Chapter 19

The instant Pei Siyue fixed his gaze on him, Pei Siming felt every hair on his body stand on end. It was the sensation of being targeted by an extremely dangerous presence. His mind screamed to flee, while his alpha pheromones, threatened and uncontrollable, erupted violently—chaotic and laced with terror.

But the instant his pheromones spread, they were crushed by a higher-grade pheromone. The sensation of being forcibly pushed back into his body was excruciating. Pei Siming stumbled back two steps, his face drained of color, his hand releasing Ruan Shuyang’s shoulder.

Ruan Shuyang, at the epicenter of the storm, should have been overwhelmed by the pheromone clash. Yet he felt nothing—only a gentle current forming a protective cage around him.

Pei Siyue coldly surveyed the disheveled Pei Siming and simply said, “Let’s go.”

With only three people present, it was obvious to whom those words were directed.

Pei Siyue lifted his leg and walked out first. Ruan Shuyang lagged behind, slowly following. Pei Siming, who had been nearly suffocated by the pheromones, finally regained his senses after Pei Siyue left. Seeing that Pei Siyue had departed and Ruan Shuyang had taken a few steps forward, he clenched his teeth, hurried forward, grabbed Ruan Shuyang’s hand, and snapped, ” What the hell are you doing wandering off? Stay behind me, got it?”

Pei Siyue, who had been walking ahead, halted and turned to see Ruan Shuyang being pulled by the arm by Pei Siming. His expression darkened instantly, and just as he was about to speak, he suddenly noticed Ruan Shuyang’s hand, hanging limply at his side, give a slight shake.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath for a moment, ultimately saying nothing.

Behind them, Ruan Shuyang whispered to Pei Siming, “I understand.”

Only then did Pei Siming seem somewhat satisfied. He tugged his brother along, quickening their pace until they stood together before Pei Siyue.

“Big brother remains as rude and cold-hearted as ever, resorting to pheromone suppression against his own younger brother.” “Pei Siming paused here, then switched to a cloyingly obnoxious, boastful tone. ”This is my fiancée, Ruan Shuyang. Maybe seeing his little brother has a fiancée while he remains alone has made Big Brother jealous. If you need help, just ask. I, your younger brother, can overlook past grievances and introduce you to a few omegas.”

“Oh, right—I recall you personally mentioning an allergy to omegas. Perhaps your tastes are unique and you prefer alphas? I could introduce a few alphas too. It’s hard to watch you remain so lonely. Unlike you, I’m not heartless. I truly can’t bear to see you suffer.”

Pei Siyue listened impassively to Pei Siming’s speech, but by the end, he actually smiled.

Towering over Pei Siming by a full head, he looked down at him. His unhurried voice carried a certain implication, though Pei Siming failed to grasp it.

“Then I’ll take you up on that. Who knows? I might actually need your help in the end.”

After speaking, Pei Siyue turned and strode quickly into the villa, paying Pei Siming no further attention.

Watching Pei Siyue enter the villa, Pei Siming gave a light snort before pulling Ruan Shuyang along and following inside.

They arrived at six in the evening. The maid was preparing dinner in the villa’s kitchen. Pei Yan sat reading on the sofa, while Pei Siyue stood in another corner of the living room, speaking quietly on the phone. Upon seeing Pei Siming pull someone inside, Zhou Wei immediately approached, scrutinizing Ruan Shuyang from head to toe with a critical gaze. Considering others were present, she merely gave a dismissive snort without saying anything.

This was Ruan Shuyang’s second encounter with Pei Siming’s parents.

Pei Yan appeared as stern and unsmiling as ever, treating him as if he were invisible.

Zhou Wei, much like last time, looked well-preserved but wore a sharp, critical expression. his gaze toward Ruan Shuyang brimmed with arrogance and disdain.

Ruan Shuyang bowed his head and greeted, “Hello, Uncle. Hello, Auntie.”

Pei Yan, seated far away, pretended not to hear.

Zhou Wei initially didn’t bother to respond, but Pei Siming tapped his arm, prompting a reluctant acknowledgment.

Ruan Shuyang wasn’t the least bit surprised by their attitude. He’d witnessed it at the engagement banquet—Pei Yan had only stayed for five minutes before leaving, barely acknowledging Pei Siming, let alone him.

Zhou Wei, meanwhile, had always looked down on him, convinced he was an illegitimate child born out of wedlock. Moreover, the Ruans had fallen on hard times and were utterly unworthy of Pei Siming. The fiancée she had approved for him was Jin Nan, the young master of the Jin family.

They had met once during the engagement ceremony. Back then, Zhou Wei had warned him not to harbor any unrealistic hopes, stating that his engagement to Pei Siming was merely a temporary arrangement for mutual cooperation. She had made it clear the engagement would certainly be dissolved afterward. The fiancée she had chosen for Pei Siming was from the Jin family, whose background was undoubtedly far superior to his.

At the time, hearing these words had inevitably caused him pain. Yet, reflecting on it now, it all seemed laughable.

If he remembered correctly, Pei Siming had also been an illegitimate child at first. And if the situation allowed, he wanted to ask Zhou Wei if the engagement could be dissolved.

Dinner was soon ready. They walked to the dining room and sat down. Five people occupied a round table of moderate size. Seated from left to right were Zhou Wei, Pei Siming, Ruan Shuyang, Pei Siyue, and Pei Yan.

He wasn’t sure how the seating had been arranged, but Ruan Shuyang found himself sandwiched between Pei Siming to his left and Pei Siyue to his right.

…It felt suffocating.

He hardly dared move, eating quietly with his head down.

Zhou Wei spoke first at the table, addressing Pei Yan in a tone that sounded more like negotiation than anything else, even tinged with flattery: “Siyue is already 27. Isn’t it time he started thinking about dating and marriage? Even Siming, who’s younger than him, already has a fiancée.”

Pei Yan’s voice was unusually detached: “Ask him.”

“If you don’t like omegas, that’s fine. I can introduce you to a beta or alpha.”

“Don’t call me Siyue.” Ruan Shuyang heard Pei Siyue speak with such icy coldness for the first time. “It’s disgusting.”

Ruan Shuyang lowered his head to eat, catching Zhou Wei’s face turn deathly pale out of the corner of his eye.

Pei Siming protested, “How could you speak to my mother like that?”

Before Pei Siyue could respond, Pei Yan commanded, “Everyone eat. Keep your voices down.”

Silence fell over the table, though Ruan Shuyang, sandwiched between the overwhelming presence of enigma and alpha, still felt tense.

Suddenly, his right leg beneath the table received a light tap—a hint of warning, yet also a soothing gesture.

Seated to his right was Pei Siyue. The discreet tap beneath the table was a private gesture shared only between them.

He glanced slightly to his right, catching Pei Siyue’s faint smile before hearing him remark, “The longjawed carp is excellent today—very fresh and flavorful.”

After the compliment, Ruan Shuyang waited a few minutes before discreetly picking up his chopsticks and taking a small piece of the fish.

As he ate, he thought to himself, It really is good. Delicious.

Ruan Shuyang believed his movements were subtle enough to go unnoticed, but in truth, Pei Siming had observed him turning to look at Pei Siyue. He then saw Ruan Shuyang eating the very same longjawed bream that Pei Siyue had praised.

Pei Simin’s expression instantly darkened. His left hand, hanging beneath the table, slowly clenched into a fist.

The dinner dragged on painfully. Afterward, Pei Siyue was summoned by Pei Yan to the study upstairs. Pei Siming, however, approached Ruan Shuyang with a warm, friendly expression. “This is your first time at our home,” he said. “Would you like me to show you around the garden?”

Though Pei Siming’s expression was gentle, for some reason, Ruan Shuyang felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, a vague sense of unease creeping over him.

He wanted to refuse: “No need to trouble you…”

But Pei Siming took his hand and led him out, leaving no room for refusal.

The Pei family garden was elegantly and gracefully arranged. A white marble colonnade wound through the grounds, and standing within it, one could smell the sweet, summery fragrance of flowers.

The night sky stretched high and distant, clear and serene as glass.

It should have been a peaceful, tranquil night, yet Ruan Shuyang felt so tense he could barely breathe.

Pei Siming stood beside him, his grip on Ruan Shuyang’s hand unyielding as he drew closer, his face looming larger and larger in Ruan Shuyang’s vision.

Under the overhead white light, his normally handsome and refined features somehow seemed eerie and terrifying to Ruan Shuyang.

He sensed trouble and tried to pull away from Pei Siming’s grip, but the alpha’s strength far surpassed his own. The other’s hand clamped down on his wrist like iron tongs, gripping so tightly it made his bones ache.

Ruan Shuyang tensed. “What… what do you want?”

Pei Siming reached out, his hand lightly brushing Ruan Shuyang’s cheek. The touch wasn’t warm, but rather cold, like a venomous tongue flickering against his skin.

“I just suddenly realized you seem quite interested in my older brother, hmm?” Pei Siming’s voice rose sharply at the end, growing colder. “What? You, an illegitimate child of the Ruan family, aren’t satisfied with being my fiancée? Now you want to seduce my brother too?”

“No.” Ruan Shuyang shook his head frantically. “I didn’t want to seduce your brother.”

“Then why were you staring at him during dinner?” Pei Siming glared at Ruan Shuyang, his voice thick with fury. “Why did you keep serving him the best dishes? Tell me—is it because my brother now holds power at Pei Corporation that you’re trying to get close to him?”

Ruan Shuyang truly didn’t know how to explain. He could only keep shaking his head, fear making tears well up in his eyes. “No, I didn’t. It was just… just a coincidence.”

But Pei Siming didn’t believe him.

He stared intently at Ruan Shuyang, watching tears fall from his face. his large eyes brimmed with terror, droplets glistening on his pale, almost translucent cheeks. Suddenly, he yearned to leave his own mark upon them.

A thought struck him.

Ruan Shuyang was his fiancée, and he hadn’t marked his yet.

He chuckled softly, his voice no longer agitated but softening into a gentle tone.

“Shuyang, I suddenly remember—it seems we haven’t marked you since our engagement.”

Ruan Shuyang’s eyes widened abruptly. Realizing something, he stared at Pei Siming in disbelief.

“Yes, you guessed correctly.” Pei Siming’s tone grew increasingly gentle, his gaze even carrying a hint of tenderness as he smiled softly at Ruan Shuyang. “I want to mark you. Of course, given the time and place, it will only be a temporary mark for now.”

“Later… I might give you a permanent mark. I believe your father would agree.”

“No, no, don’t—”

Ruan Shuyang was tense to the extreme, struggling desperately to escape, but he couldn’t resist Pei Siming’s strength at all.

With one hand, Pei Siming effortlessly pinned both of Ruan Shuyang’s arms down, suppressing his struggles. He reached with his free hand to peel off his own alpha barrier patch, releasing a sharp, sour lemon scent that filled the air around Ruan Shuyang.

Next, Pei Siming peeled off the gland patch from the back of Ruan Shuyang’s neck. Ruan Shuyang shook his head in resistance, but it was still easily removed.

The scent of lily of the valley began to intertwine with the tart lemon aroma.

But there seemed to be something different about the lily of the valley fragrance. It drifted like water, surging upward with the tide, gradually overpowering the lemon scent.

This caused Pei Siming, who had been preparing to mark him, to change color dramatically. He stared at Ruan Shuyang with shock and suspicion.

This sensation of pheromones being suppressed was unbearably uncomfortable. How could merely removing Ruan Shuyang’s barrier patch feel like his own pheromones were being stifled?

Could Ruan Shuyang be an Omega of such an exceptionally high rank that even he couldn’t mark him?

Before he could fully process this, a large hand suddenly seized his wrist with such force it made him yelp in pain, forcing him to release his grip on Ruan Shuyang.

Ruan Shuyang was suddenly released, stumbling backward several steps before being gently steadied by a hand on his waist.

He looked up to find Pei Siyue standing beside him, though he hadn’t noticed when the other had arrived.

He exhaled softly, an inexplicable sense of relief washing over him.