Afraid Huo Jin would change his mind, Ji Chi nodded vigorously. "I heard you loud and clear!"
"I'll go back and prepare the detailed documents right away!" Tiny stars seemed to shimmer in Ji Chi's eyes as he spoke, surprise mingling with disbelief.
If Huo Jin had agreed to take another look, that meant there was still a chance.
Noticing the change in Ji Chi's expression, Huo Jin gave a calm hum of acknowledgment. "If I still refuse in the end, what will you do?"
Ji Chi raised his eyes to meet his. "Go to the media."
Huo Jin rejected that. "That option is off the table."
With that, Huo Jin headed straight out of the private room.
Ji Chi suddenly caught his sleeve. That small movement made Huo Jin stop again.
Ji Chi tightened his grip. "I know all it would take is a word from you."
"We'll take full responsibility for what happened."
"But I hope that after you've read all the documents, you can... give Boshen a chance."
After saying that, Ji Chi let go of Huo Jin.
His heart was in turmoil. The warmth of Huo Jin's clothes still lingered on his fingertips, as intimate and exposed as their fingers intertwining.
Huo Jin suddenly turned and approached him. Ji Chi took a step back.
"Are you afraid of me?"
"O-of course not."
He was certain that if Huo Jin released his pheromones now, fear would rise from deep within him.
An Enigma marking an Alpha was just like an Alpha marking an Omega.
He was the dominant one, the one in control.
There was no room for argument or resistance.
A single look from an Alpha could make his Omega tremble with fear.
The same was true of an Alpha marked by an Enigma.
All this time, Ji Chi had only been able to hide his dread and anxiety behind a forced front.
He was afraid of being suppressed.
Afraid of being suppressed by Huo Jin.
Huo Jin looked down at him without blinking, closing the distance between them.
Why did he have to come so close?
"Don't..." The word slipped out almost instinctively. With no context, no one could understand what he meant. Even Ji Chi startled himself, clamping his mouth shut as his fingertips trembled.
Don't what?
What are you afraid of, Ji Chi?
His disguise was built from all the trappings of his status and background.
The lofty position Ji Chi had been born into gave him a measure of confidence.
Pampered and privileged, he placed Huo Jin on the same level as himself.
But that only held true when the other man was quiet and gentle, when he wasn't releasing pheromones.
Ji Chi hated the feeling of being dragged down from his lofty position.
His fingers clenched abruptly.
When he caught the chill-laden Cold Purple Sandalwood scent of those pheromones, Ji Chi's heart beat a little faster.
He had said a little too much just now.
He thought Huo Jin would warn him.
But the Cold Purple Sandalwood pheromones drifted gently around him, calm and soothing, bringing comfort and pleasure.
They weren't suppressive pheromones.
They were type A pheromones meant to soothe.
There was no denying it.
His frantic emotions were smoothed down, and his whole body sank into soft clouds.
Ji Chi liked this scent.
Every cell in his body loved it, right down to the strands of his hair.
He didn't just like it. He had missed it terribly.
Compared with standing beside Huo Jin now, the pheromones on the rabbit Huo Jin had given him...
It was the overwhelming difference between a handful of clear spring water and a surging ocean.
Before, there had been far, far too little.
Now, there was so much, almost overflowing.
The cool sandalwood scent flooded fiercely through every part of his body.
He no longer had to keep pressing that rabbit scented with Huo Jin's pheromones to his nose because of his insomnia, sniffing it again and again, seeking more.
Ji Chi's heart pounded hard.
He didn't know why Huo Jin had suddenly released pheromones to soothe him.
He liked this scent, but hated the fact that he liked it.
He and Huo Jin needed to stay apart.
This was a relationship Ji Chi dreamed of severing.
Huo Jin shouldn't release pheromones to soothe him. It would make him crave more.
Craving wasn't affection. It was this world's deceitful way of casting a spell.
Ji Chi stared blankly at Huo Jin.
I don't want... to stay here any longer. Ji Chi's pale eyes darkened. He refused to fall into the abyss.
Suddenly, Ji Chi shoved Huo Jin away and ran out of the room.
Ji Chi ran fast.
He didn't need it.
That rabbit could get him through three years.
There couldn't be any more entanglements.
If he breathed in too much of pheromones this powerful...
The pheromones on that rabbit would become a mere drop in the bucket.
He wouldn't be able to live.
He wouldn't be able to make it through...
After reaching the ground floor, Ji Chi ran aimlessly for another stretch.
In the end, he didn't even know where he had stopped.
Ji Chi leaned against a wall, drained of strength, his entire body weak.
Having fled the range of the pheromones he loved only made him more restless and irritable.
He drew deep breaths of the outdoor air. It was scorching hot, offering no comfort at all.
The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.
Ji Chi didn't check it. Then it buzzed several more times.
Ji Chi took out his phone and unlocked it. They were WeChat messages from Huo Jin.
Huo Jin: Sorry about earlier.
Huo Jin: I only meant well. I didn't know it would upset you.
Huo Jin: Are you home?
Ji Chi gripped his phone so tightly that faint veins stood out on his hand.
He didn't know how to answer Huo Jin.
An Enigma could sense his partner's emotions.
Huo Jin probably really had meant well.
Ji Chi had no reason to blame him.
Nor could he bring himself to say he hated the scent of Huo Jin's pheromones.
Ji Chi typed a few words in reply, then turned off his phone.
Ji Chi: I'm home.
Ji Chi: I'll bring the documents over tomorrow.
He had just put his phone away.
Just then, a couple appeared beside the wall Ji Chi was leaning against.
They were arguing heatedly.
They had started arguing the moment they came out of the maternity and baby store.
One was an Alpha in a suit, the other a gentle-looking Omega with neatly lying hair.
What caught Ji Chi's attention was the Boshen Group employee badge hanging around the Alpha's neck.
He worked for the Boshen Group.
"We can have another baby. Why do you have to be so stubborn?" The Alpha's tone was harsh as he shouted, throwing his hands out.
The Omega behind him clenched his fists, his eyes reddening. "But the doctor said that if I don't keep this baby, it'll be very hard for me to get pregnant again..."
The Omega gazed pleadingly at the Alpha before him, tears brimming in his eyes.
The furious Alpha stopped and turned to look at the Omega behind him.
His expression turned vicious. "Very hard doesn't mean impossible. Who are you putting on that face for?"
The Omega was frail, but he still insisted, "I want this baby..."
"I don't!"
"My career is taking off right now. You'll hold me back, do you understand?"
The Alpha flew into a rage, his pheromones suddenly bursting out with ferocious intensity.
They bore down on the Omega before him.
That invisible force descended like a mountain, crushingly heavy, leaving his Omega weak and his eyes swimming with tears.
In an instant, the Omega crumpled to the ground, his almond-shaped eyes shining with tears.
Large tears rolled down the Omega's face. His voice choked with sobs and the distress and heartache of being suppressed by his Alpha. "I don't have the right to choose, do I?"
"Of course not!" the Alpha snapped viciously.
Listening to their exchange, Ji Chi couldn't describe how he felt.
Pheromone suppression was rooted in their very blood.
The weak could only obey.
Ji Chi had once witnessed what happened when Lin Jun talked back to Ji Shengming.
Ji Shengming had angrily released his pheromones to suppress him.
His father wouldn't allow his Omega to disobey him, much less disagree with him too often.
Lin Jun wasn't allowed to talk back.
Simply because Ji Shengming was an Alpha.
Ji Chi was terrified.
Before Huo Jin, he was utterly powerless.
If Huo Jin treated him the way this Alpha did...
He would have no way to fight back.
Ji Chi took a deep breath, his pent-up frustration finding no outlet.
He strode toward the Alpha and Omega who had come out of the maternity and baby store.
Ji Chi planted himself directly in front of the Omega, looking at the Alpha with restrained anger.
"What kind of fucking man are you?"
Because Ji Chi rarely went to the company, the Alpha didn't recognize him. He glared at Ji Chi.
"Who the fuck are you? Got a death wish?"
As he spoke, the Alpha moved to attack Ji Chi.
Ji Chi grabbed the employee badge hanging around the man's neck. "Boshen Group, Publicity Department A Team. Bai Yao."
Ji Chi tightened his grip on the badge, his voice chilling.
"Sorry to inform you, but you're fired."
Bai Yao looked furious, as though he had just heard some ridiculous joke. "Are you fucking insane?" He was about to get promoted.
"You need to be taught a lesson, you fucking lunatic!"
With that, Bai Yao clenched his fist and swung straight at Ji Chi.
Ji Chi had been looking for someone to vent all his pent-up frustration on.
He was an S-rank Alpha, capable of suppressing most ordinary Alphas.
With a B-rank Alpha like Bai Yao, he could have him begging for mercy and fleeing from sight in a matter of moments.
But Ji Chi didn't release his pheromones to suppress him.
His emotions were far too restless and agitated.
Suddenly, Ji Chi wanted to savor the satisfaction of each punch striking flesh.
After dodging one of Bai Yao's punches, he grabbed Bai Yao's collar and punched him. "Do you fucking deserve to be an Alpha?"
Ji Chi had been in more fights than he'd eaten meals. An Alpha who spent his days working barely had a chance to fight back.
"Do you deserve it?" Ji Chi roared.
The next instant, a punch snapped the Alpha's head to the side.
Thud!
"Ah... motherfucker! Ah!... Ah!"
"Aaah!"
Ji Chi's punches had no aim; he was just venting his frustration. In the end, he pinned Bai Yao to the ground and kept hitting him. "Thud! Thud! Thud! You fucking idiot!"
"Ah! ...Ngh..." Bai Yao had long since lost the strength to fight back.
The omega standing nearby didn't dare step in.
Ji Chi punched the alpha on the ground again and again, until he couldn't get a single word out.
After he stopped, Ji Chi felt a sudden, sharp pain in his cheekbone, just below his eye.
Only then did he realize that Bai Yao's ring had scraped his face.
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