Be good

Before Huo Jin could recover from that faint flicker of happiness, Ji Chi abruptly changed his tune.

"But I won't admit it..."

"Okay..." Huo Jin's voice was gentle, his tone a little brighter. "Now you can rest for a while."

"Get some sleep, okay?"

Ji Chi hugged the little rabbit and murmured his assent.

The pheromone concentration was enough for him to sleep well now.

Ji Chi's brows knitted as he heard the other man ask him a question.

"Where are you now?"

Ji Chi looked around and answered sullenly, "On the floor."

"Can you get up?"

Ji Chi tried to move. "Can't... get up..."

"Then once you can, go lie down on the bed, okay? The floor is cold," Huo Jin coaxed softly.

"No..." Ji Chi's voice was hoarse and weak. Everything he said carried an unconscious petulance.

"Be good. Go sleep on the bed." Huo Jin refused to indulge him.

Ji Chi suddenly gave a soft laugh.

Then he asked something completely unrelated. "Your voice... why does it sound so much like Huo Jin's...?"

"Talk to me for a while, okay...?" Ji Chi added.

Huo Jin sighed softly at his words, feeling both relieved and bitter.

Like Huo Jin. So a voice like Huo Jin's can keep you company?

Then why can't Huo Jin?

Ji Chi was muddled now. Perhaps he instinctively relied on everything about him.

Huo Jin indulged him gently. "Then go sleep on the bed, and I'll talk to you."

"If you don't behave, I'll hang up."

"I'll behave." As soon as Ji Chi said it, he got unsteadily to his feet and stumbled a few steps.

The next moment, he collapsed onto the bed.

"Huo Jin..." Ji Chi suddenly called his name.

Yet he still seemed to think the person on the other end was Gu Baizhou.

"I'm an Alpha..."

"I was born one."

Huo Jin's grip on his phone abruptly tightened. He asked tentatively, "You hate Huo Jin, don't you?"

"I hate Huo Jin..." Ji Chi's voice caught with a sob.

"Can't beat him."

Can't beat him?

What on earth was he thinking? Huo Jin challenged him. "Who says?"

"If you want to hit him, you can try sometime."

"He won't fight back." His soft voice carried a tender, lingering warmth.

Ji Chi gave a muffled whimper. "I'm scared of him."

"Why?" Huo Jin asked seriously.

"He likes me... that's what's so scary." Ji Chi's drawn-out voice lacked its usual sharpness, but hearing it still displeased Huo Jin.

"Then keep being scared." Huo Jin lowered his eyes, his tone turning contrary.

Ji Chi pressed his lips together, a little unhappy. "Can you tell me a story?"

In his daze, Ji Chi thought he liked this voice. It made him feel safe.

"What do you want to hear?"

"Embarrassing stories... about Huo Jin." Ji Chi answered quickly.

His mind was still a jumble, leaving him unable to untangle all the relationships he would have considered when lucid.

"No." The other man refused.

With that, Huo Jin went over to the desk in his office and flipped through a story collection.

"Want to hear The Little Knight and the Pine Prince?"

Ji Chi said, "No."

"Readings and Commentary on Household Governance?"

Ji Chi said, "No."

"Winter Night Hunt?"

Ji Chi said, "Don't want it..."

"Alpha Prison Law?"

Ji Chi frowned. "No."

Huo Jin rubbed between his brows. It really was especially hard to soothe an Alpha after he had been marked.

Whatever he wanted, he had to have it. Otherwise, he would never give up.

"Embarrassing stories about Huo Jin."

Ji Chi's eyes brightened slightly at that. "Okay."

Thank goodness...

Little brat.

Huo Jin let out a breath and began telling Ji Chi "embarrassing stories about Huo Jin."

Huo Jin glanced at the people passing outside his office and cleared his throat softly.

"When Huo Jin was seven, he fell into the filthy ditch outside his house. He climbed out covered in mud, and just as he reached the bank, a wolfhound showed up. He ran half a kilometer, then fell into another filthy ditch..."

Listening to the laughter from the other end of the phone, Huo Jin unwittingly smiled along, full of affection.

Tenderness rippled through his eyes. "You're laughing too loudly."

"Any more?" Ji Chi asked with a giggle.

Helpless, Huo Jin began another embarrassing story.

"When Huo Jin was ten..."

"When he was at school..."

Gradually, the breathing on the other end grew heavier, but whenever Huo Jin stopped, Ji Chi would groggily remind him to keep going.

"Don't hang up."

"Okay," Huo Jin answered earnestly. "I won't."

"I'll stay with you."

Ji Chi made a soft, sleepy sound, then closed his eyes with the little rabbit in his arms. Those potent pheromones could last for two hours.

Getting through three days would be difficult.

But they could ensure Ji Chi would not hurt himself again.

Even after Ji Chi fell asleep, Huo Jin did not hang up.

He listened to Ji Chi's faint breathing, unable to think about anything else.

Huo Jin stood, picked up his car keys and coat, and left the Research Institute.

Downstairs, he happened to see a security guard moving some things.

The guard stopped as soon as he saw Huo Jin. "Judge Huo, these are all things people sent you. There's no room left, so I was going to move them to storage and donate them all together later, as usual."

Huo Jin nodded slightly. As he glanced aside, he noticed a letter resting on top of the things in the guard's arms.

Seeing Huo Jin look over, the guard smiled. "This letter was written by the young man who came with you last time."

"I told you a few days ago that something had arrived for you. You said you didn't want it."

Huo Jin walked over and took the letter. "From now on, I want anything he sends," he said solemnly.

"Huh?" Surprise flashed in the guard's eyes before he immediately agreed. "Oh, yes, of course."

"Thank you." After thanking him, Huo Jin took the letter to his car.

Inside the car, Huo Jin opened Ji Chi's letter.

It was even more outrageous than he had imagined.

A perfunctory few lines, hastily scrawled:

[Greetings, Huo Jin:

My dad told me to thank you.

Message delivered.

Middle finger.

Respectfully, Ji Chi.]

Huo Jin closed his eyes briefly as he looked at the letter, each character nearly the size of a fist.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

It was obvious.

Ji Chi had been forced to write this letter.

Huo Jin folded it again. As he slid it back into the slightly tilted envelope, a fruit candy in a multicolored wrapper fell out.

The candy landed right in his palm.

Under the light inside the car, its colorful wrapper gleamed in five hues against his palm, warm and bright.

It was as though he had suddenly caught a rainbow.

Huo Jin let out a sudden laugh and slipped the candy into his pocket.

Ji Chi had given it to him.

In somewhat better spirits, Huo Jin leaned back in the car to rest.

He wanted to go to the gates of the Ji family's villa, but that was not what Ji Chi would want to see.

Through the phone, Ji Chi's steady breathing continued, neither deep nor shallow.

Huo Jin gazed at the brilliant lights outside the car. For the first time in his life, he did not know what to choose. Moving forward or backing away-either was wrong.

Two hours later, Ji Chi woke again.

Once the intense pheromones faded, he grew even more agitated.

The heat had woken him.

This time, he seemed to be reduced to nothing but instinct, everything else cast from his mind.

He was driven by the thoughts deep inside him.

Ji Chi's first thought upon opening his eyes was to find Huo Jin.

He had to find Huo Jin.

He wanted to stay by his side and never leave, not even for a moment.

Ji Chi was completely different from his lucid self now. He abruptly got up and, mustering all his strength, stumbled madly out of the room.

That rented apartment from last time.

No, that wasn't where he lived.

CE Laboratory.

That was where he worked.

Huo Jin...

Where was Huo Jin's home...?