In the sleek bar adjacent to the cafeteria, Mujun perched on a high-legged stool—a standard fixture in establishments catering to alphas, who typically stand over 1.85 meters tall.

His toes barely touched the ground, his knees straining uncomfortably. He curled his legs up and secretly braced his heels against the stool's legs for support.

Chu Lanye paced agitatedly back and forth, his white denim jacket gleaming like a lightbulb, dazzling Mujun's eyes.

Mujun simply turned his head away, shielding even his peripheral vision.

Chu Lanye whirled around to find Mujun half-covering his face, as if trying to banish him from sight. This only fueled his fury. "What's with this attitude?!"

So many people would kill to get a glimpse of such an eye-catching alpha! I rescued you from that greasy beta, and instead of being grateful, you're acting like I'm a plague to be avoided!

"Tell me!" Chu Lanye demanded. "You've been working for years! How can you not see when someone's trying to pull a fast one? So naive! So clueless!"

"What respectable colleague would invite an omega to their room late at night to 'discuss work'? The hotel has conference rooms! Why couldn't he reserve one?"

Chu Lanye spat, his saliva flying everywhere.

"Hmph! I told you this job was no good from the start—all that running around and you barely make a living! You're an omega, you're meant to settle down, raise a family, and be a good wife and mother! You should have cultivated yourself earlier! But you insisted on being some... dog driver!"

Solution Architect, actually, and I'm building a full-channel data platform for you guys, Mujun thought silently.

Chu Lanye delivered a ten-minute impromptu lecture, but unfortunately, the quiet bar was empty except for Mujun, his sole audience. Otherwise, the omega could have blamed his yawning on contagion.

"Were you even listening?!" Chu Lanye naturally didn't miss his sleepy yawn.

Mujun's voice was barely a whisper, "No."

Chu Lanye's eyebrows shot up in a cold glare. "What?!"

Mujun quickly backtracked, "I mean, thank you for your concern."

His long-ingrained meekness still prevented him from directly confronting conflict. The moment the other man raised his voice, the omega's urge to argue dwindled.

The sarcastic retort he'd blurted out now transformed into sincere gratitude.

Seeing Chu Lanye's expression soften slightly, Mujun lowered his voice again. "Still, this job's pretty good... Everyone's put in a lot of effort for this collaboration."

He couldn't let his own issues ruin it for everyone else.

"...Sweet talk. Hmph. Just so you know, you're not going to Manager Wang's room tonight. Got it?" Chu Lanye crossed his arms.

Mujun: "Okay."

That works too. He could just join the meeting online anyway. He didn't feel like running around. After a shower, he could just curl up in bed.

Chu Lanye didn't find his "okay" convincing. "What room are you staying in? I'll escort you up there."

Mujun hopped off the high stool. "You'll escort me up there?"

His tone was flat, more like a repetition of Chu Lanye's words than a genuine question.

But Chu Lanye reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, jumping to his feet. "What's that supposed to mean? Don't get the wrong idea—I have no interest in you! Or are you planning to sneak off and see that bald creep behind my back?! Dream on! You're not leaving this room tonight!"

Mujun was genuinely puzzled. "Since when do you get to boss me around?"

Could it be that Mu Qixing, bored these past few days, called his sister to chat and mentioned me?

Chu Lanye was Muzheng's friend. Initially, Mu Qixing had seen a photo of a decent-looking alpha in Chu Lanye's social media and asked Muzheng for his contact information, then tricked Mujun into meeting for afternoon tea.

The more Mujun thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Otherwise, it was hard to explain why Chu Lanye would stretch his reach so far and meddle so deeply.

"Who cares who said what? Does an omega need someone's permission to do as he pleases?" Chu Lanye scoffed.

As they entered the elevator, the alpha continued his tirade: "Still, you're Muzheng's younger brother. I can't just stand by and watch you ruin your reputation over some petty workplace gains! It would reflect poorly on your sister too!"

Mujun didn't even bother correcting him anymore.

It was pointless. Chu Lanye was too deeply immersed in his own delusional narrative to be reasoned with.

The five-star hotel's elevators were spacious enough to fit three adult alphas standing side-by-side between them.

Yet Mujun still felt suffocated.

Chu Lanye's pheromone carried the lingering scent of gunpowder, like the smoke that hangs over a mountain town ravaged by wildfire. Close your eyes and you could almost hear the crackling flames licking at the twisted, abandoned rebar.

Ambitious in everything he did, he pressed forward relentlessly, his untamed, assertive presence dominating every situation—the very type of man Mujun despised most.

Mujun rummaged through the eight or nine pockets on his body and pulled out a slightly crumpled mask, which he quickly put on.

The elevator doors slid open, and Chu Lanye strode out, his voice booming, "Is your roommate back in his room? And if that Wang guy comes looking for you again late at night, you're not allowed to go out, got it?"

"Can't you see through his act? Alphas are all wolves in sheep's clothing! If he harasses you again, tell me, and I'll make sure he regrets it!"

Chu Lanye continued to rant, oblivious to the fact that he was implicating himself in his own tirade.

If Mujun hadn't warned him to watch where he was going, he would have crashed into the person standing in the middle of the corridor.

"Holy shit, Big Brother, you're blocking the way like a lonely statue waiting for your husband..." Chu Lanye recognized the man and instinctively moved to shield Mujun.

"Hey, Andrew? What are you doing on this floor? Lost?"

"No, I'm looking for someone."

Mujun had been trailing behind Chu Lanye the whole time and hadn't gotten a good look at who Chu Lanye had almost bumped into. Hearing the voice now, it only sounded vaguely familiar.

But familiar or not, his ears had already grown calluses from Chu Lanye's endless lectures. Anyone who could distract Chu Lanye was a saint!

Mujun tried to sneak back to his room while Chu Lanye remained oblivious.

Left side—break through!

No luck. Chu Lanye's broad shoulders and wide back left only a sliver of space, completely impassable.

Right side, then...

Still no good! The guy Chu Lanye was talking to was just as massive, completely blocking the hallway!

Heavy trucks aren't allowed to chat on the pedestrian lane, aaaaah!

Do you alphas have no sense of public decency, aaaaah!

Mujun shifted his weight from foot to foot, constantly checking the time and sneaking into the work group chat twice to see how the team was progressing.

Sensing the commotion behind him, Chu Lanye casually stepped forward. "My apologies, did we have plans tonight? I ran into someone I know downstairs."

"No, I wasn't looking for you."

Chu Lanye steered Mujun to his room. "Oh, okay. You go ahead and do your thing. I'll just—"

"Mujun."

The omega, who had already swiped his card to open the door, looked up blankly from beneath Chu Lanye's looming silhouette. "?"

Standing opposite Chu Lanye, his gaze fixed intently on Mujun, was none other than Yanjinan—whom he hadn't seen in nearly a week.

The young alpha still possessed the same gentle, warm demeanor Mujun remembered: crescent-shaped eyes radiating affection, and a smile that instantly radiated approachability.

Even the harsh overhead spotlight seemed to transform into a custom-made spotlight just for him.

Instead of exposing any flaws, the harsh light only accentuated Yanjinan's superior bone structure and the sharp, handsome line of his nose.

Yanjinan extended his hand, palm up, in a gesture of entreaty.

"Snap out of it, Mujun," he called out again.

Mujun had no idea what Yanjinan wanted, nor how he'd ended up meeting him in Changning, a thousand kilometers from Nanxia.

But since alphas seemed to have a peculiar fondness for room cards, he handed his over.

Yanjinan paused briefly, glanced at the card, then smoothly tucked it into his pocket.

He then subtly pushed Chu Lanye aside and materialized beside Mujun.

"You haven't texted me in five days," he murmured, his voice low and faintly reproachful.

The gentle, elegant scent of iris wafted through the air, overpowering the acrid smell of gunpowder. Mujun unconsciously took a small, deep breath. "...Sorry."

When in doubt, apologize first. But... were they even supposed to be texting each other?

Yanjinan had said they were mutually beneficial partners, right? Did he really need to stay in character even in private?

Perhaps that was how to maintain airtight cover.

Mujun mentally struck his left palm with his right fist, suddenly enlightened.

This was a public setting, and Chu Lanye knew Yanjinan. Mujun grew anxious, unsure where to put his hands, terrified of accidentally exposing something and dragging them all down.

If Yanjinan regretted his decision and wanted to switch partners, he'd be stuck sitting with those smelly, bastard alphas again.

Mujun shot a quick glance at Chu Lanye before meeting Yanjinan's still-waiting gaze. "I'll send more in the future."

Hearing this, Yanjinan's smile deepened as he pushed the door slightly open with one hand. "You must be busy. Go on in."

Mujun looked at him, then at Chu Lanye, and nodded. "Oh."

The omega slipped inside, the door clicking shut behind him.

Only after the sound of footsteps faded within the room did Yanjinan casually remark, "Lance, you're free tomorrow morning, right?"

Chu Lanye had wanted to interrupt several times earlier, but the iris pheromone was overwhelming, carrying an unmistakable sense of finality.

Now that Yanjinan had withdrawn his pheromones, Chu Lanye finally caught his breath. "...Oh, I'll be in the office tomorrow morning."

They had been planning to discuss business matters these past few days, so it wasn't surprising that Yanjinan would come to see him.

What was strange was why he'd come to see Mujun.

Chu Lanye couldn't resist asking, "How do you know Mujun?"

Yanjinan's expression flickered imperceptibly.

Chu Lanye's tone was overly familiar, his surprise and curiosity barely concealed, tinged with something like a checking-up tone.

They had just stepped out of the elevator together, and Chu Lanye had, as usual, been lecturing Mujun the entire way.

The scene replayed vividly in his mind, a glaring eyesore.

Yet Yanjinan smiled, his voice light. "He's quite shy. I doubt he's mentioned it yet."

Chu Lanye suddenly didn't want to hear any more.

But Yanjinan had already rattled off the words clearly and quickly: "I'm his boyfriend. We're dating."

"If anyone ever harasses him," the alpha's expression turned ambiguous under the overhead light, the latter half of his sentence barely audible, "I'll handle it. No need for you to intervene."

"Otherwise, I'll get jealous."

Author's Note:

Softie

Yanjinan: When we're out, our relationship is always...