Luo Ran walked out of the office and looked around.
No one.
Luo Ran let out a long breath and gently leaned his back against the wall.
His legs were a little weak and couldn’t help trembling. Luo Ran did his best not to slide down.
After seeing Lucas, the pheromones that had just given him a temporary mark immediately surged over him, as though impatient to subdue him.
Standing in front of Lucas, even with some distance between them, Luo Ran had lost all strength, and his breathing was unsteady.
As an Alpha with a rare SSS-level pheromone rating—and especially one who had come from the battlefield—Lucas’s pheromones were ordinarily extremely forceful. Even other powerful Alphas would feel wary and uncomfortable around them.
Fortunately, Luo Ran himself was also a rare SSS-level Omega. After spending so much time together, he could normally adapt to them. But after crossing that boundary with Lucas the night before last, encountering him now so suddenly and unexpectedly caused him to be suppressed until he could barely breathe.
This suppression was not an ordinary, purely oppressive suppression. Instead, it seeped into him bit by bit, teasing and stirring him.
This was the attraction unique to an Omega after an Alpha had already marked them, even if it was only a temporary mark.
Luo Ran adjusted his breathing. With his face and ears flushed bright red, he desperately tried to calm and suppress his own pheromones.
Don’t make trouble.
He and Lucas were nothing more than an accident, a terrible mistake.
Originally, he and Lucas were simply in a superior-subordinate relationship. Aside from work, they normally had no social interaction at all. Luo Ran, who possessed extremely high professional discipline, absolutely would not allow himself to have any unusual reaction to Lucas’s pheromones.
Luo Ran took a deep breath, turned, and went straight to the restroom. Inside a stall, he took a suppressant out of his pocket.
The needle pierced his wrist, and he injected the suppressant into himself, calming all those chaotic sensations.
“Hey…! Did you hear? The general has deployed the guards to catch that person from the night before last.”
“I know. They spent the entire day yesterday digging through surveillance footage. My friend in the technology department was so busy he didn’t even sleep.”
“Right. Secretary Luo wasn’t here yesterday, and the company was in complete chaos.”
Inside the stall, Luo Ran heard his own name.
It seemed that some people were chatting in the restroom. Since going out now would be a little awkward, he stopped in his tracks.
“I wonder who it was… Is what the general said about killing that person actually true?”
“It should be true. The general hates this kind of thing most of all.”
“Ah, if only that person were Secretary Luo. What a pity Secretary Luo is a Beta, while the person from the night before last seems to have been an Omega.”
Luo Ran: ?
Wait?
Why?
Luo Ran curiously lowered his head, pressing his ear against the door.
“Yeah, if that person were Secretary Luo, there wouldn’t be so much trouble. Who doesn’t know that the general likes Secretary Luo?!”
Luo Ran: ???
I don’t know that?!
Luo Ran felt that the general liking him might be even more unbelievable than the general actually being an Omega.
Where had these people gotten such an idea?
The voices outside continued.
“You’re right. If that person were Secretary Luo, maybe the two of them would have gone straight to register their marriage. Just look at how well they work together. Who knows if they’ve already started dating in private?”
Luo Ran: No, we have absolutely no interaction in our private lives. We don’t even exchange holiday greetings.
“Be a little bolder! I think they’re not just dating. Maybe they’ve even started living together! I’m so jealous. I heard the general’s family owns a particularly large number of villas and houses. I wonder which one he gave to Secretary Luo?”
Luo Ran: If the truth comes out, your general might want to give me a coffin instead, one of those permanent-residence, hibernation-style houses.
“15551, what a beautiful love story!”
Luo Ran: “…”
Luo Ran shook his head, finding it both amusing and ridiculous.
If the matter really came to light, given Lucas’s temperament, there would be no forgiveness for him. Instead, Lucas might become even angrier because of the betrayal by someone close to him.
Luo Ran covered his wrist with his terminal. After the two Betas left, he came out as well.
Luo Ran washed his hands, making sure the suppressant was properly put away before returning to his desk.
Luo Ran’s seat was directly outside Lucas’s office, not far away.
“Secretary Luo is back!” A young woman sitting beside Luo Ran’s desk greeted him enthusiastically. “Starting today, I’ll be accompanying you.”
“Okay.” Luo Ran nodded with a smile. “Your name is Rong Duo, right?”
“Yes!”
Luo Ran had an excellent memory. He basically remembered everyone in the company who held a position. At this moment, he was merely making conversation, not actually trying to confirm her name.
Luo Ran worried that if he wasn’t around, things would become chaotic below him, so every week he would rotate someone from the Secretary’s Office to accompany him in handling official business, running around here and there with him.
Although things had still been thrown into chaos yesterday, at least the work could continue.
“Good. Then help me organize these documents first.” Luo Ran helplessly pointed at the mountain of documents in front of his desk.
Luo Ran picked them up one by one and quickly read through them.
Luo Ran not only had an eidetic memory, but could also read ten lines at a glance. Which documents needed to be quickly sent to Lucas for his signature, which documents needed to be passed down to the relevant departments… Luo Ran dealt with quite a number of them in no time.
“Secretary Luo.”
Later, a squad leader from the guard unit came to find Luo Ran. He handed Luo Ran a report, his face apologetic.
“There are results from the hotel. I’m sorry, but the surveillance throughout the entire hotel was broken that night. We weren’t able to find any additional clues.”
Luo Ran paused.
That’s right.
If they wanted to find the person from that night, the first thing they would have to investigate was the surveillance footage.
However, Luo Ran wasn’t worried about being exposed over this. Since someone had drugged Lucas, the surveillance would certainly have been taken care of in advance.
But Luo Ran hadn’t expected it to be the entire hotel.
Luo Ran frowned slightly, his index finger lightly tapping against the desk as he thought.
Being able to directly interfere with the main surveillance system and destroy the surveillance throughout an entire hotel was not something an ordinary person could accomplish.
But that night had been the Imperial Emperor’s birthday banquet. All the important figures of the Empire, as well as major figures from other countries and alien planets, had been present. For a moment, they had no target to focus on.
This matter was not simple.
The other party had come prepared.
Luo Ran reached out and took the report, nodding. “You’ve worked hard. From here, just proceed according to what the captain and the general said.”
The squad leader replied, “Well… the captain said to listen to the general, and the general said to listen to you. He has handed the investigation over to you.”
“Okay.” Luo Ran secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“And we’ll be sending the DNA sample to the research institute tonight.”
“What DNA?” Luo Ran had been one day behind on everything and still had to understand the developments one by one.
“The general asked the research institute for their opinion. Then he scraped the skin cells from beneath his fingernails and plans to send them for testing, using the system to identify who that person was that night.”
After all, the two of them had been so “intimate” that night. It wasn’t strange for Lucas to have the other person’s DNA left beneath his fingernails.
Luo Ran: “…”
“Secretary, what’s wrong?”
Luo Ran smiled sweetly. “Nothing. You’ve worked hard, Captain. Give the sample to me. I’ll deliver it. I happen to have some materials that need to be sent to the research institute as well.”
“I’m sorry.” The squad leader looked troubled. “But the captain specifically instructed us that this sample might attract criminals or people with ulterior motives who could try to steal or seize it. We must deliver it personally. We don’t dare let you take the risk of carrying such a dangerous thing.”
Luo Ran: “…”
Luo Ran smoothly picked up the conversation. “In that case, Captain, let me know before you leave, and I’ll go with you.”
“Yes!”
After seeing the squad leader off, Luo Ran went back to several more stacks of official documents. Before he knew it, it was already afternoon, the time for Lucas to go on his military inspection.
There was a semi-enclosed large space outside Lucas’s office. Besides Luo Ran’s desk, there were also quite a few cabinets for storing documents and clothes.
After all, Lucas generally lived directly at the company, so everything he needed was there. There was even a separate room inside the office that served as a bedroom.
Luo Ran stood up and selected a navy-blue military coat. Using the small iron hanging nearby, he lightly ironed it, arranging the insignia and creases.
Luo Ran’s timing was precise. Just as he finished, Lucas walked out as well.
Lucas didn’t like physical contact with other people, so Luo Ran merely hung the coat up.
Lucas glanced at Luo Ran and took the coat, slipping it on.
Lucas had sharp, fierce features. His intimidating appearance diminished the handsomeness and definition of his features by several degrees, but even so, he was still strikingly good-looking in a way that others could hardly compare with.
His somewhat disheveled short black hair fell casually around his ears, while his sharp eyes were like those of a leopard.
At this moment, the way Lucas stretched out his arms and put on his coat was enough to make Rong Duo, sitting nearby, suffocate.
Lucas’s identity and profession had given him a solidly muscular physique, from his broad chest to his long, powerful legs. His lines were smooth and perfect, with nothing about him that did not inspire admiration.
Rong Duo looked at Luo Ran, whose expression remained completely unruffled, without even the slightest flicker in his eyes.
Beta question mark face.
Secretary Luo didn’t look impotent either, so… could it be that he’d simply gotten tired of looking?
Mm! He must have gotten tired of looking!
Ah, this beautiful love story.
Rong Duo covered her mouth and cried.
Rong Duo went onto the company group chat—the group chat that everyone in the company, from department heads down to cleaners, was in, except Lucas and Luo Ran.
—Crying over the beautiful love between the general and his secretary again today!
The two people on the other side naturally had no idea that Rong Duo was currently wildly fabricating stories about their affectionate gazes and deeply emotional farewells in the group chat.
Lucas fastened the last button and asked, “Are you going?”
Luo Ran shook his head. “Sorry, I’m not feeling well. I won’t accompany the general today.”
Luo Ran still felt somewhat uncomfortable even walking right now. He really didn’t want to go do physically demanding work with Lucas.
Lucas frowned slightly.
Lucas had also noticed Luo Ran’s somewhat pale face, and Luo Ran had taken leave for the first time yesterday. Luo Ran never left a banquet early without saying anything, nor had he ever taken leave before. It seemed he really was quite seriously unwell.
Lucas paused for quite a while before saying, “Drink more hot water.”
……
“Cough…” Rong Duo, who happened to be drinking water nearby, nearly choked.
Luo Ran was already used to it. He smiled and said, “Okay.”
Lucas nodded, put on his military cloak, and turned to leave.
As soon as Lucas left, Luo Ran went into his office to organize and clean up the documents.
Lucas was solitary and finicky. He didn’t like other people touching his things, and even less did he like others entering his office to move things around and clean. Yet he also happened to have a cleanliness obsession, so Luo Ran could only serve as both his secretary and his cleaner.
Luo Ran took the documents Lucas had signed outside and wiped down the desk a little. Then he noticed a coat draped over the chair.
The black wool coat had been casually tossed to one side by its owner and hadn’t even been folded properly.
Luo Ran helplessly stepped forward to tidy it up, but then froze.
The coat had probably only just been taken off, and it still carried its owner’s scent.
Luo Ran had just been temporarily marked, so he might need several days before he stopped being so sensitive.
Although Lucas’s pheromones made him feel somewhat strange, overall, it was still very… comfortable.
Putting aside all those other things, an Alpha’s pheromones could soothe an Omega.
In other words, during these few days while the temporary mark remained, Luo Ran would be teased and suppressed by Lucas’s pheromones, while also feeling comfortable—or rather, he had to rely on those pheromones. He had no choice.
Luo Ran: “…”
The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt.
The coat gave off a strong smell of tobacco—Lucas’s pheromones. Bitter yet not unpleasant, it carried the scent of a man’s hormones.
Luo Ran paused for quite a while. In the end, he still picked up the coat and stuffed it into his briefcase.
Luo Ran’s expression was serious, utterly solemn.
How could a dignified general’s clothes have a hole in them? For the sake of the general, for the sake of the Empire, he would take it home and mend it.
Mm, that’s right.
Luo Ran convinced himself and calmly smuggled the coat away.
It, it definitely wasn’t because he was craving Lucas’s scent.