Huo Jin's condition blew everything apart

Zhou Qi scratched his head, his scalp tingling.

His CPU had completely burned out.

After changing Ji Chi's shoes for him, Huo Jin straightened his trouser cuffs. "The food's ready. Go eat."

With that, Huo Jin stood and put the shoes Ji Chi had taken off on the shoe rack by the door.

Every bit of it shocked Zhou Qi.

One thunderbolt after another.

Zhou Qi tugged at the hem of Ji Chi's shirt. "Congratulations! You've tamed the Supreme Authority's youngest Wolfhawk Judge!"

"Do you have any idea how terrified the people at the CE Experimental Institute are of him? And he actually cooks for you and changes your shoes?"

"No one would believe me if I told them."

"What exactly does he like about you?" Zhou Qi declared with certainty, "There must be something extraordinary about you."

Ji Chi narrowed his eyes. What exactly did Huo Jin like about him...?

On reflection, Ji Chi wanted to know even more. "I'd like to know that myself."

Hearing his answer, Zhou Qi reconsidered. Suddenly, it struck him that Ji Chi showed absolutely no enthusiasm for Huo Jin.

"Don't tell me... you don't like him?"

That would make this even more fucking wild: the CE Experimental Institute's Chief Judge, driven to coercive crimes by unrequited love.

Ji Chi snorted, cold and aloof, too irritated to answer.

Zhou Qi understood even more clearly.

Got something on you now! Hahahahaha!

Zhou Qi laughed out loud.

"Go eat before the food gets cold." Seeing Ji Chi looking at him strangely, Zhou Qi stopped smiling and urged him on.

At the mention of food, Ji Chi's stomach growled right on cue.

He looked toward the dining table. Huo Jin had already served the rice.

"You're not eating?"

Zhou Qi rubbed his stomach. "I think someone like Huo Jin only cooks for the person he likes."

"So... there definitely isn't any for me."

A trace of confusion crossed Ji Chi's face. "So you're hungry?"

Zhou Qi immediately started complaining. "Yes! He wouldn't even let me make instant noodles! He's seriously out of line!"

As they spoke, Huo Jin came to the edge of the sofa. His words were directed at Zhou Qi, his detached tone carrying a hint of dismissal. "You can leave now."

Zhou Qi clutched Ji Chi's shirt hem. "See? He's kicking me out."

He stood with his head high and his chest out. "Get yourself a wife and forget your buddies!"

He picked up his jacket as he spoke. "Don't ask me for help next time."

Zhou Qi knew when to make himself scarce, but he still stormed out.

Once the door closed, only Ji Chi and Huo Jin remained in the spacious room.

The atmosphere grew delicate.

"What are you looking at?" Ji Chi asked haughtily.

He rose and walked up to Huo Jin, his gaze lingering with languid weariness. "Slut. Had your fill yet?"

Huo Jin's breathing remained steady. As Ji Chi approached, his thick, long lashes fluttered twice in quick succession.

Ji Chi stood before him with his arms folded, looking less like he was insulting him than venting on his own.

Huo Jin lowered his gaze, his expression calm, a slight curve forming at his lips.

He was certain Ji Chi was putting on an act.

If he moved closer, Ji Chi would definitely retreat.

Huo Jin lifted his eyes with languid, teasing reproach, slowly and enticingly, then took a step forward.

Sure enough, Ji Chi stepped back.

So cute.

Ji Chi rubbed the hem of his shirt, his gaze beginning to dart away. Huo Jin took in every bit of his guilty bravado.

"Didn't you come closer so I could look? Why are you backing away?"

Ji Chi rubbed his nose. When he raised his eyes, he was still haughty. "Who the fuck's backing away?"

Huo Jin hummed. "Let's talk."

He had wanted to go find Ji Chi, but Ji Chi hated him and wanted no closeness with him. Doing too much would only deepen that hatred.

Since Ji Chi had been willing to come, whether willingly, under pressure, or simply out of resignation-

There were things they could sit down and discuss properly.

"Of course." Ji Chi lifted his chin. "That's what I came to talk to you about."

"We're not children. There's a solution to everything that leaves everyone as comfortable as possible."

Huo Jin looked toward the dining table. "Eat first."

Ji Chi readily accepted. He went to the table, where Huo Jin had prepared three dishes, all to his taste.

When Huo Jin sat down across from him, Ji Chi picked up his bowl and began eating without standing on ceremony.

He had eaten nothing since leaving home, and he really was hungry.

After finishing, Ji Chi looked straight at Huo Jin.

"Who goes first?"

Huo Jin handed him a glass of warm water. "You first."

Ji Chi raised his brows, stood, and opened the combination-lock case he had brought.

He took out a thick stack of documents.

He tossed them to Huo Jin, just as he had back in the shared rental.

Huo Jin shifted his gaze, revealing no confusion, entirely composed.

"A contract," Ji Chi reminded him coldly.

Huo Jin's eyes fell on the paper contract. "What is it this time?"

Ji Chi's expression was bland. He had reached the point of throwing all caution to the wind.

His voice was flat. "A contractual arrangement, a cohabitation agreement, temporary partners, a transaction of the flesh, an emotional pursuit-call it whatever you like."

Before coming, Ji Chi had hired a private lawyer to draft this contract. Whatever happened, he needed absolute control.

Sitting across from Huo Jin, Ji Chi turned the contract around for him to read. "You marked me because you wanted to see whether I'd fall for you, didn't you?"

"I'll give you that chance."

A faint ripple passed through Ji Chi's light brown eyes. Arrogance seeped from his very bones, as though he had never considered the man before him worth his attention. "But I can still tell you clearly: I will never like you."

"From now on, I'll accept everything good you do for me."

"But I won't give you anything in return, because I don't like you. I hate you, and I have no desire to be good to you."

Ji Chi did not even watch Huo Jin's expression. Everything revolved around himself. "What I'm saying might hurt you, but you deserve all of it."

"This is the price you should pay for marking me."

Every word Ji Chi spoke carried a sharp, honed edge, searing and piercing to the bone.

"There are so many Alphas in the world. The last thing you should have done was set your sights on me."

He was utterly indifferent as he said it.

Perhaps he had thought about it too much, for too long, and speaking it aloud stirred little emotion.

Huo Jin did not answer. He merely watched Ji Chi quietly.

His emotions were hidden in an abyss, a pool of darkness no one could glimpse into.

Ji Chi tapped his knuckles silently against the table.

They rose and fell. Now that he had thought it through, his heart was no longer restless.

Contempt crossed his cold face. "You're an Enigma. You could have countless Alphas falling over themselves to beg you to fuck them, but I will never be one of them."

"Three years is too long. Maybe you won't like me anymore in two months. Or perhaps a little longer-half a year."

"My life will be miserable then, so let's sign a contract."

"While you're still interested in me, I can negotiate terms with you."

Ji Chi truly believed what he said. Love-what a ridiculous word. Unwavering devotion, supporting each other through hardship: those things existed only in dreams, only in fictional novels.

Huo Jin rubbed the contract paper hard between his fingers.

It contained over a thousand conditions.

During the contract period, Party B would cook, wash the dishes... and handle all household chores.

Party A would determine the distance maintained between them.

During heat, all obligations of a partner would be fulfilled...

The contract would last three years.

During that period, Party B could not back out for any reason or abandon Ji Chi.

Under no circumstances could suppressive pheromones be released to subdue Ji Chi.

No actions overstepping the boundaries could be taken without Ji Chi's consent...

Huo Jin lifted his eyes without even reading the rest. "I agree."

Before Ji Chi could express his surprise, Huo Jin changed tack. "May I have a condition?"

Ji Chi's eyes flickered. If Huo Jin negotiated terms with him, he would be the one with no right to refuse.

Huo Jin was an Enigma. In their relationship, Huo Jin was the one who truly held control.

Lin Jun had told him.

You could want someone for his exceptional talent.

You could want someone for his ability to teach and nurture others.

You could even want him for wealth and money you did not possess yourself.

You could want anything.

But you could not stake everything on someone's affection and love when you could not be certain of them in the present.

If one day he stopped loving you, or met someone who moved him more than you did-

You would be left with nothing. That was the eighteenth level of hell.

Only the one who fell in love would lose.

He was the winner.

He had witnessed Ji Shengming driving Lin Jun away. Back then, he had been too young to understand much.

Looking back now, "pitiful" could not begin to describe what Lin Jun must have felt.

The weak never had a choice.

He refused to be controlled.

Nor did he need to be controlled.

Ji Chi probed warily. "What condition?"

Huo Jin's voice remained gentle as his hand stroked the paper. "Not a single clause in your contract benefits me. Even if I sign it and regret it later, I can still invoke the absolute fairness provision to request a new ruling."

Ji Chi's fingertips tightened, his Adam's apple bobbing as nervousness crept in. "You can add whatever you want."

Hearing that, Huo Jin took his high-level Supreme Authority identification out of his pocket.

He laid it on the contract, his long fingers beautifully proportioned and sensual.

"I want us to get married."