Seeing the mood was light and relaxed, Ying Zhiyu didn’t delay any longer and shifted to the real topic.
Before speaking, he glanced down at his left hand.
Whoever was behind the kidnapping probably hated the fact that he was Lì Xi’s spouse.
If the kidnapping truly had little to do with the inheritance war… then that severed ring finger being mailed to him was even stranger.
But no matter how strange, it still pointed to emotions like resentment, warning, or intimidation—none of which were trivial.
Ying Zhiyu started with an excuse:
“I suspect the person who tried to throw acid on me was just jealous of my looks. After all, if the pretty boy gets disfigured, wouldn’t His Highness stop loving me?”
Lì Xi: “…”
He had known the Alpha didn’t drag him out here just to take a walk.
And even now, when talking about serious matters, he still had to slip in some nonsense first.
Lì Xi cut straight to the point. “Who do you suspect?”
Since he didn’t beat around the bush, Ying Zhiyu didn’t either. “Panda. And Zhou Shen.”
Lì Xi froze.
He clearly didn’t expect Ying Zhiyu to skip right over Li Qin, Li Lü, and the Wen family, and instead point to two people who seemed completely unrelated.
But Ying Zhiyu wasn’t naming them at random—he had reasons.
Besides the heirs, only a handful of people within the Li family had the capability, connections, and potential motive to pull off something like this.
If his kidnapping in the previous life was connected to his research—
The “AO differentiation” breakthrough benefited Alphas and Omegas… but Betas were the ones most likely to feel threatened or left behind.
If the attacks in this life hadn’t come earlier than before, right when his school’s project had just been discovered by Li Lü… Ying Zhiyu might have overlooked the fact that extremist Betas also had motive.
A motive no weaker than extremist Alphas or Omegas—and arguably more “justifiable.”
Following that logic, even Lì Xi’s personal assistant Zhang Jingrui had the conditions to act as an inside man.
In his last life, eleven years after their marriage, Zhang Jingrui had already risen to the Li family’s central office. With his brains, orchestrating a kidnapping wouldn’t have been difficult.
But back then, when Lì Xi finally found him, Zhang Jingrui had been standing right beside him.
And just like with Li Qin, Ying Zhiyu believed in Lì Xi’s insight.
If Zhang Jingrui were a threat, Lì Xi would never have kept him so close.
Now, hearing the two names, Lì Xi immediately connected the dots.
“So that’s why you questioned Zhou Shen earlier?”
When they left the house, Ying Zhiyu had casually asked why Zhou Shen didn’t show more concern.
Was he suspecting Zhou Shen had feelings for him?
Ying Zhiyu nodded.
Lì Xi: “…”
He shook his head. “If you think this is about romantic jealousy, then neither Zhou Shen nor Panda have anything to do with it.”
Lì Xi might be cold and reserved, but he wasn’t blind to emotions.
Zhou Shen and Panda had been by his side for many years—especially Zhou Shen, who looked after him abroad for over a decade.
Whether they saw him as a superior or as something more, Lì Xi knew perfectly well.
And he could say with certainty: neither man harbored romantic feelings for him.
But Ying Zhiyu’s angle did give him another idea.
He suddenly remembered something:
The man who ambushed Ying Zhiyu in the underground garage had been linked to the Wen family only because he visited a Wen-operated health center after being released.
If that was a deliberate misdirection—to frame the Wen family?
Panda’s father was the chief security officer of the Li family’s central office.
Panda had the means to manipulate the investigation.
As for Zhou Shen, his position as head butler put him on equal footing with department heads. Getting internal information wouldn’t have been difficult.
And if Ying Zhiyu named these two, it meant he had noticed something.
So Lì Xi asked directly, “What do you plan to do?”
Ying Zhiyu drawled, “Give that person a chance to make a move.”
“Argue with you. Act spoiled. Run away from home.”
The last attack had failed only because Lì Xi’s bodyguards were too competent.
Meaning the enemy hadn’t infiltrated the entire security system.
“I can go out alone,” Ying Zhiyu said. “Drunk, or pretending to be hurt—”
Before he could finish, Lì Xi shut him down immediately. “No.”
His reaction was sharp, lips pressed into a hard line.
“You’re trying to lure the snake out, not feed yourself to it.”
He frowned, thinking fast.
“Fine. You sneak out to party. Hide it from me. Shake off the bodyguards. I’ll send another team to protect you in secret.”
He continued:
“I’ll act like I’ve heard rumors and catch you red-handed myself.”
Once they appeared to be fighting, there would be holes in the security coverage.
If someone was waiting for an opportunity, they would almost certainly act again.
Ying Zhiyu: “…”
Go… out… to party?
He blinked.
Setting aside how trashy that made him look—
“You’re not jealous?” he asked, raising a brow.
This was the same Lì Xi who, during pregnancy, even got jealous of his own Alpha father. And now he’d allow him to go fool around with another Omega?
Lì Xi shot him a glare.
“I said act. Not actually flirt with someone else.”
Ying Zhiyu opened his mouth.
“But you get upset even when I talk to a strange Omega.”
Lì Xi froze, then glared harder.
“…It’s still better than your terrible idea of getting hurt on purpose.”
—
In the end, Ying Zhiyu chose the mountain racing track.
It was easier to stage the act on the Meng family’s territory. He didn’t bother finding some random Omega or Beta to play along—he went straight for an Alpha.
Yan Jue looked completely dumbfounded as Ying Zhiyu called him out for an emergency.
“AA??”
Yan Jue’s head was spinning. “Bro… what kind of play are you and Xiao Li running here? Lì San, you’re not gonna… hurt me, right?”
Ying Zhiyu said, “Just help me hug him a couple of times, snap a few photos. A private detective will take them, I promise they won’t get out.”
Yan Jue: “…”
To coordinate all the layers, including bypassing the bodyguards, this person obviously had close ties to the Li family’s central office.
Excluding the Wen family, if the underground parking acid incident was really leaked by someone inside the Li family, this person likely got the information directly from what Li Lü had discovered.
Another crucial point: if the real target was his AO differentiation research at the Biomedical University, they didn’t go after Ying Zhiyu’s advisor first—they went straight for him.
This proved they recognized him as the primary threat.
To hold him in such regard, they must have paid attention to his past work, and likely noticed the signs of his “hidden edge.”
So… this time, the person behind it should be able to get these photos too.
Ying Zhiyu was genuinely curious: now that Lì Xi was “angry” and not guarding him so tightly, would the person lurking in the shadows take the chance to strike again?
At the Panshan racing track, after the AA incident and the “caught-in-the-act” setup, Ying Zhiyu and Lì Xi played out a perfect angry-couple cold war. Outside, they had to continue pretending to be lovey-dovey in public.
Ying Zhiyu was surprised to realize… this was exactly how they had been in his past life.
Especially Lì Xi’s gaze—sometimes, Ying Zhiyu almost felt like he had gone back to that life.
Even Lì Sòngqian and Lì Yu privately asked what was going on.
Just like before, Lì Xi and Ying Zhiyu handled everything flawlessly.
Meanwhile, Ying Zhiyu couldn’t help thinking: if the person behind all this even knew things that Lì Sòngqian didn’t, then that person… really was a deep-seated landmine buried in the Li family.
To play his role properly, Ying Zhiyu stayed in the study until 10 p.m., then went to the nursery and spent two whole hours watching Xiao Qing Shu fall asleep.
Finally, by midnight, the timing seemed right to return to their room.
He had just closed the bedroom door and hadn’t even turned around when a sudden, forceful shove pinned him against it.
Ying Zhiyu didn’t resist at all—he just found it amusing. Lì Xi really did love his “forceful affection.”
Lì Xi’s eyes narrowed, his voice cold as ice. “Getting addicted to acting? Don’t want to go back to the room?”
Ying Zhiyu: “…”
Coming back too early would be suspicious if nothing happened in the room.
He had calculated the timing based on his past life’s experience. Back then, when they returned to the Li residence, they couldn’t openly sleep apart, but rarely were both of them back in the room before midnight.
Lì Xi pulled the Alpha closer, forcing him to face him, and continued his questioning. “Other Alphas sneak around during an Omega’s pregnancy. Don’t you have any… ideas?”
Ying Zhiyu was speechless: “…………”
Had he gotten too deep into the act that he was starting to suspect now?
When an Omega wanted it, Ying Zhiyu was of course happy to comply.
But now, the Omega wasn’t in a position for that. Sneaking around? He was an Alpha, not a beast running around in heat!
Ying Zhiyu wrapped his arms around the Omega’s post-pregnancy, still-toned waist, saying nothing, letting a kiss speak for him.
Lì Xi, in turn, encircled the Alpha’s neck, returning the kiss with equal intensity.
Halfway through, Ying Zhiyu tried to pull back slightly. “…If we keep this up, we’ll set off a fire.”
Lì Xi ignored him.
Ying Zhiyu still tried to speak.
Lì Xi gripped the back of the Alpha’s head, teeth clenched. “Ying Zhiyu, three months! Are you trying to become a monk?!”
The Alpha, who had no such intention, went “….”
It had only been three months since the Omega had given birth. Ying Zhiyu had been careful to let the Omega recover fully, so they hadn’t done anything like that before.
Now, facing the Omega’s nearly scorching gaze, he understood.
Whether he wanted to become a monk or not, tonight Lì Xi would make him return to secular life.
His Adam’s apple rolled subtly. Before the battle truly began, he asked a practical but slightly mood-killing question: “Is there… still a spare room?”
After all, she had only just finished her confinement. No more pregnancies now.
The Omega responded by silencing him even more fiercely.
All that rambling—was he even an Alpha?!
By three in the morning, Ying Zhiyu and Lì Xi finally collapsed, having bathed and cleaned up.
Ying Zhiyu turned off the light and closed his eyes.
A soft, non-sensual kiss landed on his chin.
He curved a smile, reached out, and wrapped himself around the person next to him, finally falling asleep.