li Xi would formally introduce Ying Zhiyu as his Alpha partner.
Previously, except for the board, most employees assumed Ying Zhiyu was just a small boyfriend of Li Xi.
Due to Ying Zhiyu’s striking appearance, some even believed he was a young Alpha celebrity secretly supported by the wealthy Li.
Most LI employees still firmly believed Li Xi was “single.”
Ying Zhiyu didn’t care whether his identity was revealed early or late.
In the previous life, he and Li Xi had been forced to go public.
In the fourth year of their marriage, when they were attacked, they were together. Li Xi even ended up in the hospital protecting Ying Zhiyu.
Highway ambushes, injuries, hospitalizations—such major news couldn’t be suppressed by the Li family. That was how Ying Zhiyu’s identity was forcibly made public.
This time around, however, Ying Zhiyu approached it with a calm, matter-of-fact attitude.
That afternoon, he went back to their home near the university town to pick up some books. He planned to meet Li Xi at LI Group afterward, then attend the company’s year-end gala together in the evening.
The streets were unusually deserted since it was winter break and almost Lunar New Year. Most students had gone home, and many nearby shops had closed, leaving only a handful open.
Just as Ying Zhiyu got off the elevator and approached his parking space, a delivery worker in a red uniform vest and a baseball cap walked straight toward him.
“Hello, sir. Could you tell me—Unit Four—”
Before the worker could finish, a shadow lunged at Ying Zhiyu.
One of the bodyguards tasked with protecting him tackled him to the ground. At the same time, the “delivery worker” pulled a bottle filled with a brownish liquid from a box and acted.
A crisp sound of glass shattering on the ground rang out.
Then came a strange, harsh sizzling, like something frying, followed by the acrid, choking smell.
Ying Zhiyu’s head hit the ground during the tackle, leaving him momentarily dazed.
But the stench instantly brought him back to full alert—
It was sulfuric acid.
The impostor delivery worker was quickly subdued by another bodyguard. Ying Zhiyu had no time to think about anything else and immediately stripped off the jacket of the bodyguard who had tackled him.
The good news: the bodyguard was formally dressed, with a suit jacket providing some protection.
The bad news: even in winter, for mobility, the injured bodyguard was only wearing two layers—an outer jacket and a shirt.
When Ying Zhiyu removed the jacket, he saw that in just a few seconds, the concentrated acid had already soaked through it.
He frowned sharply. The area affected was significant, and he couldn’t just rip off the inner shirt.
Glancing around their location, Ying Zhiyu ignored everything else and helped the grimacing bodyguard toward a certain direction.
They reached the janitor’s closet in the underground garage—a place where cleaning tools like brooms, mops, rags, and buckets were stored.
The door was locked, but Ying Zhiyu kicked it open without hesitation.
There was likely running water inside. As he saw the faucet, he exhaled in relief.
Besides the subdued “delivery worker” bodyguard, Li Xi had recently increased security around Ying Zhiyu, so other bodyguards were still following.
One of them noticed Ying Zhiyu was trying to rinse the injured man with water and stepped forward to stop him.
“Young Master Ying, that looked like concentrated sulfuric acid! You can’t use water—”
Ying Zhiyu looked up. The usual gentleness in his eyes was gone, replaced with a sharp decisiveness.
“Leave him to ‘dry burn’? That only happens if there isn’t enough water!”
Without further explanation, he turned on the faucet.
A torrent of cold water hit the wound. Whether from the shock of cold or the pain, the tall, nearly 6’3” Alpha bodyguard flinched.
Ying Zhiyu pressed him firmly, allowing no movement.
The freezing water splashed onto Ying Zhiyu as well, soaking his clothes and face. He frowned but kept watching the shirt clinging to the burned skin.
He lightly touched the fabric, prompting a hiss of pain from the bodyguard.
Ying Zhiyu paused, then turned to another bodyguard: “Get scissors.”
Janitor closets usually had scissors, and the security staff had arrived by then, though Ying Zhiyu’s bodyguards kept them outside.
High-concentration sulfuric acid requires copious water—not only to dilute and wash away the chemical, but also to cool the exothermic reaction and prevent deeper burns.
Ying Zhiyu cut open the back of the bodyguard’s shirt while continuing the rinse, and instructed another bodyguard to call the hospital.
They would drive themselves but needed the safest, fastest route, avoiding any possible attacks along the way.
After completing all this, Ying Zhiyu estimated the rinse time and helped the bodyguard into the car.
He was drenched and chilled to the bone, but he didn’t immediately care about his own wet clothes. Instead, he turned to the bodyguard in the front seat:
“Don’t report this to Mr. Li yet. Tell the others to wait. After the hospital check, I’ll explain everything in person.”
The bodyguard hesitated. Normally, such incidents should be reported immediately. And there was still a potential threat, so even Ying Zhiyu shouldn’t be moving around.
Ying Zhiyu seemed to see through the thought and said:
“That person has probably been lying in wait here for a while, but most of these are unorganized. If it were organized, it wouldn’t be acid—it would have been a gun.”
Even without the “pulling out” action, a gun shot through a cardboard box would be faster.
He stared thoughtfully. “If Mr. Li came now, it would only draw more attention. I’ll explain it to him myself.”
Ying knew Li Xi would likely rush over if he heard about the attack.
But suddenly, Ying Zhiyu remembered that in the previous life, during the highway attack that forced their temporary bond, he hadn’t paid attention to the investigation.
Back then, he and Li Xi weren’t close. Li Xi hadn’t introduced him to the family office’s chief security officer, Pan Muqiao.
He had assumed it was a simple attack against Li Xi—planned by extremists from the Alpha faction.
Now, he realized: in that special period, was it really an Alpha extremist attack?
By then, he and Li Xi had been secretly married for three years. Rumors about Li Xi’s hidden marriage were everywhere.
Like the “delivery worker” he’d just encountered, it was almost impossible that Alpha extremists hated him enough to attack.
More likely, the extremists of the Omega faction, who had just realized the “true god” had married, would be furious.
Suppose the previous highway attack was orchestrated by Omega extremists…
Extremist factions are, essentially, self-centered, black-and-white, friend-or-foe groups.
The most common emotion? Hate born from love.
“Love, I want you alive; hate, I want you dead.”
In the previous life, they could attack Li Xi and him together.
Now, the target might not be just him, and Li Xi’s safety couldn’t be guaranteed either.
So, rather than waiting for Li Xi to come find him, Ying Zhiyu decided it was better to go meet Li Xi himself.
Author’s note:
“Love, I wish them to live; hatred, I wish them to die.” — Analects, Yan Yuan