One fat and one thin figure lurked in the elongated shadows of the trees. The faint silhouette of the setting sun peeked through, but leaden clouds spread, and even that sliver of sunlight vanished.
“Old man, what are you doing with a wild rabbit in your hand?” Xiao Zhou wore a mask, with a few moles carefully dotted around his eyes.
The moment he finished speaking, a large hand pressed down on his head, smashing half his face into the grass. Just as he was about to curse, “Shh—someone’s coming.” The voice was very low and soft. The young alpha obediently shut his mouth, teeth clenched tight, fingernails digging into the soil.
Footsteps passed right in front of them. The estate typically had plenty of staff—it was normal to have security guards.
“Did you hear a sound from over there just now? Sounded like that side.”
Another voice chimed in: “Just stray cats and dogs sneaking in, don’t be so nervous. The gates are covered in electric fences and surveillance—outsiders won’t get in that easily. This job is easy money if you just do it right until retirement. Just do your patrolling duties—that’s my advice.” This one seemed like a veteran, casually swinging his iron pipe and startling a few blades of grass.
Da Ling took the opportunity to release the rabbit’s ears. A rustling sound followed as the rabbit darted out and bumped right into the guard’s pant leg.
“Oh, a rabbit… See? Just a lame rabbit. Let’s go, let’s go—perfect for an extra meal. Have a little drink to unwind, shift change is coming soon.” With that, the guard grabbed the rabbit by the ears and dragged his companion away.
The footsteps faded, leaving only breathing so soft it was almost inaudible.
A cold wind swept through, and a vast expanse of greenery surged in one direction. From a distance, it looked like green waves—lush vegetation rushing toward the horizon with the bleak wind. Dirt carried by the air current landed on their hair. Xiao Zhou pushed himself up, fresh soil still stuck to the side of his face. “Are they gone?”
Da Ling stood on one foot, his eyes still scanning left and right. The next second, he suddenly dropped flat, startling Xiao Zhou into thinking someone else was coming. He buried his face in the dirt again, like an ostrich caught in a sandstorm.
“Hmph…” An extremely soft, slow laugh. Xiao Zhou held still for a few seconds. The person beside him rose with little noise, but the dirt shaking off his clothes disturbed him. He slowly looked up—the tall man had already straightened his clothes.
Realizing he’d been tricked, Xiao Zhou ground his teeth, but didn’t dare yell for fear of attracting more trouble. He could only glare at him angrily, grab his collar, and speak in a voice only the two of them could hear: “I’m going to beat you to death when we get back.”
Da Ling curled his lips into a cold smile, silently watching him, then shaped his words without sound: “You can’t beat me.”
The hand gripping his collar tightened, veins bulging on the back of it. Da Ling calmly pried his fingers off one by one. Xiao Zhou stumbled back a step, putting distance between them. The “big-bellied” imposter brushed the dust off himself. “Follow me.” With that, he turned.
Even though Xiao Zhou didn’t want to obey his orders, this wasn’t a place for childishness. He could only humiliatingly follow the man ahead, ducking through the forest, grinding his teeth and swallowing his pride while making a secret vow: he would train harder when he got back. If he was ever in the same space as this old man again, he’d use his rock-hard muscles to knock him down and win the beauty’s heart.
Lost in his fantasy, the young alpha grinned sinisterly—and walked straight into a tree.
Da Ling turned around. The man with stars spinning in his eyes was clutching his forehead, looking so ridiculous that Da Ling could hardly bear to watch. He stepped back and poked Xiao Zhou’s face with the tip of his shoe. “Don’t die here.” It took a while for the young alpha to recover, climbing back up with a grimace. The person before him had been three, then two, and finally resolved back into one clear face.
“Looking like that, you think you can take me down? Even if you could, Yuxing wouldn’t choose you.”
Xiao Zhou straightened up against the tree, spitting out some dirt. “Hmph, none of your business. Whether he’d choose me or not isn’t for you to decide. My wife likes me so much now—he definitely liked me before too, and he’ll like me forever.” He brushed the dirt off his backside and stared at the man frozen in place. The man slowly exhaled: “Who can really say what ‘forever’ means?”
“Hey,” Xiao Zhou’s gaze suddenly turned cold. He looked the man up and down. “Are you even a man? I know you’re deliberately provoking me—just trying to make me improve myself, to protect my family better, to not repeat your mistakes. But what about yourself? Every time someone hits your weak spot, you turn into a useless wreck. The gloom radiating off you would make even my wife run away. Someone like you—if you had to do it all over again, who could you possibly protect?”
Leaves rustled. A few birds darted out. Two pairs of eyes met and held—until finally, one looked away first. The expression in Da Ling’s eyes rippled with emotion as he truly looked at the alpha a full round younger than him.
Yes, it wasn’t too late. He had to save Shi Yuxing in both worlds, his parents, all those who had perished in the war—including himself.
A sting came from his palm. He didn’t know when his nails had pierced the lines of his palm. Blood beads seeped out, and the scent of fir spread along with it. Quick as lightning, he tore off a strip of fabric and pressed it to the wound. He’d been careless. Now he had to rein in the pheromones first.
“You, this guy,” Xiao Zhou frowned, muttering quietly: “No wonder my wife hasn’t forgiven you.”
Da Ling sat down, covering his wound, waiting for the platelets to seal it. “You’re right. After Yuxing left, I rarely had moments of clarity.” Seeing him sit down so contentedly, Xiao Zhou looked around. They were deep in the woods now, no need to worry about the guards patrolling near the buildings. But weren’t they on a mission?
Da Ling looked up, nodding toward the spot beside him. “Sit. Those two are drinking—it’ll take a while for them to get drunk.”
“What do you mean?” Xiao Zhou sat down.
Da Ling glanced sideways at him, then turned back to face forward. “Literally. I deliberately sent that rabbit to them. I dosed it with something—if they eat it, they won’t be coming to work for the next three days.”
Xiao Zhou looked at him, serious. “I never would have imagined that future me would be so into drugging people. You and that other guy—what exactly did you learn in the military?”
“Hmph, it’s not from the military. This is an essential skill. You’ll find out when you get back.”
Xiao Zhou looked away and waited with him for the right moment. “Tch, no way. I couldn’t do something like drugging people.”
Da Ling didn’t correct him or rush to prove anything. He looked down at his hand, where the wound had stopped bleeding. “Can you still smell my pheromones?” Xiao Zhou flared his nostrils. “Gone.”
“Good. We can move out.”
…
Avoiding the surveillance cameras, hugging the wall, Da Ling’s peripheral vision shifted. From the unknown side came the aroma of food and the sound of drunken hiccups.
“Ah, this rabbit meat is good. Let’s finish eating first before we patrol—there’s still time.” It was the veteran’s voice, likely having drunk quite a bit—that dazed, alcohol-soaked tone was unmistakable.
The clink of glasses sounded from within. A pair of sharp black eyes appeared at the corner, unseen by anyone. Moments later, Xiao Zhou, following behind him, watched the man in front raise his hand and gesture: “3——2——1.”
The next second, with a “bang,” the patrolling guards clutched their stomachs and began groaning in pain.
“My stomach hurts.”
“Same here, shit—I’m going to the bathroom.”
The two alphas looked at the table—just the rabbit skeleton picked clean and a few unfinished bottles of alcohol. Xiao Zhou covered his nose. “Let’s go—are you just going to stand there waiting for them to come back and catch us?” Da Ling pressed his palms together, muttered a couple of words to the rabbit, and only then stepped forward.
The surveillance room door was tightly shut, cold air seeping out through the gap underneath. Da Ling lay flat on the ground and saw a pair of feet.
“Someone’s in there.” He stood up and said in a low voice.
“Then what do we do?” Xiao Zhou gestured quietly, glancing at the door twice. Da Ling beckoned him closer.
Two dull knocks sounded against the door panel. Soon, the sound of a chair scraping came from inside. “Who is it?”
It wasn’t the butler’s voice.
Xiao Zhou lowered his stature and only cracked the door open a sliver. Putting on a delicate act, he squeezed his voice: “Little brother, I’m an omega.” He pinched his own arm hard to keep the veins on his forehead from bulging. “Madam lost something nearby. Could you please help me look for it?”
The young man inside, hearing it was an omega and seeing the half of Xiao Zhou’s face that was quite alluring, had the lifeless look disappear from his face. Sure enough—people were all visual creatures.
“Of course. What are you looking for?”
Xiao Zhou curved his brows and eyes. “Come a little closer, and I’ll secretly tell you.”
The man bought it completely, his beaming face leaning in. The door panel stirred up a gust of wind—and along with the wind came a rock-hard fist. Watching the lecher collapse with his eyes rolled back, Xiao Zhou straightened up, quickly closed the door, and locked it, reverting to his gruff male voice: “Tch, your idea actually worked… Hey, if you dare tell my wife about this, you’re dead.”
Da Ling tied the man up securely and gave Xiao Zhou a look. “Open the basement door. Hurry—no telling when he’ll wake up.” He pulled a piece of clothing from his padded belly and stuffed it into the surveillance operator’s mouth, then sealed it with tape from nearby to prevent him from making noise if he woke up midway.
The darkness behind the bookshelf revealed itself, like a giant hand gripping and crushing one’s heart. Xiao Zhou swallowed hard and lifted his foot.
—
The soles of his shoes pressed into the soft deep-red carpet. Shi Yuxing supported Gu Lingzhou’s weight while a female doctor on the other side held up Gu Lingzhou’s arm. Together, they laid him down. The hallway light spilled into the dark room. Shi Yuxing rubbed his lower back and switched on the room light.
Turning around, he saw another suppressant about to be injected into Gu Lingzhou’s body. Shi Yuxing took a deep breath, quickly stepped over to block the doctor’s hand, sat on the edge of the bed, and felt the alpha’s forehead—it was even hotter than before.
The doctor, receiving the order not to continue, packed up and stood to leave. Shi Yuxing suddenly called out to her: “What you just gave him—was that a suppressant?” His tea-colored eyes shot at her like an arrow.
That gaze scorched the doctor’s back. The guilty white coat quickened its pace. Shi Yuxing was about to get up and chase after her when his wrist was caught by a searing grip. His palm was rubbed against by Gu Lingzhou’s burning skin, igniting a flame.
What a disaster. He watched helplessly as the white figure disappeared, even kindly closing the door behind her. The man on the bed, already drenched in sweat, was red from his face all the way down his neck like a cooked shrimp. His two eyes stared at Shi Yuxing without blinking. The moisture from his thin lips made him look no different from a starving wolf right now.
The more he looked, the more alarmed he became. Shi Yuxing drew in a sharp breath. His sixth sense told him that his twenty-three years of chastity were about to be lost. Pressing a hand to his racing heart, Shi Yuxing calmed down and patted his cheek. “Gu Lingzhou, can you hear me? Who am I?”
In the blink of an eye, a sky-covering wave of fir scent assaulted him. He was forcefully pressed down into the soft bedding, his sealed lips letting out soft whimpers. Gu Lingzhou was like a wild beast out of control, devouring his mouth. “Gu—mmph—mmph—!” The omega couldn’t even exchange fresh air before being filled again. The scorching heat pinned him down completely. Gu Lingzhou, like a tree drawing moisture from the soil, took root deep within him. By the time Shi Yuxing came to his senses, he was left with only a single scrap of fabric.
The alpha impatiently left red marks all over his neck. Shi Yuxing clenched his teeth but still couldn’t stop the tears from flowing—he was too scared. His trembling body made the one hovering over him pause. A scorching hand cupped his face, a thumb wiping away the pearls at the corners of his eyes.
Gu Lingzhou exhaled hot breath. The desire in his eyes overflowed without any pretense, yet he still suppressed the wildly growing fir branches. He leaned down and kissed Shi Yuxing’s eyelid. “I heard you. You’re baby.”
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