The third F

As Ji Chi stepped back, he suddenly heard a soft chuckle.

He turned and stepped backward. The next second, the lovely scent of cold purple sandalwood enveloped him.

Huo Jin walked up behind Ji Chi and took the spatula from his hand. "If I'd come back any later, would you have burned my house down?"

Huh?

Ji Chi's eyes instantly lit up.

Huo Jin was back.

Hearing that familiar voice, Ji Chi turned around, his bristling expression inexplicably soothed.

Looking at the black smudge on Ji Chi's nose, Huo Jin couldn't fathom where soot had come from in this open-plan kitchen.

He raised his hand and touched the tip of Ji Chi's nose.

Ji Chi flinched, his throat dry and his heart giving a sudden leap. Before he could react, Huo Jin had withdrawn his hand.

"Hungry?" Huo Jin asked.

Ji Chi made no attempt to hide it. "A little."

Seeing Huo Jin head toward the stove, he added, "A lot, actually. A hell of a lot."

The corners of Huo Jin's lips lifted almost imperceptibly. "Got it."

He looked at the beef Ji Chi had prepared on the cutting board. "Want this?"

Ji Chi's voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "Mm."

Huo Jin glanced sideways. "There's too much cooking smoke here. Go outside. I'll call you when it's ready."

Ji Chi turned and went to the living room.

The young master acted like this no matter who waited on him.

It was strange how Huo Jin's cooking always suited his tastes so perfectly. "Did you put a spell on this food?"

Huo Jin wanted to laugh. After a pause, he said, "It's because I put a lot of care into making it."

Holding his chopsticks, Ji Chi grew uncomfortable again. Huo Jin was anything but wooden. He seized every opening to show himself off, a peacock in heat.

"Make it taste worse next time. I'll look ugly if I get fat."

"You won't look ugly."

Before he had finished speaking, Ji Chi slapped the table. "Who calls the shots in this house? You have to talk back to everything I say."

Huo Jin raised a hand to cover half his face, unable to stop his lips from curling. He was just too cute.

Only when Huo Jin stopped responding was Ji Chi satisfied, and he thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

Stars filled the night, and the two of them still slept together.

Ji Chi deliberately waited for Huo Jin to fall asleep first. Only when he figured Huo Jin was asleep did he go into the bedroom.

He couldn't do without Huo Jin, yet desperately wanted to stay away from him, so he lived in that awkward contradiction.

In the bathroom, Ji Chi looked at himself in the mirror. The gland on the side of his neck disgusted him.

If not for this mark, he wouldn't be living like this.

Perhaps he would have married and had children within three years, or accepted the business marriage his father arranged. Either way, he would still have been exceptional, still thriving.

Not here, constantly fearing absolute domination, guarding against unfamiliar feelings, and worrying about changes that might come at any moment.

Ji Chi went to the bedroom and gently pushed the door open.

Even so, Ji Chi always remained utterly cold until he fell asleep, but once asleep, he sought out that sense of security.

During the latter half of the night, Ji Chi almost always slept peacefully in Huo Jin's arms.

When Ji Chi got up the next morning, he smelled food. A few drops of blood had fallen onto the kitchen floor.

Following the trail upward, Ji Chi saw Huo Jin's cut hand.

He must have cut it on a sharp fin while preparing the fish. Huo Jin had simply put on a bandage and turned around as though nothing had happened. "I saw you mention fish congee while chatting with your friend yesterday, so I bought a fish this morning. Give it a try."

Ji Chi was a little angry. What he hated most was being pandered to, and Huo Jin accommodating him and giving to him out of affection disgusted him even more.

He glanced at the congee in the clay pot, his voice chillingly cold. "You don't need to try so hard to please me. I'm not what you think. I'm not someone who develops feelings for a person over a few little favors. I told you, I won't fall for you."

"Your first priority is to treat yourself better. Stop degrading yourself for me."

"Don't do things just to move yourself. Let's follow the contract. We can eat together when we can, and fuck when we're supposed to. You don't need to care so much about my feelings in other areas. I don't like it, either."

After saying it, Ji Chi felt he had gone too far. No one had the right to judge another person's feelings, but he didn't take his words back. He hated Huo Jin doing these awful things that might possibly make him fall for him.

"I don't have much of a life when I'm alone. Since you're living with me, I'll be more considerate of your feelings. I'm not asking you to return anything. Don't be angry." Huo Jin accepted Ji Chi's sudden bad temper and soothed him gently.

Huo Jin brought the congee to the table, then took out two slices of toast. "If you don't want it, have this."

Ji Chi sat down at the dining table. He didn't touch the fish congee Huo Jin had served him. He ate one slice of toast, drank a glass of milk, and left.

In the end, the entire pot of congee went into the trash.

Huo Jin stood in the living room for a while, then tidied up and went out.

When he checked his phone that afternoon, Ji Chi had updated his Moments.

[Chi-Chi: Come out for drinks. Don't keep me waiting.]

Huo Jin rubbed his phone, then finally left a comment: Honey, when are you coming home?

A while later, Ji Chi replied: Stay out of my fucking business.

Ji Chi: Don't call me that!

Staying out all night was nothing unusual for Young Master Ji. Huo Jin wanted to get used to it, but he wanted to rein him in even more.

Ever since they had become entangled, Huo Jin had wanted to rein him in.

Cruel methods were out of the question, and he couldn't bear to suppress him. Suddenly, he understood the saying that feelings got in the way-and made people utterly stupid.

Huo Jin sent Ji Chi a message: I'll pick you up after work.

Ji Chi: Who asked you to?

Huo Jin: You're my Alpha now.

Ji Chi: I'm your fucking grandpa!

Huo Jin: Send me the address before I finish work. I'll be angry if I don't get it.

Ji Chi laughed: What does you being angry have to do with me?

When no reply came for a while, the young master, already drinking, grew a little uneasy. What the fuck kind of tactic was this now?

Huo Jin actually dared not to reply to his messages?

And threaten him?

What could he possibly do?

"He can do plenty!" An explosive slap on a table came from the noisy crowd behind him. The words connected directly to Ji Chi's thoughts, startling him so badly he nearly dropped his phone.

Ji Chi swallowed and typed into the chat again: What happens when you get angry?

Huo Jin: I'll be sad.

Fuck, was Huo Jin sick in the head?

Saying he would violently suppress him would have been more effective at a time like this, but he was still playing the devoted lover. How ridiculous.

At eleven that night, Ji Chi felt utterly sick of the dazzling nightlife and heady scent of alcohol around him. The young master liked drinking when he was upset, and today clearly hadn't been pleasant.

When he opened his phone, the screen was still on his chat with Huo Jin.

The last message was still Huo Jin's.

[I'll be sad.]

Ji Chi stared at it for a long time.

Huo Jin's face kept popping into his mind.

So gentle, so handsome.

Another surge of inexplicable anger rose. Ji Chi gripped his phone, held down the voice-message button, and suddenly erupted. "What the fuck does you being sad have to do with me? What gives you the right to control me? Who are you putting on this act for? Fuck off!"

"I'm not coming back tonight. Kill me if you've got the guts."

Ji Chi was drunk. After sending the voice messages, he curled up in the corner of the private room's sofa and closed his eyes in a daze, feeling deeply unsettled.

He didn't know what he wanted to do, or where he wanted to go.

After everyone dispersed, Ji Chi staggered to the roadside. Drained of strength, he clutched his clothes and sat down on the curb.

He received a message from Lin Jun.

Dad: Are you with Huo Jin?

Ji Chi squinted: No.

Lin Jun: If you don't dislike him, you'll feel more comfortable staying near him.

Ji Chi replied without hesitation: I do.

Just as the message was sent, a shadow fell over Ji Chi's head. He looked up and saw the very man he disliked. Darkness pressed down, while soft light wrapped one side of Huo Jin's face, revealing a little fine down. He was so flawless he looked like an artificial rendering.

His gaze fell on Ji Chi's phone, and the first thing he saw was that expression of dislike.

"It's too late. I'm here to take you home." Huo Jin's eyes trembled slightly as he looked away from Ji Chi's phone screen. The bitterness lingering deep within them would not fade.

But he had long since grown up, past the age when unhappiness and sadness had to show on the surface.

Ji Chi felt he hated him even more.

He had never wanted to meet Huo Jin.

Never.

Ji Chi slowly stood up. "Get out of my way."

Huo Jin didn't move.

Ji Chi walked past him, went a dozen meters down the road, hailed a car, and got in without hesitation.

The car sped away. Huo Jin's car was parked beside the spot where Ji Chi had caught his ride.

He recognized that car, and knew why Huo Jin had come.

Huo Jin watched the flickering taillights ahead, then withdrew his gaze. He walked to his own car and stood there for a while, smoking a cigarette by the roadside before opening the door and getting in.

Ji Chi liked smoking. Huo Jin had no such habit. He had tried it, and there really was nothing good about it.

The car door closed, and the atmosphere inside turned cold. A very small bouquet lay on the passenger seat.

He had bought it for his Alpha.

When he got home, Huo Jin placed the flowers in a vase.

After washing up, he returned to the bedroom. Ji Chi was already asleep.

The house had little warmth, because Ji Chi was always so cold.

Wrong, Huo Jin thought again.

Huo Jin lay down beside Ji Chi and smelled the lingering alcohol.

Ji Chi was already asleep.

He rolled over in his dreams, his breath brushing Huo Jin's lips.

"Chi-Chi," Huo Jin called.

At that call, a smile curved Ji Chi's lips in his sleep, growing ever deeper.

He was having a lovely dream.

Emotions blossomed through the darkness, fractured and contradictory. Once his thoughts rearranged themselves, dreams and reality became impossible to distinguish.

Young Master Ji didn't pay him much attention. One day, because he had no car, he asked Huo Jin to pick him up. Huo Jin waited downstairs at Boshen for a full three hours, only for Ji Chi to tell him to go back.

"Forgot to tell you. I had to leave on a last-minute business trip."

Huo Jin didn't know whether it was a prank.

Perhaps it was.

Ji Chi really hated him, so he liked making him suffer.

Day followed day, like quicksand pouring backward.

Ji Chi's attitude toward Huo Jin could only be called cold. Unless something required it, he never took the initiative to say an extra word to him.

He also often stayed out with his disreputable friends until midnight.

When Huo Jin spoke up, he brushed him off by saying the contract couldn't restrict his freedom.

Still a bastard, still self-centered.

As though he were telling Huo Jin that they didn't belong in the same world.

The bird that loved freedom most felt someone had bound its wings.

He wanted to beat those wings even harder. Even if they bled, even if bare bones showed, he never once thought of compromising.

And it only grew worse.

Every day, Ji Chi wanted to escape this way of living.

As though he could only be free by leaving Huo Jin.

Or perhaps he had come here precisely so he could leave.

On the seventeenth day after Ji Chi moved in, he brought another divorce agreement.

When he tossed the agreement to Huo Jin, he was so indifferent it seemed to have nothing to do with him.

"This agreement takes effect in three years. I've already signed it."

"After three years, sign it whenever you want."

Look, he had planned every escape route.

He left not the slightest hope.

Huo Jin believed he understood at least a little of Ji Chi.

He looked at the divorce agreement in his hands and simply answered gently, "All right."

He stood and put the agreement into the bedside cabinet.

"Let's eat." At last, there was a slight shift in Huo Jin's voice. It was no longer quite so gentle.

But his tone remained mild.

Ji Chi was satisfied with Huo Jin's attitude. He liked leading others around by the nose. That had always been one of the perks power brought him.

The two of them ate. Today, Huo Jin didn't put any food on his plate.

That day, Ji Chi went to Boshen. Ji Shengming had asked him to oversee a project involving a new Suppressant. For Lin Jun's sake, Ji Chi went, and ended up working overtime for half a month.

Once the prototype was ready, Ji Shengming asked him to take it home.

When he left the company, his car happened to have been hit and towed to a repair shop. It wasn't far anyway, and seeing that Ji Shengming was in quite a hurry, Ji Chi simply took the item and left.

As he reached a narrow lane in the industrial district, Ji Chi realized he was being followed.

The road was pitch-black and uneven from ongoing construction. Ji Chi had never expected to run into robbers.

They were concealing their pheromones, making it impossible to sense their ranks.

Five or six men carrying weapons appeared in front of him. Ji Chi instinctively shielded his experimental sample.

They gave Ji Chi no chance to speak, charging straight at him with vicious intent. When their pheromones spread, his heart lurched. Every one of the burly men before him outranked him.

S-rank Alphas were already rare among ordinary people, and most of those ranked higher served the country. Several S-ranks appearing at once was terrifying enough. Anyone faced with this situation would have turned and run.

Ji Chi spat out a curse, spun around, and bolted.

He had barely run a few meters when another four or five burly men appeared directly ahead.

"Fuck." Ji Chi feared nothing, but replacing his experimental sample would be no easy matter.

"What do you want?" His gaze was icy as he watched them warily. Through his clothes, he pressed the button for his emergency number.

His emergency number connected to his company and automatically transmitted his location. Someone should arrive within five minutes.

The men surrounded and attacked him, paying no attention whatsoever to the sample in his hands.

They carried knives, and several strikes came close to piercing Ji Chi's skin.

Ji Chi suddenly realized.

They weren't after what he was holding.

They wanted his life!

Panic surged through Ji Chi. He couldn't even beat Zhou Qi alone, and every one of these men seemed just as skilled. He was at their mercy.

"Who sent you?" Ji Chi ran through his enemies. None of them had the resources to send so many high-ranking Alphas after him at once.

"You don't get to ask." As the leader answered, he kicked at Ji Chi.

Ji Chi dodged, only for another man's dagger to stab toward the back of his neck. As he ducked away, the sample nearly slipped from his hands, making him panic even more. He grabbed one attacker's collar and drove his knee into the man's throat, then kicked another in the chest as he lowered his leg!

"Aah!"

The kick sent the man stumbling back several meters.

When the Alphas unleashed all their suppressive pheromones, Ji Chi began to struggle visibly. Once again, he felt the irresistible force of rank suppression in this world.

A sudden wave of dizziness struck him.

Someone seized Ji Chi's head and slammed it viciously into the wall.

His ears rang as though seawater were flooding into them. He felt warm liquid trickle down his forehead. His brains felt almost shaken into mush.

"Motherfuckers! If I don't kill you, my name isn't Ji!" It fucking hurt.

Blood kept streaming down his face. Ji Chi's breathing grew much heavier, and his heartbeat quickened. Reckless as he was, he had never actually encountered anyone so determined to kill him.

He would have been lying if he said he wasn't nervous.

Suddenly, someone pinned both his shoulders. A dagger flashed before his eyes, its cold, sharp gleam making them ache.

"Do it." The voice was horribly sinister, as though it had crawled out of hell.

Ji Chi leaned back. The knife before him drew closer and closer, its edge touching his face in the blink of an eye.

Ji Chi could hear his own heartbeat clearly. Veins bulged on his forehead as several men held him immobile. No one could have faced that feeling without fear.

Ji Chi closed his eyes.

"Aah!" Suddenly, an agonized howl erupted beside his ear. The Alpha in front of him grimaced. "Aaargh!"

An invisible presence soothed his anxiety and fear.

Ji Chi caught the scent of Huo Jin's pheromones.

Then came the roar of the Supreme Authority's responding vehicles.

He opened his eyes to find Huo Jin standing before him. Before he could get a clear look, Huo Jin kicked two thugs aside, seized the lead Alpha by the throat, and slammed him against the nearby wall. His viciousness made it seem as though he intended to skin the man alive.

Bang! Dust burst from the plaster, and the man's chest jolted violently.

"Aaargh!"

The sirens were close now. Ji Chi vaguely heard weapons being cocked. With Huo Jin standing in the corner of his vision, all his lingering fear vanished in an instant. Even his tightly clenched hands relaxed.

"Get out!" someone shouted. The men scattered. Huo Jin kicked one to the ground, hauled him up, and threw him together with the Alpha pinned against the wall toward Zhou Qi, who had just arrived.

Zhou Qi was still panting, his hands braced on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. "Did you fly here? How were you so fast? Phew..."

"Don't let a single one escape." Huo Jin seemed not to hear Zhou Qi at all. He issued the order while staring coldly at the lead Alpha.

Suddenly, he kicked the man in the stomach again! His gaze made the man's throat constrict in sheer terror.

"Within two minutes, pull every surveillance recording within a two-kilometer radius."

"Disarm them all and take them to the Supreme Authority for investigation."

"Keep this out of the news."

"Yes, sir."

"These men may have no registered identities. Find their real identities as quickly as possible. I'll interrogate them one by one."

"Yes, sir."

"Shall I have someone take the injured man to the hospital?" Seeing that Huo Jin still hadn't mentioned Ji Chi standing nearby, a staff member respectfully raised the question.

The situation was brought under control within minutes.

Ji Chi listened to Huo Jin issue order after order. His cool, decisive manner held none of the gentleness he usually showed Ji Chi. It was as though this was his true self, stern and precise, cutting straight to the heart of matters as he moved through every dark night. This was the Judge Huo the world knew. Ji Chi's head hurt so badly that he didn't realize how long his gaze had lingered on Huo Jin.

"Judge Huo?" the Alpha respectfully called again.

Huo Jin came back to himself, some of the darkness fading from his eyes. He looked at Ji Chi. "No need. I'll take him to the hospital."

Not only the Alpha who had spoken looked shocked; every other Alpha clearing the scene paused as well. Zhou Qi alone turned away, stifling a laugh.

Of course Ji Chi knew what Zhou Qi was laughing about. He walked over and punched him with his bloodied fist. "What the fuck are you laughing at?"

"Sorry, sister-in-law."

Everyone: ???

Sister-in-law?

Huh???

Everyone called Zhou Qi their big brother. Whose spouse could he possibly call his sister-in-law? There was only one person in all of Jiang City.

Huo Jin.

Judge Huo had a wife?! ((;°Д°))!!

The smell of blood had faded somewhat. The Supreme Authority's staff were exceptionally disciplined and professional, so no matter how excited they were, they couldn't show it. The atmosphere grew strangely awkward, their burning curiosity forcibly restrained.

Judge Huo!

That was Judge Huo's wife.

Ji Chi felt even more mortified now. He held his head, wishing he could vanish from the world. Suddenly, warmth encircled his wrist. He looked up to find Huo Jin holding it.

"Come on. I'm taking you to the hospital." Huo Jin wasn't asking, and his tone allowed no argument.

Ji Chi tried to shake his hand off, but couldn't. At home was one thing; outside, he didn't want anyone holding his hand.

"I can walk myself."

Huo Jin didn't react at all. Perhaps he hadn't heard.

Once they were in the car, its interior light made Huo Jin's terrible mood even more apparent to Ji Chi. He had saved him today, so Ji Chi had no intention of arguing with him.

Huo Jin stayed with him throughout his treatment at the hospital.

Ji Chi was used to being independent. He had always thought a grown man needing company at the hospital was terribly fussy, but he didn't send Huo Jin away.

Ji Chi's excuse was that he had no strength left to talk.

After they returned home with his wounds bandaged, Huo Jin went out again. This time, however, he returned within half an hour. During his absence, Zhou Qi stayed at Huo Jin's home.

Ji Chi found it strange. It felt as though Zhou Qi was protecting him.

Sitting across from Ji Chi, Zhou Qi said, "Hey, aren't you already living with Judge Huo? Why do you still act like strangers who barely know each other?"

"Who were those people today?" Ji Chi went straight to what he wanted to know.

He kept feeling that things weren't that simple.

Zhou Qi concealed the sharpness in his eyes and brushed it off. "Oh, don't worry about it. A bunch of antisocial types. Who could possibly know what they were thinking?"

Zhou Qi smiled. "Luckily, you weren't hurt. Don't walk alone at night so much from now on, all right?"

Ji Chi's thoughts slowed. Antisocial types?

Hadn't Jiang City always been pretty safe? Since when had there been so many lunatics? Just remembering their eyes was enough to keep him awake at night.

"I'm pressing charges. I won't let a single one of them off." Having an antisocial personality meant they could just kill people because they were crazy?

Zhou Qi answered, "They're implicated in quite a few cases, and the Supreme Authority has taken over. You won't get much by asking, but rest assured, the Supreme Authority will give you an answer."

Ji Chi clenched his fists in frustration. If their actions were connected to some series of cases kept confidential from the public, he really wouldn't be able to get answers. Thinking about it further would only irritate him. He frowned. "Where's Huo Jin?"

"Oh, you do care about him." Zhou Qi raised his eyebrows, immediately seizing the opening.

"You have no idea how worried Judge Huo was just now," Zhou Qi said animatedly. "He came racing over on his motorcycle. Someone blocked him on the way, and the bike got wrecked. At the hospital, he didn't even have his own injuries checked. He only cared about you. He really likes you so much."

Ji Chi glanced at Zhou Qi.

"What?"

"Shut up." Ji Chi grew impatient. "Did he ask you to speak for him?"

Zhou Qi froze. "You don't even know that much about him?"

Ji Chi looked at the coffee table before him and said nothing more.

However little he knew him, he knew Huo Jin wasn't that sort of person.

"Look, I just don't get it. What exactly isn't good enough about Judge Huo?" Zhou Qi wasn't merely saying it. He was genuinely puzzled and couldn't understand why.

What Alpha could reject a partner like Huo Jin? Power, money-he had everything anyone could envy. He was gentle, considerate, and attentive toward his lover, respected by others, and exceptionally handsome.

No matter what happened, he should never have ended up being looked down on. And the other man was only an S-rank Alpha. That was rare in ordinary life, but Zhou Qi saw outstanding people who outranked Ji Chi every day at the Supreme Authority. In his eyes, Ji Chi really wasn't in a position to turn his nose up at Huo Jin.

"I just don't like him. So what?" Ji Chi stared coldly back at Zhou Qi.

Ji Chi kept turning his water glass in his hands, then abruptly stood and walked away in irritation.

A tangle of thoughts swept over him. He had indeed smelled blood on Huo Jin earlier.

Idiot.

Running out again without even getting bandaged.

Ji Chi went onto the balcony and smoked two cigarettes.

Before long, Huo Jin returned home. After exchanging a few words with him, Zhou Qi came over to say goodbye to Ji Chi, giving him a wink along the way. "I'll leave you two alone."

After he left, everything grew quiet. The clock's ticking was clearly audible.

Ji Chi took out another cigarette and prepared to light it.

Just as it was about to touch his lips, Huo Jin walked over and took it from his hand.

Ji Chi looked up in surprise. Strangely, he wasn't angry.

His gaze moved to Huo Jin's knee, then quickly withdrew.

"Can I ask about those people?" Ji Chi said.

"Not right now."

Ji Chi gave a quiet snort. "You changed my emergency contact to yourself."

His tone was accusatory. Huo Jin didn't deny it. "Yes."

"Don't touch my things without permission again."

Ji Chi studied Huo Jin, his gaze landing on his leg once more. Seemingly out of nowhere, he asked, "You're hurt?"

"It's nothing." Huo Jin sounded unconcerned. In turn, he asked Ji Chi, "Were you scared earlier?"

"No." Ji Chi felt a little awkward. "Rein in your pheromones." They had been like this ever since he came inside. The living room was practically saturated with the scent.

Huo Jin nodded gently. "Are you hungry?"

Ji Chi didn't deny it. When he saw Huo Jin enter the kitchen, he followed on his own. He watched Huo Jin prepare the entire meal.

He never managed to say thank you.

What was different was that Young Master Ji lowered his head and placed the finest-looking piece of braised pork in Huo Jin's bowl.

Two months passed quietly like this.

As he had said he would, Ji Chi gladly accepted all of Huo Jin's kindness.

But he never reciprocated.

Huo Jin also accepted all of Ji Chi's coldness.

Neither situation was particularly good.

Ji Chi counted off the days on his fingers.

One day, two months later.

Ji Chi entered his third heat since being marked.

At three in the morning, only the bedside lamp glowed a dim yellow. Ji Chi woke from the heat, the pheromones beside him so faint he couldn't smell them.

He woke in a state of agitation. Opening his eyes, he saw Huo Jin holding him in his arms.

Every thought was obliterated by sensations magnified a hundredfold.

Ji Chi reached toward Huo Jin's waist.

Huo Jin opened his eyes and held Ji Chi's head, veins rising on his powerful hand as his grip tightened. He called in a muffled voice, "Chi-Chi."

Ji Chi looked up at Huo Jin, his eyes shimmering, his wavering voice drawn out and hoarse. "Huo... Jin..."

"Touch me."

He tugged at his own clothes. "Kiss me..."

As he spoke, Ji Chi pushed himself up and kissed Huo Jin. The moment his tongue touched Huo Jin's, his parched body awakened with desire.

Tentative possession, frenzied obsession.

"Huo Jin... I'm in heat..."

Huo Jin held Ji Chi's waist, slick with a fine sheen of sweat. Looking into those flushed, sultry eyes, he watched his Alpha ask for intimacy once again.

Ji Chi leaned down to kiss him.

Again and again.

Huo Jin's hand slid along Ji Chi's lower back and beneath his clothes, touching his lover's scorching skin. "What do you want to do now that you're in heat?"

Ji Chi moved closer to Huo Jin. "Lick me."

Three hours later, Ji Chi lay sprawled over Huo Jin, holding him close.

At that moment, Ji Chi's memories had become strange.

He knew what he was thinking and remembered everything that had happened between him and Huo Jin, but what occupied most of his mind were all the things he had done to hurt Huo Jin.

He had ignored Huo Jin when he was injured, had not even glanced at the congee Huo Jin had spent hours cooking, had walked away so quickly and left Huo Jin behind when he came to pick him up, had made Huo Jin wait downstairs at his company for hours until he finished work. Every word he had said to Huo Jin had been so cruel.

What he remembered most clearly was smashing Huo Jin's phone.

Huo Jin had been so upset.

His eyes had been so red.

Ji Chi could not understand why he had smashed Huo Jin's phone.

All he knew was that his Enigma was deeply hurt.

He did not want to hurt Huo Jin.

A thin sheen of sweat covered Ji Chi's forehead. His voice was quiet and low, tinged with distress. "I smashed your phone..."

An Alpha in this phase was irritable and hard to soothe.

The more Ji Chi thought about it, the more his heart ached. He caught Huo Jin's hand and choked out, "Can we go get it fixed?"

"Get it fixed..."

"Once it's fixed, you won't be sad anymore..."

Huo Jin had not expected Ji Chi to bring this up so suddenly. He stroked Ji Chi's hair. "It's all right. I'm not sad."

"You're lying..." Ji Chi shifted on top of Huo Jin. "Are you really not sad?"

Huo Jin gently stroked Ji Chi's cheek.

The bitterness he had swallowed was laid before him again, raw and bleeding, painful and hard to bear.

Why was it like this?

Why could he only have a true partner when Ji Chi was in heat?

A lover who could make him feel warmth.

He held Ji Chi for a long time.

His fingertips roamed over Ji Chi's body, kneading his waist until it burned.

"Huo Jin..."

"I am sad," he said.

Huo Jin stopped hiding it. He gazed at Ji Chi in the utter darkness and said, "I'm very sad."

A faint, smoldering hurt lingered in Huo Jin's eyes, deep and searing. "So don't give me too much when you're like this."

"You'll take it all away when you're clearheaded."

"I can get hurt too."

Huo Jin's throat felt as though it were coated in sticky blood, the pain piercing his bones like a lingering needle.

Ji Chi looked straight at Huo Jin, cupping his face. "Can we go get it fixed?"

"Let's... go get it fixed..."

As he spoke, Ji Chi started to get up. It was not even light outside yet.

No matter what, he insisted that Huo Jin go get the phone repaired.

He had become unusually fixated. He did not want Huo Jin to be sad, not even a little.

"It can't be fixed." Huo Jin's voice was very soft. "It's all right."

"As long as you're still here, I'm not so sad."

Feeling Huo Jin's presence, Ji Chi's wavering eyes visibly stirred, and he suddenly moved sharply.

He shook his head silently. "It can be fixed..."

"It can be fixed."

The irritability was real.

So was the difficulty of soothing him.

Huo Jin could do nothing about it.

Unable to bear the sight of Ji Chi so upset, he agreed.

"All right." Huo Jin kissed the tip of Ji Chi's nose. "We'll go get it fixed."

Although Huo Jin tried to soothe him many times, telling Ji Chi that they could not go out right now, he still insisted on getting that broken phone repaired.

It was like an obsession.

As though things would turn out just as he imagined, and Huo Jin would no longer be sad once it was fixed. He treated the phone as Huo Jin's broken heart.

Because Ji Chi insisted, Huo Jin finally took him out.

"Put on a blocker patch." Huo Jin took out a pheromone-blocking patch and coaxed him.

Ji Chi nodded obediently and tilted his neck.

He was so well behaved.

And so obedient.