He was half in Lu Xingci’s embrace and all he could smell was the other’s pheromones.

The ever-present pheromones floated in the air, both comforting and tantalising him. 

The ear that was close to Lu Xingci uncontrollably started to heat up, the heat travelled from the tips of his ears to his neck. It felt as if it covered his whole body.

He felt numb throughout his whole body.

Duan Jiayan pursed his lips, entranced by the other party’s rare show of weakness. He never thought that Lu Xingci would dare say such words after his aggressive display from earlier.

It makes one really unable to fight back against him. 

Duan Jiayan stared at him for half a day, still unable to process what he heard before finally numbly nodding his head.

“Alright,” his words carried with it a slight trace of confusion. “Go to sleep then.”

A light kiss was planted on his lips.

With the brief touch on his lips, Duan Jiayan cooperatively straightened his back and did not hide.

Lu Xingci saw him sitting there, looking as if he would not resist anything he’d do and suddenly laughed.

His laugh managed to exchange him Duan Jiayan’s confusion and annoyance.

“Ah Ye,” he repeated while laughing. “Ah Ye.”

“What do you want?” Duan Jiayan was in low spirits after being laughed at and really did not want to act too weak. He tsked, “You sure know how to push for more huh? Are you done laughing? Say, are you—” 

Are you asking for a beating?

“Has anyone ever told you,” Lu Xingci asked with his eyebrows raised, “That you are very cute?”

“……”

At that moment, Duan Jiayan nearly spat an expletive out. 

He did not know how that person could have gotten that one word from his face.

What’s worse is, he asked his question so fiercely yet the other person could answer him back effortlessly and even taped on the word ‘cute’.

He really was

Duan Jiayan felt that he was really easy to tease and said, “Is cute a word to describe someone that is incredibly handsome? Lu Xingci you really are getting wilder now— Hey! Have you showered? Yet you’re still touching me?” 

“I went to take a shower before looking for you.”

As he spoke, Lu Xingci grabbed his wayward hands and pressed them against his chest.

His arms once again looped around Duan Jiayan’s waist and tightened their grip.

The person in his arm had warm skin and a slender waist. 

When his stress disorder is acting up, this alpha’s pheromones will be extremely irresistible to Duan Jiayan.

After being hugged for a while, he softened his attitude and ultimately leaned into Lu Xingci’s embrace after finding a comfortable position to lie in.

He stared at Lu Xingci lazily, as if he had no intention of letting him go.

“It seems to be only 10 pm,” Duan Jiayan muttered. “You’re going to sleep now? I’ve never been so healthy in 800 years.” 

“Then let’s chat?”

“What are we going to talk about?”

“We’ll just chat… about how you find my family,” as he spoke, Lu Xingci laughed into his ear, blowing a small puff of air against it. “You’ll be interacting with them for a long time in the future.”

Duan Jiayan saw him with a victorious look on his face and while his heart melted, he could not help wanting to tease the other. 

Duan Jiayan purposely moved back a little, pursing his lips into a smile. When coupled with his face, that look carried with it flavours of slow affection.

“You’re talking about our future so soon?”

“We’ve already met the parents, you have to take responsibility for me,” Lu Xingci saw him putting on the look of a scum man and rubbed his head. He said admonishingly, “Or else this will be counted as you playing with my feelings.”

They were very close to one another, all they had to do was lean down to close the distance for a kiss.

The boy leaning onto him had his back against the light. He did not know if he was playing around or if he was serious, but the light in his eyes seemed to have dimmed a little as he said, “I won’t not like you.” 

“……”

“You said you like me, that means you have to always like me,” he muttered, speaking at a steady pace. It was as if he was taking advantage of this situation to clear things up with Duan Jiayan. “As long as you are mine, you can make as much of a fuss as you want, you can crack any joke you want, I won’t mind.”

Duan Jiayan’s heart sped up as he watched the other speak, an unexplainable sense of satisfaction arose from within him.

“Then if I go back on my words, what will you do?” 

Lu Xingci did not answer him immediately.

Duan Jiayan licked his upper lip. It seemed he was born with the urge to find trouble.

As if finding it not enough, he brushed his cool calf along the alpha’s leg and said, “Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“Do you know what a permanent mark is?” Lu Xingci asked as his grip around Duan Jiayan’s waist tightened. 

There was an omega’s……

Duan Jiayan recalled the clip he had seen before and his face heated up. His demeanour almost collapsed right in front of Lu Xingci.

“It’ll hurt a lot.” As if he could sense what Duan Jiayan was troubled over, Lu Xingci continued looking at Duan Jiayan’s pretty face before breaking out into a smile. “That matter… is actually pretty a torturous one, isn’t it?”

Duan Jiayan saw him smiling and for a moment could not speak. 

“A permanent mark can be erased,” he said as he nonchalantly tipped Lu Xingci’s chin up.

“If you erase it, I’ll just catch you and mark you again,” Lu Xingci looked at him for a few seconds before gently saying, “When your body can’t take it any longer, your only choice will be to stay by my side.”

The old Duan Jiayan would have hated someone binding him with such rules.

“Alright, Lu-ge,” Duan Jiayan said as he smiled too. “Whatever you say goes.” 

He grabbed Lu Xingci by the collar and pulled him down before opening his arms to hug him, “I’ll take responsibility.”

Just as Lu Xingci said, there were quite a few guests in the Lu family house on the second day.

With friends and family here, the mahjong table was opened up after dinner and Lu Xingci was called to fill in the numbers.

Jiang Yao had asked Dua Jiayan before if he wanted to play a round but Duan Jiayan did not know how to play mahjong and even if he joined, he’ll be horrible at it. Jiang Yao saw him refusing and turned around to a young missus, “Lu Shaoyang plays games right? What does he play?” 

“I think it is something called League of Legends?” The lady shook her head. “I’m not too sure either, he’s in his room.”

“Why not you go on and look for Xingci’s little cousin to play with? You can both play together,” Jiang Yao pointed in the direction of Lu Shaoyang’s room and said, “In a moment, his small uncle would arrive and I’ll get Lu Xingci to stop playing and then he can go look for you.”

Duan Jiayan agreed to the suggestion since he had nothing better to do anyway. He headed over to the guest room, there was only one room that was open and there was a boy inside playing LOL.

The kid was probably in middle school, most likely in his first year. There was still traces of youthfulness on his face. 

Duan Jiayan could finally find a form of entertainment he could join. He patted the back of the other’s chair and asked, “Want to play together?”

Lu Shaoyang had just lost a match and did not even look at him as he spoke, “What region and what rank are you? What position do you play?”

“I’m a Master in the China server,” Duan Jiayan said, “I can play any role, but if I play jungle I’ll just be playing blindly.”

“Oh!” Lu Shaoyang turned to him excitedly. “Ge! Sit down! I’ll bring you a laptop to play on!” 

Duan Jiayan watched him stand as he spoke only to suddenly stop in his tracks.  It was as if he did not know where to place the laptop and suggested, “Let’s go together, we’ll go to Lu Xingci’s room together.”

“My elder cousin’s?” Lu Shaoyang hesitated. “I’ve never been into elder cousin’s room before, he usually doesn’t allow anyone in.”

Alphas are usually very possessive. If you enter an alpha’s territory without permission, it is considered very rude.

Lu Shaoyang himself was an alpha. Even though he was not very old, he at least knew what to take note of. 

“It’s fine,” Duan Jiayan said as he walked. “He won’t say anything.”

Lu Shaoyang was only in his third year of middle school. He had always treated his genius of an elder cousin as a stellar role model. His mother would frequently bring up Lu Xingci in front of him.

Lu Shaoyang felt like this brother of his was a very special “kid from another household.” Even though they would sometimes interact, but it was only a handful of times so he could not be considered very close to Lu Xingci. He was somewhat in awe of him.

In his eyes, he watched as Duan Jiayan casually picked up Lu Xingci’s cable. He said hesitantly, “Jiayan-ge, do you want to let elder cousin know about this first?” 

Compared to the comfortable Duan Jiayan, he felt very unsettled since entering Lu Xingci’s room. It was as if he was doing something illegal.

“Then why not you go tell him?” Duan Jiayan said while stacking notebooks together. “I’m too lazy to go down.”

A big house can also be rather troublesome. To reach the mahjong area, you would have to walk a big round to get there.

“Forget it,” Lu Shaoyang said as he steeled his heart. He noted this down and decided to settle this once they were done playing, “Let’s play a few rounds first.” 

Once they got back to Lu Shaoyang’s room, the two of them added each other as friends and started to queue for a match.

“Kill kill kill— Oh my god! Jiayan-ge you are the best!” Lu Shaoyang looked at the colourful display on his screen and was so excited he nearly smacked his display. “A normal Aatrox will only have two lives. But ge, you have three lives! You bring your own resurrection armour to this game.”

“Jiayan-ge!”

“Didi!”

“Xiao-Yang, soften your voice a little,” Lu Shaoyang’s second aunt said with a knock on the door as she walked past. “Those playing mahjong below can hear you.” 

As she spoke, she glanced at Duan Jiayan who was sitting beside Lu Shaoyang.

This child seemed to be……

By the time Lu Xingci made his way up, Duan Jiayan had already played a few matches with Lu Shaoyang.

When he entered the room, Lu Shaoyang was crying loudly and sitting really close to Duan Jiayan. 

“He just passed by two towers to get to me, isn’t he crazy?”

“He’s done for,” Duan Jiayan’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “You dare to bully my XIao-Yang? I’ll make him return to the fountain to wash his head.”

Hearing this, Lu Xingci frowned.

He knew Duan Jiayan was a very social person and Lu Shaoyang was not one to take a long time to warm up to someone. But it hadn’t been all that long and he was already calling him Xiao-Yang? 

“Nice! Jiayan-ge, that Q is too awesome!”

For Lu Shaoyang, an alpha of his age was still not quite able to control themselves. Perhaps due to being too excited from the games, he had unconsciously released some pheromones.

Duan Jiayan’s body had traces of Lu Shaoyang’s scent.

Another alpha’s scent. 

Duan Jiayan was enjoying being showered by praises from Lu Shaoyang. He felt that Lu Xingci’s little cousin wasn’t that bad. Even though his technique could be better, he definitely knew how to praise someone.

Duan Jiayan was just preparing to show off more of his skills in front of the little kid when someone hugged him from behind with one hand.

The other hand was placed on the hand he was using to grip the mouse.

He was entirely enveloped in Lu Xingci’s embrace as the other gently spoke into his ear, “Let me help you.” 

Duan Jiayan allowed him to control his hand as he turned around slightly, “You’re done playing?”

Lu Xingci gave an ‘en’ in response.

Lu Shaoyang saw their intimate position and immediately understood what was going on.

It was really obvious. 

He stammered while calling out, “E-elder cousin.”

Just then he remembered hearing the elders saying that his elder cousin had brought an omega home and that the omega would be staying in the Lu family house for a few days.

The elders were all pleasantly surprised, and Grandma Lu seemed to have taken it really well. Jiang Yao also seemed very pleased. She even joked about how if it wasn’t for their age, they would already be discussing matters regarding their marriage.

It seems like Duan Jiayan was that omega. 

Lu Shaoyang cried out in his heart.

He seemed to have… accidentally left his pheromones on Duan Jiayan’s body.

He’s done for. He’s done for. He’s done for.

It’s not just Lu Xingci. If he was in a relationship and another person left their pheromones on his omega, he would also get angry. 

Lu Xingci eyed the situation in the game, “This match is almost over.”

Duan Jiayan agreed with his observation.

“Are you still playing?” Lu Xingci continued on without waiting for his response, “Want to take a break?”

Duan Jiayan slept early last night and still felt rather lethargic, coupled with the few rounds they had been playing, his eyes were indeed aching. He nodded and accepted the suggestion. 

Once they were back in their room, Duan Jiayan took a shower.

After the events from last night, Lu Xingci entered his room without asking for permission first.

When Duan Jiayan made his way out, Lu Xingci made his way over and rested his chin on Duan Jiayan’s shoulder before sniffing his scent lightly.

Duan Jiayan was tickled by his rubbing and could not resist laughing, “What are you doing?” 

“Smelling if there is still Lu Shaoyang’s scent on you,” he said honestly. But he could not resist frowning, still not quite satisfied. “Why isn’t it washed off?”

Duan Jiayan himself did not seem to realise he was carrying another alpha’s pheromones. He did see Lu Xingci rubbing against him, as if trying to get rid of the other’s scent.

“You being like this,” Duan Jiayan said slowly as he came to realise something. “Are you being jealous? But that’s your little cousin.”

Duan Jiayan seemed to sound troubled as he said that. 

Lu Xingci lowered his head to look at him.

He was indeed not too happy but it did not mean that he would hold it against Lu Shaoyang.

More than that, he wanted to take this chance to get closer to Duan Jiayan.

To tell him how much he liked him. 

He leaned closer and said with some aggression in his tone, “Can’t I?”

Duan Jiayan saw his raised eyebrow and clear black eyes.

In a second, his heart had melted.

“Did anyone tell you before,” Duan Jiayan said, copying the other’s demeanour from last night. He spoke slowly, “That you are really cute.” 

The both of them looked at each other without speaking.

Duan Jiayan thought that Lu Xingci should be experiencing what he felt last night.

But him saying that, was not entirely to tease Lu Xingci, he did genuinely find him cute.

He usually would not see Lu Xingci acting like this. Now with the other being all docile and quiet, it was a delightful and unique sight for Duan Jiayan. 

Lu Xingci kept his gaze and once again buried his head into Duan Jiayan’s shoulder, not saying a word.

Duan Jiayan blinked.

He thought Lu Xingci was so depressed that he had gone silent.

“Lu-ge, you’re really upset?” Duan Jiayan had never thought that such a day would come where he would have such a conversation with the alpha. “I’ll go take another shower?” 

Right as he said that, he felt a prick of pain. He looked down in disbelief at Lu Xingci’s lips on his neck.

He was gently biting him.