Left my contact information for you

Li Mao's barrage of sharp, successive questions left even the ever-articulate Wan Fuqi at a loss for how to respond.

He truly did not understand what love was.

The first time he saw Alpha's back as he slipped something into a glass of water, he had felt an inexplicable urge.

He felt that person should not have looked so natural and relaxed with his back turned to him.

He should have been crying out, struggling and clawing; that beautiful golden hair should have been scattered across his chest.

It was the first time Wan Fuqi had felt the urge to mark someone.

Because of Enigma's special nature—their excessively strong territorial instincts and high danger level—Wan Fuqi had experienced several extreme episodes of losing control as a child.

Coupled with a less-than-warm and harmonious family environment, as well as his congenital deafness, Wan Fuqi's psyche had become somewhat warped, and he had been receiving psychological treatment since the age of six.

To be safe, the Wan family had forbidden Wan Fuqi from having excessive contact with anyone outside the family before he came of age.

He had also been required to wear an electronic wristband around the clock to monitor his pheromone levels.

The moment there was any fluctuation, the wristband would immediately sound an alarm and contact his family. Within three minutes, someone would definitely arrive to give him a sedative injection.

But years of treatment and a long record of good behavior had finally allowed Wan Fuqi to break free from the electronic wristband at his eighteenth birthday party, granting him the right to mark someone he fancied.

After waiting eighteen years for that gift, every bit of expectation and anticipation had long since been worn away by the day-after-day surveillance.

Wan Fuqi was somewhat uninterested.

Having rarely interacted with the outside world, he did not even know anyone his own age.

In the end, only after his sister questioned whether he was impotent did Wan Fuqi listlessly leave home and begin searching for his so-called "ideal partner" in bars and private clubs.

Unfortunately, not only had he found nothing, he had also been rumored to be an Omega who looked down on everyone and could not be seduced.

After university began, he had gone to Willow City's most famous bar out of curiosity.

What happened afterward was what had first occurred between him and Li Mao...

He clearly remembered the sound of Alpha's Adam's apple bobbing and his swallow when he saw the nape gland hidden beneath that golden hair.

He had only felt that this Alpha should be his.

As for whether it had begun with the way this person needed his patient waiting to finish a sentence, or with the smooth skin he had accidentally brushed against while they wrestled, Wan Fuqi did not know.

Love?

He did not understand it. He only felt that he ought to say it.

Like?

Perhaps he did like him.

The kind of "liking" one felt when seeing a product they "liked" while shopping.

But what was the difference between that kind of liking and the "like" in the words "I like you" that he had said to Li Mao?

Wan Fuqi could not come up with an answer about whether it was love, but he knew one thing: a pet had no reason to refuse anything its owner gave it.

Nor should it question him.

Wan Fuqi lowered his eyes and pulled Li Mao into his arms, pressing hard against the back of his head. No matter how he struggled, Wan Fuqi kept his face firmly trapped against his chest.

Wan Fuqi opened his mouth and bit Li Mao's shoulder, where the droplets had not yet dried. In a muffled voice, he said, "I don't know what that constantly moving mouth of yours is saying. You know that when I'm not wearing my hearing aid, I'm a deaf dog."

Only when Li Mao gradually stopped struggling did he hold him and turn him around, grabbing his long hair and forcing Li Mao to raise his head and look at the disheveled sight of himself receiving pleasure.

Wan Fuqi narrowed his gaze, admiring the image in the mirror.

The Alpha who had just been pressing him for answers could now only use that mouth to breathe with difficulty...

That mouth, which could never close, was covered in clear streams of water.

Those unfocused eyes would no longer watch him retreat step by step.

This was how it should be.

Wan Fuqi said regretfully in a low voice, "It would've been better if you hadn't made me angry. I should've gone easier on you. You'd definitely sound especially nice right now... too bad I can't hear it..."

He wrapped his arms around Li Mao again, kissed him, and asked, "Why aren't you making a sound? Does it hurt?"

After saying that, he seemed to become a different person, pressing Li Mao's face against the mist-covered mirror and smiling somewhat viciously.

"Darling, take a look. Is this enough to count as proof of how I love you? If there's anything you're dissatisfied with, bring it up to your husband."

"Darling, look at yourself in the mirror. How can an Alpha be this beautiful? Such a perfect expression... Even if I played with you for a lifetime, I'd never have enough, never get tired of it."

"If I never get tired of you for my whole life, then you'll stay by my side forever, right? Or will you come whenever I call?"

"You don't seem to have my contact information yet, do you?"

At that, Wan Fuqi realized that he really had never left Li Mao his contact information, though he had Li Mao's.

So he rummaged through the drawer nearby and found a red marker, probably left behind when the house had been renovated.

He bit off the cap, lowered his head, and wrote his name and a string of phone numbers beside Li Mao's tattoo.

This kind of marker could not be washed off with water, so Wan Fuqi was not worried that Li Mao would fail to see his prank after coming to his senses.

He tossed the pen onto the floor, looked at his handiwork, and praised, "Darling, you look even cuter now."