House Arrest

Ye Qingpu's face darkened, and he practically gritted out:

"You fucking investigated me again."

"Is there a problem with caring about the person I had a crush on when I was young?"

Pei Louxuan did not shy away from it in the slightest, raising his coffee for a small sip.

Ye Qingpu fell silent. When it came to this refined scumbag, he mostly just did not want to get too entangled with him.

"Pei Jiaqian still doesn't know about your gland mutation, does he? That kid is usually pretty sharp, but he can be pretty stupid sometimes too."

"What are you trying to do?"

Wariness filled Ye Qingpu's eyes.

"It's only been a little over two months since the mutation started." Pei Louxuan seemed thoughtful. After a moment of silence, he said:

"We can remove the entire gland. At this stage, it won't cause your body too much harm."

"Are you fucking sick? I'm warning you, you'd better let me go back right now."

Ye Qingpu unconsciously clenched his fists. That dead pervert Pei Louxuan had always been a man of his word, a beast in human clothing.

"What makes you think you can threaten me? Qingpu, you know me. Do you think this is a place you can come and go from whenever you please?"

Pei Louxuan smiled, but the chill in his eyes was bone-deep. He rose and leisurely walked over to Ye Qingpu, his tone frivolous.

"It's been 1,932 days since we last spoke or even saw each other. Don't you want to catch up?"

"Catch up my ass. Don't touch me."

Seeing the hand reaching toward him, Ye Qingpu's expression changed, and he turned his head away in disgust.

Pei Louxuan's gaze darkened. He pinched Ye Qingpu's chin and forced him to look up at him, though his voice was unbelievably gentle.

"After being turned into an omega, you seem to have become even prettier."

"Take your filthy hand off me."

Ye Qingpu reached out and yanked hard on the hair at the back of Pei Louxuan's head without holding back.

Pei Louxuan sucked in a sharp breath.

"Mayor!"

The man who had been standing nearby hurried forward, only to be stopped by Pei Louxuan's raised hand.

No matter how unwilling he was, the man could only silently retreat to his original spot.

"What a pity. You've been marked, so you can't smell my pheromones anymore. Back when you were still a beta, I wanted you to smell them. That's why I kept looking for perfume that smelled similar to my pheromones. Every time I went to see you, I wore that perfume."

Pei Louxuan released Ye Qingpu's chin, then grabbed his wrist with his other hand, signaling for him to let go.

"If I'd known earlier, I would've rather suffocated myself to death."

Ye Qingpu sneered and flung off the hand around his wrist.

"Ungrateful little bastard."

Pei Louxuan gave a low laugh. Catching him off guard, he scooped Ye Qingpu out of the wheelchair, slung him over his shoulder, and headed upstairs.

"You fucker!"

Ye Qingpu instinctively struggled, grabbing his hair and tugging it hard.

"Damn it, you crazy bastard, let go! I'm suing your ass!"

"Mhm, mhm, mhm. Go ahead, sue me."

Pei Louxuan was not annoyed in the least. He carried Ye Qingpu into a room, threw him onto the bed, then pulled over the chain by the headboard and fastened it around his neck.

"Pei Louxuan, what the fuck is wrong with you?! Let me go!"

Ye Qingpu tugged at the chain, fury filling his eyes.

"What are you talking about? If I were going to let you go so soon, why would I go through the trouble of tying you up?" Pei Louxuan smiled innocently.

"...If you dare touch me with those filthy hands, I'll make sure you spend the rest of your life eating with your feet."

Watching the man standing at the foot of the bed, Ye Qingpu forced himself to calm down.

"To be honest, I'm really jealous that you got together with Pei Jiaqian. Ye Qingpu, you're quite something, making me put so much thought into you. I can accept you sleeping with him, but you shouldn't degrade yourself."

"That's my business. What does it have to do with you? Mr. Mayor, aren't you afraid I'll expose you?"

Ye Qingpu smiled mockingly.

"Tell me, then. Why can Pei Jiaqian do it when I can't?"

Pei Louxuan was unusually patient.

"Don't you have a television at home? I already said I only like that tender young grass, Pei Jiaqian. I'm not interested in a forty-year-old alpha like you."

Ye Qingpu secretly clenched his hands. What he feared most right now was Pei Louxuan forcing himself on him. After all, this beast in human clothing was capable of anything, and the ruthless reputation he carried was mostly influenced by him.

"Is that so? Once I find someone to remove your gland, do you want to taste the charms of this forty-year-old man?"

"You fucking... If you dare lay a hand on me, I'll fucking kill you."

Ye Qingpu unconsciously shrank back. He regretted it so badly his guts had turned green. He never should have come to see Pei Louxuan alone. He had thought that after so long, the man had turned over a new leaf. Who would have thought he was still the same well-dressed dead pervert?

"Let's wait and see." Pei Louxuan shrugged and smiled indifferently.

"Stay here peacefully for the next few days. Once your gland has been removed, I might consider letting you go."

Ye Qingpu gritted his teeth. They both had the surname Pei. Couldn't they at least be a little friendlier to each other?

After saying that, Pei Louxuan took Ye Qingpu's phone. He watched him silently, seeming as though he wanted to say something but hesitating. In the end, he merely shook his head and left the bedroom.

Curled up against the headboard, Ye Qingpu gripped the iron chain in his hand. After confirming that he could not bite through it, he silently sighed.

Back when he had been run ragged reclaiming the Lineage's assets from his uncle, he had gone to a bar to drown his sorrows and was accidentally drugged by several alphas. Pei Louxuan had happened to pass by and saved him.

Ye Qingpu had been quite grateful to Pei Louxuan for that. He had thought the man was a good person, only to find out that he, too, had taken a liking to Ye Qingpu's looks. Put nicely, it was love at first sight.

At the time, Ye Qingpu had no interest in romance and focused solely on his career, so they had not completely fallen out. That was until he caught Pei Louxuan gambling with the alphas who had drugged him before at a teahouse. They had bet three million on when Pei Louxuan would finally get him into bed.

Ye Qingpu had been furious. His temper flared on the spot, and he grabbed the man by the collar before kicking him twice without mercy. Afterward, he spat at him, then kicked Pei Louxuan's car parked outside twice as well.

Pei Louxuan had already held an honorable position back then, and Ye Qingpu had nearly been arrested for assaulting an official. Although Pei Louxuan did not pursue the matter, his upright public image was well known throughout Harbor City, while Ye Qingpu had ended up on the news headlines for three days because of that mess.

From then on, there had been a rift between Ye Qingpu and Pei Louxuan. But the incident that truly tore their relationship apart had been something else.

Ye Qingpu had forgotten exactly what it was. He was busy like a dog every day and could not be bothered to remember such bullshit.

Still, after he stopped contacting Pei Louxuan, Ye Qingpu did not even have anyone to talk to in the vast Harbor City.

After not seeing each other for so long, he had not expected the other man to go crazy the moment they met. Ye Qingpu was both troubled and furious.

He knew Pei Louxuan responded to softness rather than force, so when the man came to the room again early the next morning, Ye Qingpu unusually softened his attitude and said a few nice things. It was not that he was afraid; he was simply worried about Pei Jiaqian.

The puppy at home was in heat, had separation anxiety, and still had a bit of post-traumatic stress. If he could not see Ye Qingpu, he would start whining, acting cute, and crying again.

"This room was prepared when I first built this villa. It was made especially for you, Qingpu. Don't be in such a hurry to leave. Stay for a while?"

Leaning against the doorway, Pei Louxuan stared at him intensely.

"I'm not staying. When I have time, I'll bring more people over. You're a busy man, so I won't disturb you. Let me go home."

Ye Qingpu smiled without warmth. He swore that next time, he would bring enough people to smash Pei Louxuan's shitty room to pieces, then set the whole damn place on fire.

"Your thoughts are written all over your face. You're already grown up, and a successful businessman at that, yet you can't even hide something so obvious."

Pei Louxuan chuckled. When he met Ye Qingpu's hateful gaze, he did not panic in the slightest. Instead, he carried over a medical kit and sat down right beside him.

"Stay away from me."

Ye Qingpu shrank back in disgust.

"I'm changing your dressing. Do you want your leg to become useless?"

Without even raising his head, Pei Louxuan opened the medical kit and took out tweezers and gauze. His tone was matter-of-factly calm.

"Take off your pants."

"I'll do it myself."

As Ye Qingpu spoke, he reached for the tools in Pei Louxuan's hands, only for Pei Louxuan to grab his hand. His gaze darkened with displeasure.

"Can you stop messing around? Do I look like I'm joking with you? If you don't want to get hurt, be good and listen."

That look of his was what made Ye Qingpu most uneasy. Pei Louxuan was one of the few people Ye Qingpu could not be bothered to deal with and still found frightening. He instinctively pulled his hand back.

"I want to shower first."

With that, Ye Qingpu supported himself against the wall and got out of bed. Limping, he picked up the clothes that had been prepared beforehand and headed for the bathroom.

Pei Louxuan instinctively moved to support him. Ye Qingpu shot him a sidelong glance, his expression carrying its usual impatience.

"I told you not to touch me, didn't I?"

"Heh."

Pei Louxuan chuckled and let him go.