Li Xi returned home from work. Ying Zhiyu had likely already showered.
He wore loose loungewear, and at five months, a slight bump was already visible.
Li Yue, calmed by her brother’s even temperament, was no longer nervous.
Curious, she followed him into the kitchen, watching him skillfully beat eggs, warm water, and skim the foam.
On the counter was a small bowl of peeled shrimp.
When it was nearly ready, Li Xi asked, “Do you want some steamed egg with shrimp?”
Normally after 8 p.m., Li Yue wouldn’t eat. But curiosity won out, and she nodded after a brief hesitation.
While the eggs steamed, Li Xi microwaved two cups of oat milk.
He pushed one toward Li Yue, who couldn’t help but exclaim, “Brother, you’re amazing!”
Li Xi blinked. “…Mixing oats with milk is amazing?”
Li Yue had never used a microwave before; seeing him handle it easily naturally impressed her.
“And the eggs! There’s shrimp on top!” she added.
Li Xi suddenly understood why Ying Zhiyu used to watch him in the kitchen. Not because he doubted her, but because he found her adorable.
“The shrimp were prepped. I only beat the eggs, did nothing else.”
He added, “…though, it seems better than before.”
Li Xi had never cooked alone before. Usually, when the Alpha worked in the kitchen, he only assisted. Any mistakes were quickly resolved by someone nearby.
Something reminded him, and a smile tugged at his lips.
Li Yue, standing across the island, was stunned.
Her brother… smiled so warmly…
Doctors recommended small, frequent meals for pregnant Omegas. Li Xi didn’t prepare much else. Once the shrimp steamed eggs were ready, he and Li Yue left the open kitchen.
Sitting at the table, Li Yue tasted her brother’s late-night snack and was once again amazed.
Delicious!
The custard was tender, the shrimp bouncy, and the seasoning light. Each bite was warm and refreshing.
Around 10:30 p.m., Li Xi’s phone rang.
Li Yue immediately fixed her gaze on the phone by the dining table.
Before Li Xi picked it up and swiped to answer, Li Yue suddenly remembered: when her brother was making a late-night snack in the kitchen, the phone had been placed in the most obvious, convenient spot on the kitchen island.
Now that he had brought the custard to the table, the phone had moved there too.
Though he said he wasn’t worried, it was clear he cared—otherwise, he wouldn’t keep the phone so close.
Actually, Li Yue was a little off.
At this delicate moment, with everyone speculating about the pregnancy and Ying Zhiyu coincidentally out of town, it seemed more like a test.
A probing move?
They wanted to see how Li Xi would react.
Li Xi, however, didn’t care about such tricks at all.
As for why he held onto the phone… maybe he just missed his Alpha a little.
Ying Zhiyu was on a business trip, busy and pressed for time.
Li Xi’s private doctor required him to get eight hours of sleep daily; by around 10 p.m., he usually went to bed.
To avoid disturbing his pregnant husband, Ying Zhiyu had reduced the number of calls during the trip.
When Ying Zhiyu left the experimental facility and checked his phone—still on silent—he saw several missed calls and countless messages from his sister, plus a push notification with a link.
Frowning, he sensed it wasn’t good news.
He opened the link. Big, bold headlines read: “Abandoned Girlfriend,” “Cheating Scumbag,” alongside a group photo.
“Student council girlfriend from the foreign languages department?”
Because everyone else in the photo was blurred, Ying Zhiyu had to think for a moment before realizing that the person circled in red hearts was who they were referring to.
Last year, during a conference with his advisor, Ying Zhiyu had once sent a contact card to another faculty member’s daughter who hadn’t undergone military training—Xiang Jia.
Xiang Jia was the class representative and student council vice president at the foreign languages department of the Biomed University, and she was the girlfriend of Xu Kuo’s Omega.
Ying Zhiyu knew Xiang Jia was probably being set up to match with him, through Ni Lu, Xu Kuo’s girlfriend.
Even during the first time Ying Zhiyu had planned to get a marriage certificate with Li Xi, Xiang Jia would likely have been at that dinner with Xu Kuo.
But in both his previous and current life, Ying Zhiyu and Xiang Jia had only ever been acquaintances. In this life, he hadn’t even met her, the last contact being over ten years ago in his previous life.
Ying Zhiyu wondered who had deliberately brought this up now.
Regardless of the motive, the news was out, and Li Xi had the right to know first.
Glancing at the time, it was already 10:30 p.m. Was Li Xi asleep?
After a moment’s thought, Ying Zhiyu decided to call. Some things were more urgent than sleep.
The call connected, and Ying Zhiyu went straight to the point: “I haven’t dated anyone at school.”
He had said similar things before, assuring Li Xi that he had never been with another Omega.
Li Xi trusted him.
So when Ying Zhiyu flatly denied the news, Li Xi didn’t ask about that at all. Instead, he asked: “Finished work? Have you eaten?”
Ying Zhiyu hesitated. “…Yes, the cafeteria delivered a work meal.”
This trip was to compare raw materials for artificial pheromones at the LI experimental plantation. Plant-extracted pheromones were ideal, and he wanted to optimize his previous research approach.
After answering, Ying Zhiyu politely returned the concern: “Have you eaten your late-night snack?”
Li Xi said, “I’m having it now.”
Li Yue, sitting across from the table, was about to lose it—how could her brother and brother-in-law make a call and not get to the point for so long?!
Since she was used to acting freely around her brother, Li Yue loudly called across the table: “Brother-in-law, what’s this news about?!”
Ying Zhiyu was taken aback. Li Yue was also there? He thought for a moment and said, “Put it on speaker.”
Xiang Jia was a famous white-collar beauty at Biomed University, talented and stunning, sought after by Alphas, even Xu Kuo had failed to win her over before eventually dating her roommate Ni Lu.
Ying Zhiyu guessed that Xiang Jia might have been slightly interested in him, or at least found him agreeable. Otherwise, Ni Lu wouldn’t have tried to set them up.
But with her status and pride, Xiang Jia would never actively pursue him. So there was no possibility for anything further.
After explaining the background, Ying Zhiyu added: “Xiang Jia probably didn’t know about this news. That photo is just from a casual gathering.”
Even after the news went viral, Xiang Jia hadn’t contacted him. Given Ying Zhiyu’s impression of her—free-spirited and confident—she certainly wasn’t at the stage of “must have him.”
Now that he and Li Xi had officially announced their relationship, the news did Xiang Jia no good. She hadn’t even asked him anything online, probably to avoid misunderstandings.
Li Xi understood Ying Zhiyu’s meaning.
He said, “You don’t need to worry. LI’s PR team will handle it, and it won’t affect anyone else’s normal life.”
The last sentence was meant to reassure Ying Zhiyu that no innocent Omega would get dragged into it.
After this brief conversation, Li Xi and Ying Zhiyu hung up.
Li Yue was stunned. “And that’s it? That’s all?”
Her brother had believed his husband’s explanation so easily! No proof, nothing?!
Li Xi knew his sister too well. One look, and he understood her thoughts.
“How does anyone prove what they haven’t done? It’s normal for someone to like him.”
Li Xi wasn’t surprised. People had admired Ying Zhiyu back in school. Such a brilliant Alpha, a top student, it would be strange if no one had ever liked him.
Most admirers probably kept their feelings hidden anyway—after all, not everyone could confidently approach someone like Ying Zhiyu.
Looking at her brother’s eyes, Li Yue saw nothing but recognition of his Alpha, no shadows or doubts.
Li Yue: “…Okay, false alarm. Brother and brother-in-law are great, solid as gold, inseparable. Any schemes won’t even find a crack to slip through.”
Because… there wasn’t one.
A single piece of so-called evidence—a group photo with everyone else blurred out—making it to the trending news, had to have someone pushing it behind the scenes.
Not long ago, Ying Zhiyu had asked Li Xi about Li Qin and Li Lü’s Omega mother, Wen Xinrui, in order to analyze the connection between “sense of security” and AO differentiation.
He thought the reproductive data from the arranged marriage between Wen Xinrui and Li Songqian was highly valuable for research.
Li Xi had introduced her to Ying Zhiyu at the time, also explaining Wen Xinrui’s current status within the Wen family and the family’s standing in the capital.
When the news went viral online, Li Xi openly stated that he suspected the Wen family.
Li Qin and Han Qiyu had been married for years with no AO offspring, and Li Lü had yet to have children.
The Wen family was extremely concerned about Li Xi’s fertility and the situation of the next generation.
Hearing this, Ying Zhiyu sharply asked, “The underground parking incident—any leads?”
Since Li Xi had directly mentioned the Wen family, it wasn’t just intuition. The most likely reason was that something had recently happened to make him suspicious of them.
Li Xi didn’t deny it, saying only, “No direct evidence, but it’s very likely connected to the Wen family.”
To be more precise, it was inseparable from the current head of the Wen family, Wen Xinrui.
Ying Zhiyu considered that if the “maternal sense of security” theory was real, then in AO couples without emotional foundations, both children still being Alpha would imply something about the mother.
Li Qin and Li Lü’s Omega mother had to be extremely stable and mentally resilient.
Would she even do something that Li Qin himself wouldn’t stoop to?
Since the pregnancy would soon be made public, Li Xi’s personal safety had become especially critical.
This time, Ying Zhiyu proactively suggested that they move back to the Li family garden villa within the LI headquarters building.
There, not only would there be ample staff to take care of Li Xi, but with such tight security measures, no one would be able to harm Li Xi or the child in his womb.
By late May, Ying Zhiyu’s business trip ended, and he returned to the capital.
He had been away for nearly a month. In that time, the capital had shifted from the season of coats and windbreakers to everyone wearing just a single layer.
For this trip, Ying Zhiyu had requested leave from his advisor in person, while LI Group coordinated directly with the school. Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
After returning, Ying Zhiyu would no longer need to dedicate as much energy to the LI research lab and could refocus on AO differentiation studies.
After deplaning, he walked together with a group of LI lab researchers.
All of them had flown business class; Ying Zhiyu even napped briefly on the plane.
Having collected his luggage and exited the terminal, before even reaching the LI lab pickup car, his peripheral vision caught a familiar figure, and his steps paused slightly.
It was Panda.
Panda walked over quietly, speaking politely in a low voice: “Young Master Ying, please this way.”
Ying Zhiyu nodded, greeted his colleagues, and followed Panda away.
The core researchers from the LI lab all knew that Ying Zhiyu was the Alpha of their boss.
They had initially assumed that this “extra son-in-law Alpha” had only slipped in through back channels to claim a share of the pie. Yet time and again, Ying Zhiyu proved with his abilities that this external R&D strategic consultant was the real deal.
These days, corporate groups didn’t care as much about seniority. In research, people admired strength—so long as one had the hard skills, no one looked down on him.
And Ying Zhiyu was humble, polite, and exceptionally good with people.
A month’s time was enough for him to fit in perfectly with the other researchers. So when he walked off with Panda, the crowd behind immediately started teasing him with a chorus of “Yo, yo, yo!”
Ying Zhiyu: “…”
He didn’t turn back, but raised an arm to wave goodbye.
Panda led him to a black Bentley Mulsanne and stopped. The driver got out to help with luggage, while Panda opened the rear door for Ying Zhiyu.
Ying Zhiyu exchanged a glance with the person inside before getting into the car.
Once seated, he didn’t immediately buckle his seatbelt. Instead, he asked, “Why are you here alone?”
After the previous trending post was suppressed, LI Group issued an official statement. As Li Xi had said, it’s difficult for someone to prove they didn’t do something.
Those who looked down on Ying Zhiyu as a son-in-law Alpha didn’t actually care about the explanation—what he did didn’t matter to them.
Essentially, their dislike had nothing to do with him as a person.
So LI’s statement was concise: they straightforwardly released the legal notice, and the matter was resolved.
But the trending post had once again piqued public curiosity about Li Xi and Ying Zhiyu’s marriage. At such a moment, Ying Zhiyu hadn’t expected Li Xi to personally pick him up at the airport.
Li Xi didn’t answer, just stared.
Being stared at for a while, Ying Zhiyu felt a little unsure—was there something on his face?
A month apart, and no surprise, the Alpha had slimmed down a bit, his hair grown longer.
Li Xi quietly studied his face for a long while.
The driver would not start driving without Li Xi’s instruction. Before Ying Zhiyu could reach up to check his face, Li Xi acted.
He unbuckled his seatbelt, knelt on one knee by the rear center console, and leaned in toward the Alpha.
Ying Zhiyu froze, instinctively wrapping an arm around him.
Li Xi’s hand cupped the back of Ying Zhiyu’s head, the other tracing along the now sharper jawline.
Then upward, over the lips, the bridge of the nose, the eyes…
When Li Xi touched his eyes, Ying Zhiyu squinted, thinking the Omega was stroking a pet cat.
In the next moment, Li Xi pressed him into the seat and kissed him.
Ying Zhiyu was momentarily stunned, only responding after a second.
One month apart, and the baby sleeping in the pregnant husband’s womb had visibly grown.
Ying Zhiyu carefully supported Li Xi’s waist and abdomen, feeling the warm, firm, rounded contours beneath his palm.
He couldn’t help but think how nice it felt to have someone throwing themselves into your arms immediately upon returning—especially twice over.