I love you

Ji Chi stayed close to Huo Jin.

He simply clutched Huo Jin's clothes and watched him drive.

To soothe Ji Chi, they had left the house just as dawn broke.

Huo Jin drove around the streets for two hours before finding a phone repair shop that was open.

Ji Chi got out and followed behind Huo Jin, gripping his hand tightly.

"Well." The shop owner had only just raised the shutter when he saw Huo Jin and Ji Chi approach. "Customers the moment I open. A lucky start to the day."

Huo Jin led Ji Chi into the shop. "Could you take a look? Can this phone still be repaired?"

He took out the phone with its shattered screen and showed it to the owner.

The owner glanced over and immediately frowned. "Young man, are things really that tough?"

Who still repaired a phone this badly damaged these days?

"Seriously, even if you paid me fifty yuan to recycle this, I'd have to think about it."

Ji Chi's expression changed at once, agitation crawling through his whole body.

Sensing his unease, Huo Jin tightened his hold on Ji Chi's hand.

He couldn't understand why Ji Chi was so fixated on it.

Because Ji Chi was wearing a pheromone-blocking patch, the owner didn't notice anything unusual about him.

"Is there really no way to fix it?" Huo Jin asked again.

The owner smacked his lips. "You two don't look that hard up."

Before either of them could respond, he continued, "It's not that it can't be repaired, but in this condition, buying a new one would be better value."

"The repairs would cost enough to buy another phone."

"That's fine," Huo Jin replied. "We'll repair it. There's important data on it."

The owner looked as though he had found a pair of suckers. "You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Fine, fine. Pay over here." He pointed to the payment QR code at the counter and muttered, "You really do meet all sorts."

"Come back the day after tomorrow."

Then he noticed Ji Chi staring at him resentfully. He had seen plenty of customers like this.

The owner chuckled. "Got something on the phone you don't want anyone seeing?"

"Don't worry. When we transfer files during repairs these days, all we see is code. We can't see anything else."

Huo Jin turned and gently rubbed Ji Chi's cheek, coaxing him. "We'll come back the day after tomorrow, okay?"

"Be good."

Ji Chi nodded unhappily.

Only after Ji Chi agreed did Huo Jin take him home.

In the car, Ji Chi's movements caught Huo Jin's attention.

Alarmed by what Ji Chi was doing, he immediately drew the car's privacy curtains.

"You little menace."

Huo Jin pulled over and caught Ji Chi's hand. "Behave yourself."

Ji Chi didn't listen at all. He leaned over to kiss him.

Huo Jin cradled the back of Ji Chi's neck and kissed his forehead. His cool red sandalwood scent soothed the lover before him.

"We're almost home. Be good."

He knew what Ji Chi wanted to hear now. Huo Jin leaned closer. "Stay still. I'll give you what you want when we get home."

Embarrassment and frustration rushed to Ji Chi's head at those words, deepening the flush on his face. Right before Huo Jin's eyes, he pulled Huo Jin's coat over himself.

Huo Jin's hand trembled slightly.

He drove a little faster.

Once they reached home, Huo Jin carried Ji Chi straight out of the car.

Ji Chi had grown clingy and did whatever Huo Jin told him.

Huo Jin carried him to the bed and pressed him down, his hand sliding up from Ji Chi's waist. "What am I to you?"

With his eyes half-lowered, Ji Chi said, "My... enigma..."

Huo Jin said quietly, "We're married."

Ji Chi said, "I know..."

Huo Jin stroked the side of Ji Chi's ear and asked hoarsely, "You never took it seriously, did you?"

Ji Chi rubbed Huo Jin's tightly furrowed brow. "I did."

A dull blade seemed to carve through Huo Jin's heart inch by inch. Ji Chi's attitude now left him struggling to breathe, too. Before meeting Ji Chi, he had never considered love. This was what he had wanted, yet it was also more than he could bear.

"But you don't treat me well."

Huo Jin bit Ji Chi in retaliation. "You don't treat me well at all."

"Mm..."

Even his alpha's moans sounded so beautiful.

"You're utterly wicked." Huo Jin's gaze flickered. He had brought all this suffering upon himself. He could blame no one else.

Ji Chi clutched the bedding, his eyes glistening. Once again, he sensed Huo Jin's sadness, the sadness he had suppressed for so long.

But he couldn't control the person he was at those times.

He would hurt Huo Jin.

Ji Chi cupped Huo Jin's face. Tears suddenly slipped from the corners of his eyes and fell onto the back of Huo Jin's hand, hot enough to burn a hole through his bones. "He's no good. Don't love him..."

"He's no good... don't love him..."

It sounded like both a reproach and a statement.

Ji Chi's words battered Huo Jin's heart.

He gripped Ji Chi's chin and kissed him fiercely.

"Mmph..."

A blaze swept through his frozen, sinking heart.

He could hardly tell what Ji Chi felt anymore.

Was it hatred or affection?

Ji Chi's lips grew slightly swollen beneath his kisses.

"I love you," Huo Jin said. "I love you."

The words he couldn't say while awake had to be spoken in a dream.

Ji Chi held him and told Huo Jin as though making a promise, "I'll protect you..."

Over those three days, Ji Chi did many things.

He cooked with Huo Jin, who praised him for doing a good job when he washed the vegetables.

If he ate a little more of his greens, Huo Jin praised him for that, too.

All he wanted as a reward was a kiss from Huo Jin.

They watched television together.

They bathed together and brushed their teeth together.

He listened to Huo Jin tell stories.

He followed Huo Jin without leaving his side for even a moment.

He wanted kisses, wanted to be held, wanted skin against skin.

Of course, he also caused trouble.

For instance, he made Huo Jin lose another file and was thoroughly punished afterward.

What Ji Chi said most often these days was, "Don't love him."

After hearing those words so often, Huo Jin grew numb to them. He rubbed Ji Chi's head. "It's so hard."

Huo Jin said it was so hard.

Ji Chi's chest hurt. He took Huo Jin's hand and pressed it to his chest, and Huo Jin leaned down to kiss him.

Traces of their lovemaking were everywhere in the house.

The living room, the sofa, the bathroom, the balcony, the storage cabinet by the door, the desk in the study, the kitchen island...

Ji Chi was loving him.

Within a false timeline, he smoothed away the scabs over Huo Jin's wounds, applied medicine to his injured hand, and stroked the fingertip that had once worn a bandage.

He even suggested going out, wearing a pheromone-blocking patch to visit the mall, watching the sunset by the sea, staying in that little room at Huo Jin's office, visiting an amusement park, going to places ordinary couples went on dates.

Ji Chi went on dates with him while he was in heat.

Huo Jin didn't want to take him outside, but Ji Chi refused to relent, leaving Huo Jin no choice but to give in.

An alpha's heat was highly likely to become unstable during the day, so Huo Jin only took him out at night. The amusement park glittered with lights, far more beautiful than he had imagined. The Ferris wheel turned and shimmered before them, and every ride was built in a riot of colors. Colorful light strips glowed in the darkness like a utopia from a dream.

Ji Chi also became less picky about food during his heat. The young master who refused to eat anywhere but upscale restaurants pointed at the amusement park's enormous spicy skewers and told Huo Jin to buy some.

Huo Jin pressed his lips together. "Can we eat when we get home?"

"No."

"What if they upset your stomach?"

Ji Chi stared resentfully at Huo Jin, who stood, went to buy them, and brought them back.

Ji Chi contentedly sampled two skewers.

He tugged Huo Jin along to ride the Ferris wheel.

After they got off, he reached into Huo Jin's pocket, pulled out a hundred-yuan note, and bought a pile of useless, ugly things sold at the park.

Huo Jin carried them and let him buy whatever he wanted.

"That cotton candy looks really good."

Huo Jin followed Ji Chi's gaze. People crowded around the vendor spinning cotton candy, and even the designs in the display case required waiting in line. "Do you want some?"

Ji Chi didn't say whether he wanted any. He only said, "That rabbit looks like the rabbit at home."

Huo Jin led Ji Chi to a bench and rubbed his head. "I'll buy it for you."

Huo Jin queued for half an hour before getting the rabbit Ji Chi wanted.

Ji Chi's eyes shone when the rabbit suddenly appeared before him. Through the gap between its ears, he looked at Huo Jin and gave him a bright, delighted smile.

Huo Jin's mood lifted, too.

Ji Chi broke off a little cotton candy and put it in his mouth. It was far too sweet.

He held the cotton candy out to Huo Jin. His apparent reluctance to eat it made the young master very angry. "Why won't you eat it?"

"Too sweet." Without Ji Chi, Huo Jin wouldn't even have snacks in his house. Accepting something new so suddenly wasn't a habit he could change overnight.

With the remaining cotton candy still in his mouth, Ji Chi leaned in to kiss Huo Jin's lips. "Try it."

Huo Jin tasted a distinctive sweetness.

It carried the fragrance of liquor.

"Is it good?" Ji Chi asked him.

Huo Jin's lips curved. Ji Chi had given him a cloud made of spun sugar. "Very sweet."

He kept watching Ji Chi's condition. In just a few hours, Ji Chi smiled more than he had in all the time Huo Jin had known him.

When he grew tired of playing, Ji Chi refused to get in the car, insisting that it smelled.

"It stinks."

Huo Jin said, "..."

"Then how are we getting home?"

"Crouch down," Ji Chi ordered.

Huo Jin crouched halfway, and a sudden weight settled on his shoulders as Ji Chi threw himself onto his back. "Carry this young master home."

Huo Jin let out a sudden, soft laugh. Supporting Ji Chi, he slowly stood. "All right."

The way home was long, stretching through several long streets, along avenues of plane trees and camphor trees. Huo Jin kept walking with Ji Chi on his back. The light shifted from brightness to darkness, then from darkness to a soft, milky white. The moon followed their elongated shadow as Huo Jin measured out every step beneath his feet.

Gradually, the person on his back stopped moving and fell quiet.

His warm breathing was comfortable and peaceful.

Only then did Huo Jin quicken his pace.

No one understood better than Huo Jin whether having or losing hurt more.

He was loved amid torment and remained clearheaded amid Ji Chi's kisses. Someone too rational couldn't fall into an illusion through desire. Joy lay in a pitch-black abyss, impossible to drag back into reality.

After carrying him back to their room, Huo Jin touched Ji Chi's forehead.

"You're such a good boy, my wife."

Ji Chi slept soundly against him, and Huo Jin kissed his forehead.

Another suffocating dawn was almost upon them.

He stroked Ji Chi's cheek, strands of hair curling around his fingertips with a faint tickle.

It's all right.

You said you loved me.

Everything from these past few days can keep me going a little longer.

A faint glow lingered as sunlight streamed through the window onto the young man's face. Ji Chi's long lashes fluttered several times.

When his eyes opened again, his cool gaze was dark and still, an impenetrable glacier.

This time, Ji Chi didn't lose his temper. He was calm, as though nothing had happened.

There was no emotion to discern.

And indeed, there was no emotion at all.

Ji Chi got up and showered, then ate the breakfast Huo Jin had prepared with the same indifference.

Halfway through breakfast, a friend called, and Ji Chi headed out.

Dark veins rose on Huo Jin's hand as he gripped his chopsticks. He asked gently, "Where are you going?"

Ji Chi looked indifferent. "Where else would someone like me go? Just the usual places for spoiled rich kids."

"It's not like you only met me yesterday."

Huo Jin set down his chopsticks. "If you want to go out and have fun, I can take you."

"Hmph." Ji Chi snorted disdainfully. "You'll take me? To drink tea in the mountains, or practice painting and calligraphy?"

After spending so much time with Huo Jin, Ji Chi had discovered a particular habit of his.

He liked practicing calligraphy.

He would stay alone in his room, sometimes for hours at a stretch.

He was hardly old, yet his hobbies were terribly old-fashioned.

Ji Chi left without looking back. "I'm not cut out for the things you cultured types enjoy."

When the front door slammed, Huo Jin was left alone in the enormous house.

Everything returned to its proper course.

The world was turning upside down, and so was love.

One day a week later, Huo Jin told Ji Chi he would be away on business for a few days.

Ji Chi acted indifferent, only asking for a few Pheromone Beads for his own needs.

These containers for pheromones could be bought anywhere. They were cheap and easy to use.

Huo Jin agreed.

On the fourth day, Huo Jin came back.

That evening, while getting ready to wash up, Ji Chi passed the sink and saw Huo Jin uncover his arm, which he had kept tightly concealed.

There were injuries on it.

They spread down from his forearm, bloody wounds everywhere. It was clear Huo Jin had changed his clothes before coming home.

When he saw Ji Chi approach, he immediately pulled his sleeve back down.

But the red of the blood was too glaring. Ji Chi had seen it clearly.

Ji Chi's eyes turned cold, his lips pressed tight.

He had said he would never reciprocate Huo Jin's feelings, and Huo Jin had never intended to let him find out about the injuries, so Ji Chi pretended nothing had happened.

Had it been anyone else, Ji Chi might have gone over and asked about it. But if it was Huo Jin, he never would.

He would not give Huo Jin even the slightest false hope.

Cooking with an injured arm was slow. Ji Chi did not know whether he had simply grown impatient with waiting, but he went straight out the door.

"I'm not eating today."

"It'll be ready in a moment." Huo Jin always spoke with such unhurried calm.

Ji Chi hated that unshakable composure of his more than anything. "I said I'm not eating!"

The door slammed thunderously.

Huo Jin turned off the stove, went to the living room, and rolled up his sleeve to apply medicine.

He wanted to get better sooner.

Another half month passed in the same cold indifference.

That afternoon had been perfectly ordinary until Ji Chi received a phone call and raced home like a madman.

His surging fury left him unable to control his Aggression Pheromone, which poured out wildly-!