Chapter 66

Chapter 66

Ying Zhiyu next saw Zhou Shen after the surveillance operation had concluded, catching Zhou Shen and the security captain red-handed as they plotted the kidnapping.

Ying Zhiyu and Li Xi returned together to the Li family’s garden estate.

Gazing at the subdued Zhou Shen, Ying Zhiyu posed a question: "After kidnapping me, what were your intentions?"

In his previous life, Zhou Shen had already provided an answer to this.

Yet, Ying Zhiyu still found it utterly preposterous.

As the butler who had personally attended to Li Xi for a decade, how could Zhou Shen possibly misunderstand Li Xi's character?

In his past life, regardless of whether Ying Zhiyu was eventually rescued alive or dead, Li Xi would never have abandoned the artificial pheromone commercialization project.

Ying Zhiyu believed that the reason he was constantly moved between various hiding places during the kidnapping, and suffered no further harm beyond his severed ring finger, was because Li Xi must have conceded to some of Zhou Shen's demands.

But no matter the terms, the very act of threatening Li Xi was incredibly naive and foolish.

If Li Xi were the type to retreat in the face of adversity, he wouldn't be Li Xi.

And given Ying Zhiyu's accidental death in his past life, it would only have intensified Li Xi's animosity towards the kidnappers.

How could they have possibly imagined that by abducting the person they believed Li Xi cherished, they could deter him from pursuing his objectives?

On this point, even though he hadn't lived to witness it in his previous life, Ying Zhiyu was absolutely convinced that Zhou Shen and the extremists backing him would never succeed.

Naturally, since these events hadn't transpired in this lifetime, Zhou Shen wouldn't voluntarily disclose his plans.

He simply averted his gaze, as if unwilling to expose his current humiliation and defeat to Ying Zhiyu and Li Xi.

Zhou Shen remained utterly silent.

The Li family would not resort to private interrogations; if questioning was necessary, all investigative evidence would be handed over to the police for official proceedings.

Even before Ying Zhiyu spoke, he had anticipated Zhou Shen's silence.

He was asking Zhou Shen, yet he wasn't truly asking Zhou Shen.

Perhaps he was merely posing the question on behalf of his unfortunate past self and the cruel twists of fate.

No one had foreseen Ying Zhiyu's death.

When the kidnappers moved him from the first hiding place to the second, Ying Zhiyu was already certain that Li Xi had chosen him.

Li Xi intended to protect him.

Regardless of his feelings for Li Xi in his past life, Ying Zhiyu had absolute faith in Li Xi's capabilities.

From that moment on, Ying Zhiyu never once contemplated his own demise.

It hadn't crossed his mind, nor Li Xi's; even the kidnappers hadn't expected Ying Zhiyu to ultimately die.

He succumbed to tetanus from a severed finger, in the cold, sterile ICU after his rescue.

And in the final forty-eight hours of his previous life, the only connection between Ying Zhiyu and Li Xi was Li Xi’s hoarse cry of his name just before Ying Zhiyu closed his eyes...

Ying Zhiyu gently caressed the ring finger of his left hand.

A warm hand simultaneously covered the back of his own.

Ying Zhiyu started, as if returning to his senses, pulling himself from a jumble of memories, and turned to look at the person beside him.

Li Xi held the back of Ying Zhiyu’s hand, his palm warm, his strong fingers gripping unusually tightly.

As if fearing the person he held might vanish at any moment.

Or perhaps, he was conveying his strength to Ying Zhiyu.

“If you need privacy, I can leave—and so can they.”

The “they” Li Xi referred to were the bodyguards stationed inside and outside the room.

In Li Xi’s eyes, Ying Zhiyu saw profound concern and trust.

Li Xi could have pressed Ying Zhiyu for details about the “kidnapping location.”

Not just the kidnapping location—Zhou Shen had worked for the Li family for over thirty years in his previous life, yet the family never uncovered this "anti-pheromone" extremist hidden within their own ranks, which was proof enough of how deeply and cautiously Zhou Shen had concealed himself.

And in this lifetime, what appeared to be a random attack in an underground parking garage, seemingly unrelated to the Li family’s internal staff—

Yet Ying Zhiyu had meticulously unraveled the threads, pinpointing two individuals no one had suspected.

Whether it was Zhou Shen or Pan Da, the very fact that they were identified as suspects carried an air of "improbability."

Li Xi was the type of person who, once a decision was made, would not waver or regret it.

If he chose to trust an Alpha, he would entrust all his reliable personnel to that Alpha's command.

If he chose not to question the half-truths and jokes in the Alpha’s words, what mattered to him was only the present and the future.

Ying Zhiyu gently squeezed Li Xi’s hand in return, shook his head, and said, “Let’s go out together. I have nothing more to say.”

Today, returning to the Li family’s garden villa, Ying Zhiyu wore his wedding ring from his marriage to Li Xi on the ring finger of his left hand.

The everyday gray-blue wedding band.

In the eleventh year of Ying Zhiyu and Li Xi’s marriage in his previous life, due to Li Songqian’s critical illness, the battle for succession between Li Xi and Li Qin was at its most intense.

At that time, Ying Zhiyu needed to accompany Li Xi to many public appearances to increase exposure and public support, with the aim of boosting board votes.

So during that period, whether they were spotted together or separately, wherever they went—

They both wore their wedding rings.

Thus, when Ying Zhiyu was suddenly kidnapped and disappeared—

The finger severed by the kidnappers and delivered to Li Xi likely still bore that gray-blue wedding ring…

Ying Zhiyu, holding Li Xi’s hand with his ring-adorned left hand, strode out of the butler’s room and out of the Li family’s garden villa.

For Ying Zhiyu, his past life was already behind him.

He had made different choices and now had a partner and a child.

Let those old accounts, loves and hates, and regrets all remain in the past life.

-

The Zhou Shen incident exposed numerous internal issues within the Li Family Office.

The Li family employed a large number of Beta staff, placing them in mid-to-high-level management positions across various departments of the family office precisely because the "Beta" group was supposed to have no stake in "pheromones."

Unexpectedly, this inadvertently created an opportunity for extremists to exploit.

The Li Family Office was headed for a major internal purge. Not only would the family head, Li Songqian, be busy, but the heirs to the family—Li Qin, Li Lv, Li Xi, and Li Yue—would be swept up in it as well.

With the resolution of the "mastermind" incident, LI's new drug "Artificial Pheromones," which had been delayed to lure out bigger targets, was finally about to officially launch.

Li Xi, in particular, was inundated with work.

Meanwhile, the graduation season arrived at Biomedical University.

In Ying Zhiyu's laboratory at the School of Biology, the research on "AO differentiation" was officially renamed "ABO Epigenetics" in his doctoral dissertation.

In his paper, he clearly stated that the question of how to nurture the next generation with excellent gene expression was relevant to every member of ABO society.

It was also the responsibility of all parents toward their children.

This had nothing to do with whether the parents were Alpha, Omega, or Beta.

Ying Zhiyu's current research theory argued that their goal was not simply to produce offspring with glands; instead, their aim was to ensure that the next generation in ABO society would express their genes more fully and optimally.

The key to this "full expression" lay in the combination of prenatal supply of pheromones and the mother's sense of security.

The reproductive cavity was the emotional organ in the mother.

If the mother felt secure, the pheromones would flow smoothly in the reproductive cavity.

If the mother lacked a sense of security, the channels delivering pheromones would become blocked.

The reason why Alphas and Omegas in today's society often excel in various professions, leading to the impression that those with pheromones are inherently superior in intelligence, physical strength, lifespan, and other aspects compared to those without pheromones, does not actually stem from the "glands and pheromones" themselves.

Instead, it comes from the greater sense of security these individuals received while still in the womb, allowing their inherent genetic potential to be more fully activated and mobilized.

Pheromones often merely help create the illusion of this "sense of security."

At the end of his paper, Ying Zhiyu expressed a seemingly unrelated viewpoint on biological genetics—

True eugenics means allowing a child to be born into an environment of love and to have responsible parents.

Love and responsibility are the source of a sense of security and the best nourishment for nurturing the next generation.

In May, Ying Zhiyu successfully defended his doctoral dissertation.

Just like in his past life, his advisor, Xia Xianru, once again recommended that he join the National Institute of Biological Sciences in the year of his graduation.

However, after considering it for three days, Ying Zhiyu politely declined his advisor's kind offer.

In his past life, Ying Zhiyu had devoted almost his entire life to research work.

Both he and Li Xi were alike in this regard.

For various reasons, they had both chosen to give up on "living" and throw themselves entirely into their work.

But in this life, their relationship was different.

They had also welcomed a new addition to their family—Little Love Letter.

Ying Zhiyu wanted to explore life's different possibilities, to see the world and actually live.

Perhaps someday in the future—maybe in a year, two years, or three—he would return to the work he loved.

But for now, at this moment, Ying Zhiyu just wanted to lazily sleep his way through the hundred-square-meter beds in the private islands, estates, castles, and super vacation mansions that belonged to his Omega around the world.

Hmm, Ying Zhiyu thought, it seemed they still hadn't explored many scenarios.

And there was also the "handcuffed to the headboard" play that Third Prince Li had personally promised—they still hadn't found time to act it out.

As he walked out of the lecture hall of the School of Biology at Biomedical University, Ying Zhiyu hadn't gone far before the low hum of a sports car engine caught his attention.

He instinctively turned toward the source of the sound.

An Aston Martin Valhalla, released earlier this year, was crawling along, staying within the campus speed limit as it approached from a distance.

When the sleek, moon-white supercar slowly pulled up nearby, the driver's door swung upward, and a long, straight leg emerged.

Third Prince Li was dressed in a full "domineering CEO" suit, low-key yet luxurious, with every detail meticulously crafted—his wristwatch, belt, and cufflinks all bore the clever touches of a stylist.

Ying Zhiyu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

He felt like whistling in appreciation.

However, the nearly 1.85-meter-tall Omega, exuding an overwhelming presence, walked up to him before Ying Zhiyu could say a word.

Li Xi grabbed the belt of Ying Zhiyu's open oatmeal-colored trench coat and narrowed his eyes.

"Trying to look cool? Who are you trying to seduce?"

Oh ho, the guilty party files the first complaint!