Love Is Instinct

Because it had been a prop to begin with, even though the blow had lacked force, it had not hurt Shen Ranxin too badly. It only left a neither-light-nor-serious scratch across his back.

But Lu Zhi could clearly sense the change in Shen Ranxin's breathing.

His pheromones spread out in an instant. Shen Ranxin patted Lu Zhi's shoulder, signaling for him to put him down.

Lu Zhi pinched Shen Ranxin's gland. "Sorry..."

That NPC had lunged too quickly, and with how dim it was in here, Lu Zhi had not been able to block the claw in time.

Shen Ranxin took a breath, both hands at his sides clenching into fists hard enough to crackle.

The people outside the manor soon heard a wave of miserable, earth-shattering cries erupt from inside the haunted house.

Gu Yifei's pretty face was full of concern. "Is it really that scary? Shen Ranxin is screaming like that? Maybe we should let him out. Poor thing..."

Fang Yu hugged his three-day Lovers' Island travel voucher and hissed. "No, why does this sound a little off to me? It doesn't sound like just one person?"

"Could Lu Zhi have been scared into screaming too?" Gu Yifei said gleefully. "Such a coward. What an embarrassment to Alphas!"

[Baby, don't be so hypocritical. Shen Ranxin screaming because he's scared makes him pitiful, but when it's our President Lu, it means he's disgracing Alphas?]

[Gu Yifei, wake up! That's Shen Ranxin! Did you forget the time he was holding a spatula and trying to smash open your skull?!]

[Little Gu is way too easy to manipulate. Shen Ranxin treated him so terribly at first, yet one cup of ice cream was enough to fool this hopeless romantic away.]

[Baby, why don't you quit this dating show? Of all people, you had to fall for Shen Ranxin. Look at the people around him. As a silly pretty face, you can't compete with them!]

[Baby, please, Shen Ranxin really can't be our son-in-law. We can't out-argue Cheng Cheng's fans, and we don't have President Lu's money power either, baby!]

Gu Yifei's fans were practically shouting themselves hoarse in the comments, all urging him to turn back before he ran into the brick wall that was Shen Ranxin.

After all, Gu Yifei had always been heaven's favored son. Even though he sang terribly, plenty of fans had paid for his face and bought him a place in the music industry.

It could be said that everything had gone smoothly for him all the way. He had never encountered much hardship.

Then, the moment he joined a dating show, he ran into Shen Ranxin!

It would have been fine if he were only acting, but judging from the way Young Master Gu was genuinely worried, he clearly truly cared about Shen Ranxin!

Cheng Cheng, who had been standing silently to one side, heard the howls from inside the manor and turned to the team doctor with a grave expression. "Shen Ranxin has lost control. I need a sedative."

The team doctor froze. "We don't have any..."

Why did every single one of these people want sedatives?

Did they really think that stuff was a good thing?

Cheng Cheng frowned. "If there are no sedatives, blockers will do. In any case, I need something that can make an Alpha calm down."

The team doctor paused, then pulled a bottle of blocker from the medical kit beside him. "Use this. Spray it at an Alpha once, and he will definitely be unconscious."

Cheng Cheng grabbed the blocker and rushed into the manor.

Meanwhile, inside the night-vision footage, the manor had already descended into chaos.

Shen Ranxin was dragging a prop chainsaw, raising it with a vicious grin as he chased a fleeing NPC.

The NPC burst into tears. "Bro! Bro, I know I was wrong! Stop chasing me, bro!"

Shen Ranxin did not listen at all. The chainsaw roared as he laughed. "Why are you running? Don't go. Weren't you having so much fun just now? Now let me have some fun with you!"

Nothing in the chainsaw's path escaped disaster. Shen Ranxin stomped various props to pieces and dragged the chainsaw after them in furious pursuit. "Stop right there! I'm going to chop you all to death today!!"

The NPC fleeing desperately ahead had never felt that going to work could be this terrifying!

Shen Ranxin looked more like a vicious ghost than any actual ghost. Under the haunted house's atmospheric lights, he looked fucking insane.

In short, he was terrifying.

The NPC was so frightened that he scrambled away with his head in his hands. He failed to see a prop beneath his feet and tripped, crashing to the ground. Before he could react, pain shot through his lower lip, the taste of blood flooded his mouth, and something fell out of it, bouncing three meters away.

[Fuck... this counts as a workplace injury, right?]

[Sure, that staff member was wrong to scare Shen Ranxin first, but Shen Ranxin is going too far. And does he look even a little scared now? He must have been pretending the whole way in, right?]

[That staff member didn't do it on purpose, did he? Scaring guests is literally his job... Shen Ranxin's retaliation is way too much!]

[When they first went in, Shen Ranxin's fear didn't look fake. Didn't you see him curled up like a quail egg? The staff member was the one who couldn't read the room. He can scare others, but others can't scare him back?]

The comments were arguing fiercely, but Shen Ranxin knew nothing about it. He let out a long breath, chuckled softly, and slowly walked toward the NPC with the chainsaw raised.

Having worked in haunted houses for so many years, the NPC swore this was the most terrifying sight he had ever seen.

Just as Shen Ranxin raised the chainsaw to bring it down on him, a pair of hands reached out from the darkness and gripped Shen Ranxin's wrist.

"Ranran." Lu Zhi's voice fell beside Shen Ranxin's ear, and the steady, powerful heartbeat returned to his hearing. "Don't be afraid. It's okay."

Shen Ranxin froze, seemingly unable to process it right away.

Lu Zhi's pheromone scent gradually reached his nose. His deep voice carried a soothing warmth. "Don't be afraid. I'm here. Shen Ranxin, can you see me? I'm Lu Zhi. I'm your Zhizhi. I'm with you... You don't need to be afraid."

Shen Ranxin's fingers loosened, and Lu Zhi easily caught the chainsaw as it slipped from his hand. As though he had finally let out a breath, Shen Ranxin swayed twice and staggered one step back.

Lu Zhi caught him by the waist and pulled him into his arms.

Shen Ranxin pressed his forehead against Lu Zhi's neck, and the muscles that had been taut throughout his body miraculously began to relax.

Lu Zhi held him. The person in his arms was trembling slightly, his entire body soaked through with cold sweat.

He had not been like this before. Lu Zhi stroked the back of his neck, his heart aching in countless tiny stabs.

How much pain had he endured during those five years apart to build walls around his heart in such an extreme way?

When Cheng Cheng arrived with the blocker, this was what he saw.

Shen Ranxin had gradually calmed down in Lu Zhi's arms.

Cheng Cheng had long expected that Lu Zhi could soothe Shen Ranxin when he was in a manic state, but seeing it with his own eyes still filled him with bitterness.

The doctor had said that perhaps only the person Shen Ranxin trusted most deeply could give him that precious sense of security.

When Cheng Cheng had first brought Shen Ranxin back, Shen Ranxin had fallen into this state more than once over those five years. Yet Cheng Cheng's pheromones had never been able to soothe him in the slightest. Only sedatives or blockers could forcibly make Shen Ranxin calm down.

But Lu Zhi had appeared for less than a month, and he had already surpassed all of Cheng Cheng's efforts and companionship over those five years.

Even though Cheng Cheng had already resorted to every means to make Shen Ranxin forget Lu Zhi.

Cheng Cheng realized sadly.

Shen Ranxin's dependence on Lu Zhi might not have anything to do with whether he remembered Lu Zhi.

It was more like an instinct carved deep into his subconscious.