Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Lu Yunyan's intentions were crystal clear, and An Nuo saw right through them.

An Nuo: "If you like it, wear it yourself."

An Nuo: "I respect your preferences and won’t judge."

He had mentally prepared himself: if Lu Yunyan said something like, "But I want to see you wear it," he would definitely smash Lu Yunyan’s face the next time they met.

Lu Yunyan: "You want to see me wear it?"

An Nuo: ...

Lu Yunyan: "Sure, why not?"

An Nuo squeezed his eyes shut, not daring to imagine what Lu Yunyan’s broad, muscular build would look like in a slip dress.

A nightgown, no less.

And a one-piece slip dress at that.

Replacing the headless, limbless plastic mannequin in the video with Lu Yunyan’s body.

Imagining the straps coming undone, the fabric tearing open, and finally revealing Lu Yunyan’s well-defined muscles beneath—An Nuo felt that Lu Yunyan owed him for making him picture that.

A flicker of annoyance sparked in his heart.

This damn pervert only gets excited about things like this.

Usually, he’s practically dead, takes forever to reply to messages.

But when it comes to this kind of topic, he suddenly comes alive, stops being busy, gets excited, and replies in seconds instead of taking ages.

It’s as if An Nuo’s only value in Lu Yunyan’s eyes is just that.

An Nuo knew he shouldn’t mind this, because the truth was exactly that—he was merely Lu Yunyan’s coping mechanism.

During their third meeting, Lu Yunyan had made it clear: he had something like a sex addiction, and it wasn’t something that suddenly appeared after marriage.

But it still stung.

An Nuo felt it was all because of that one word—"husband."

Once he started using that term, it stirred up emotions and expectations associated with it.

The excuses he'd tell himself before no longer worked under the weight of his true feelings.

An Nuo: "If you dare buy that kind of clothing and bring it home, I’ll end it all."

No matter what Lu Yunyan said, such clothing could not enter their home, because An Nuo knew full well that in the end, it would end up on him.

Lu Yunyan: "Do you have to be that extreme?"

An Nuo: "Yes, that extreme."

The simmering anger in his heart also ignited a few strands of steely determination.

An Nuo: "What about the thing I asked you earlier? Did you see it?"

Well, now that serious matters were brought up, he's gone silent again.

Half an hour later, Lu Yunyan finally replied.

Lu Yunyan: "I saw it. What's going on?"

An Nuo: "His parents were taken away by federal prosecutors, his boyfriend was exposed with over 100 pages of FPD drama, and he himself was in the hospital due to an aircraft landing mishap."

Five minutes later.

Lu Yunyan: "That's unfortunate."

An Nuo: ...

His temper flared up even more.

So enthusiastic when talking about damn slip dresses, but so spotty when discussing this matter—especially with such a dismissive response. Anyone would feel upset, right?

An Nuo really wanted to ask, "Are you busy? If so, just message me when you’re done. Don’t trickle out responses in drips and drabs like toothpaste."

But rationality didn’t allow him to be so petty.

It would make him seem childish and irrational.

It would also make it seem like he cared too much about whether Lu Yunyan replied or not.

An Nuo: "Was this your doing?"

Two minutes later.

Lu Yunyan: "You think it’s related to me?"

Another frustrating response.

An Nuo: "Didn’t you say before that you would help me get back at them?"

But Lu Yunyan went silent again.

God knows what he was doing? The next reply came an hour and a half later, just half an hour before An Nuo got off work.

Completely unrelated, a random comment.

Lu Yunyan: "I'm heading home today."

Lu Yunyan: "Already on the way. Estimated to arrive in about half an hour."

So they would be arriving home around the same time.

Good, An Nuo thought. As soon as he got home, he would beat up Lu Yunyan first.

An Nuo followed Lu Yunyan’s example and didn’t reply to the message. As soon as work ended, he powered down his device, stood up, and hurried home to teach his husband a lesson.

If only he could set up some traps at home—then he could hang Lu Yunyan up as soon as he walked through the door and whip him good.

That’ll show him to reply so slowly, the asshole!

That’ll show him to dodge questions!

...

But Lu Yunyan arrived home a bit earlier than An Nuo, and An Nuo noticed the moment he walked in.

There were signs that the shoe cabinet in the entryway had been moved—likely the interval was too short for the household bot to tidy up yet.

Just as An Nuo was about to take out his phone to check where Lu Yunyan was, Lu Yunyan's voice came from up ahead: "You're back?"

Great, that saved An Nuo the trouble of looking for him.

An Nuo said nothing, changed his shoes, and went inside.

He clenched and unclenched his fists, stretching his fingers.

"I just got home too, was about to ask where you were."

"By the way, my dad and—"

Lu Yunyan's words were cut off by a punch from An Nuo: "First, tell me why you always reply so slowly!"

Childish or not, acting spoiled or not.

Even if it came off like he was overly invested.

None of that mattered now, because An Nuo really needed to let out his anger.

"What were you even doing!"

"Are you really that busy, too busy to spare a few minutes to reply properly... and what even were those replies!"

"Why didn't you answer my questions properly!"

An Nuo's punches weren't very painful, or maybe it was because alphas are built tougher than ordinary people, making them able to take a hit better.

After taking several punches from An Nuo in a row, Lu Yunyan didn't try to stop him, just lowered his head and smiled, watching him blow up.

Because of their height difference, from Lu Yunyan's perspective, An Nuo's face looked small, but his eyes were big and round. His fair cheeks contrasted with his bright blue eyes, making him cute as a doll.

Did that even look like he was mad?

Wasn't it more like he was trying to be cute?

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"I wish I could!"

Looking up and meeting Lu Yunyan's smiling face, An Nuo's anger instantly doubled: "Don't you dare grin! Is this funny? I'm angry!"

Lu Yunyan immediately dropped the smile and turned serious: "Not funny at all, I wasn't smiling."

An Nuo fell silent.

But why did that make him even angrier?

An Nuo felt like he had no way to deal with Lu Yunyan.

Normally, he couldn't win an argument against him, and now even hitting him was useless. Lu Yunyan was thick-skinned, seemingly not taking anything to heart.

The way he treated An Nuo was like indulging a kid throwing a fit—agreeing to everything on the surface but not really understanding his true emotional needs.

An Nuo withdrew his fist, out of steam, and said with a frown: "...Forget it, I'm done with you. I’m never talking to you again."

With that, he tried to walk past Lu Yunyan.

But Lu Yunyan grabbed his arm: "Wait a second."

An Nuo tried to pull away: "No, let go."

"Where are you going?"

"To my room, I don’t want to look at your big fathead!"

Lu Yunyan didn’t even care; even being called a big fathead made him laugh, and he found An Nuo's insults adorable.

"Then at least say hi to my dad and them first."

An Nuo was confused. Say hi? To Lu Yunyan's dad? So suddenly?

Until Lu Yunyan added: "They came over."

"…………"

His confusion instantly turned to ice.

An Nuo couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

"...Huh?"

Who was here?

Who’s here with who?

Lu Yunyan grabbed An Nuo's shoulder and spun him around.

Only then did An Nuo see that, at the end of the corridor behind him, stood Shi Yu and Lu Xu.

"…………"

The two were standing with their arms crossed, as if watching a drama unfold, though they looked a little confused.

—Of course they were puzzled.

The conversation sounded like they were already together, and their dynamic was no different from flirting and fighting.

Were they really not dating?

Did Lu Yunyan even need to woo An Nuo anymore?

Or was this just how young people were these days, and they were just out of touch?

Lu Xu stroked his chin, feeling even more that he should hurry up and mend his relationship with An Nuo.

The way things were going, they might even end up with a kid in a few days. To smoothly become the grandfather, he at least needed to get An Nuo to not be scared of him anymore.

"…………"

An Nuo stood frozen in place, wishing he could just turn to dust and disappear.

His eyes shot a silent but deadly accusatory look at Lu Yunyan: How could you not tell me something this important!

Lu Yunyan put on an innocent look: I was going to tell you, but you didn’t let me finish.

So An Nuo’s memory immediately backtracked, and sure enough, he found the proof.

Right after they entered, Lu Yunyan really had tried to tell him, but he was too angry at the time, too busy trying to punch Lu Yunyan, and completely ignored it.

Well, now it was done.

He could show off his willful, childish side in front of Lu Yunyan, even throwing a tantrum for no reason.

But having all that witnessed by his parents, he was so embarrassed he just wanted to slash his throat and end it all.

Lu Yunyan explained: "I was with them today. Dad said he was in the neighborhood and wanted to drop by and see you, so they all came along."

An Nuo wished he could just shut his eyes and die.

Until Shi Yu took the initiative to greet An Nuo, his eyes curving into smiles: "An Nuo, you look full of spirit."

Shi Yu’s tone was always gentle, with no hint of sarcasm, nor could there be.

But An Nuo felt ashamed and guilty; everything sounded like an accusation to him.

Yeah, how could he not be full of spirit?

He had punched Lu Yunyan as soon as they entered and spouted a lot of willful nonsense.

An Nuo just wanted to vanish on the spot.

He mustered a stiff smile and decided he had to greet them before leaving.

"Uncle Shi, Uncle Lu, hello... I, I’m going back to my room to change clothes, I’ll be right back."

Even though he had no idea what he was going to change into, once he said he was changing clothes, he had to change clothes.

Lu Xu quickly said: "Go ahead."

Anyone with eyes could see An Nuo was embarrassed and needed to hide for a while. Lu Xu took the chance.

But An Nuo felt nothing but unspeakable despair.

It’s over. He must have come off terribly.

Even Lu Xu couldn’t stand to watch—he must not want to see him anymore.

But what could he say?

Ano knew well that the more he said, the more mistakes he’d make, so he didn’t dare look at Lu Xu anymore. With a nearly inaudible nod, he immediately took off running.

One advantage of a large house was that he could actually run freely inside, almost like cosplaying a disgraced, deranged concubine sprinting madly through the palace corridors.

Ano dashed back to his bedroom in one go, then wrapped himself entirely in a blanket and rolled around wildly on the bed.

Ahhhhhhh—

How could he have embarrassed himself like this in front of Shi Yu!

Enough!

He’s never forgiving Lu Yunyan again!

His head was nearly spinning from all the rolling, but he still couldn’t calm down. Feeling utterly overwhelmed, Ano opened his close friends' group chat to vent and go crazy.

Words alone couldn’t capture his feelings, so he sent several one-minute-long voice messages. Besides a chaotic retelling of what happened, they were also filled with all sorts of weird screams and yells.

Thank goodness, Bai Wu listened to all of them patiently.

Bai Wu: "So, you really called him 'husband'?"

At this point, Ano didn’t bother hiding it anymore.

The emotional rollercoaster was too much, and he desperately needed to vent.

Ano: "Yes (PД`q。)"

Ano: "I think that’s what messed everything up."

Because after saying it, he developed unnecessary feelings—weird expectations and caring too much—which further confused his feelings toward Lu Yunyan and undermined his determination to stick to their "agreement."

That was the root of the problem.

It led to this unexpected incident and ended up with him losing face in front of Shi Yu and Lu Xu.

Bai Wu: "No, it’s not ruined—you just didn’t say it enough."

Ano: "?"

Bai Wu: "It’s precisely because you’ve never called him that before that the term feels so special. If you called him that all the time, you’d eventually desensitize to it."

Ano paused, then suddenly understood.

Ano: "Holy crap, are you some kind of miracle doctor?!"

Bai Wu: "And he asked you to call him that, didn’t he?"

Ano: "Yes, that’s right, Teach!"

Bai Wu: "Then you have to let him know that calling him 'husband' doesn’t come free. Since he wants that title, he has to pay the price."

Bai Wu: "He has to do everything a hubby’s supposed to do. He has to spend every cent a husband should spend."

Bai Wu: "This is your reward to him. If he fails to meet expectations or disappoints you, you have every right to take it back at any time."

Now Ano didn’t just get it—he was totally enlightened.

Ano: "Ahhhhhhh okay, Teach! I’ve got it!"

With Bai Wu’s exclusive guidance, Ano felt like he could handle things again.

Time to grab Lu Yunyan and practice—he felt terrifyingly powerful now.