I hugged you countless times in my dreams

That day? Which day?

It was already this late. Could they please stop talking...

"Why did you go to the hospital?" Huo Xingye asked again.

Because I was afraid I was pregnant.

The word "pregnant" burned his tongue, and Nan Zhou couldn't bring himself to say it. Besides, he was so, so, so sleepy, so he said, "Go to sleep. Your mind's already twisted enough. At least keep your body healthy."

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, he sank into a sweet dream.

In the darkness, listening to the soft breathing beside him and tracing the contours of the face before him over and over with his gaze, Huo Xingye chuckled softly and reached out, drawing him into his arms in satisfaction.

The instant their bodies touched, the missing piece inside him seemed to be filled, fitting together without a gap and soothing the agitation of the past several days.

For a short time after being marked, an Omega who left their Alpha would feel insecure, uncomfortable all over, and might even struggle to sleep.

But in fact, Alphas experienced something similar. Their intense possessiveness would plunge them into restless agitation.

Over the past few days, whenever he had a break from work, Huo Xingye would take an air taxi specifically to spend some time downstairs from Nan Zhou's apartment.

Even though he couldn't touch him or even see him, he would feel a little better.

In front of others, Huo Xingye had behaved no differently than usual, but only he knew that his emotions were teetering on the edge, and that the things he was doing were practically at rock bottom, morally speaking.

He had even hired a private investigator to keep Nan Zhou under surveillance twenty-four hours a day.

Fortunately, aside from going out for a magazine shoot, Nan Zhou had spent all his time holed up at home without so much as stepping outside.

Never mind other Alphas-even his Beta manager rarely saw him.

Other Alphas...

The photographs of Nan Zhou with the famous photographer Lu Bei that the private investigator had sent him earlier surfaced before his eyes.

With Lu Bei looking like a dog wagging his tail, Huo Xingye didn't need to think to know what was on his mind.

A ruthless glint flashed through his eyes.

Picking up his phone, Huo Xingye found his manager Luo Nan and sent him a message. "I remember the most popular contestant in the first episode gets a shoot for a top magazine?"

"Bro, you're still up?" Luo Nan replied quickly, but his response had nothing to do with the question.

He couldn't really be blamed, though. After watching the livestream all day, Luo Nan felt completely numb.

At first, he had only watched to find out what on earth Huo Xingye was up to, along with some nosy curiosity about what kind of person Nan Zhou really was.

But the more he watched, the more shocked he became.

His artist was way beyond simply liking the guy, damn it! He was practically a dog with a meaty bone, licking it and guarding it from everyone else.

Other people might not know, but how could Luo Nan not?

Those intimate gestures, that obvious protectiveness, and that excessively gentle tone...

Luo Nan felt like an absolute clown.

After working together for so many years, he hadn't managed to get into his artist's heart at all, enough for him to open up and be his truest self.

The more this clown watched, the calmer he became. By the end, he had even started shipping them a little.

Whatever else could be said, Nan Zhou really was talented. Even he had applauded "Breaking Dawn" after hearing it and couldn't wait to add it to his playlist.

Who would have imagined that Luo Nan, a renowned top-tier manager in the industry, had spent most of his day watching a dating show?

When Huo Xingye covered the camera lens, he was just like the other viewers, left wanting more. He had even wanted to message Huo Xingye and ask whether tonight was going to be rough.

With the Omega he liked just a few meters away, it would be hard for any Alpha sound in body and mind not to want to do something, right?

"That's what the contract says. Why are you asking, bro?" Luo Nan asked.

Gossip was gossip, but he still had to do his job properly.

"Tell Pei Feng to get Lu Bei specifically for the shoot," Huo Xingye instructed.

"Lu Bei? You know what he's like. Unless he wants to do it, no amount of money will necessarily get him to," Luo Nan replied.

"He'll want to. Just tell him the subject is Nan Zhou."

"Huh? Bro, this is a two-person cover shoot."

This time, Huo Xingye didn't reply.

As a seasoned manager, Luo Nan could already process any attitude his artist threw at him on his own.

He consoled himself that Huo Xingye was probably having a rough night. Alone late at night with the Omega he liked, able to look and fantasize but unable to touch-it was perfectly normal for him to be in a bad mood.

What Luo Nan didn't know, however, was that after putting down his phone, his artist gently patted the Omega in his arms, who had nuzzled his chest, and happily withdrew the tiny traces of coaxing pheromones mixed into his soothing pheromones.

Immersed in a lovely dream, the Omega had no defenses up at all. Following his instincts, he reached out and hugged his Alpha tight, curling up almost entirely in his arms.

The Alpha's soothing pheromones and warm embrace were enough to give him a comfortable night's sleep.

Late that night, the guests went to bed one after another, and the first day's livestream of the first episode of "You Make My Heart Flutter" drew to a close.

But the excitement on Weibo continued.

Topics related to Huo Xingye and Nan Zhou in particular generated an astonishing amount of discussion. Their shippers had already swiftly set up a shipping super topic and were going wild inside it.

Livestream screenshots, clips, and even fanfiction and fan art had all appeared.

"I hugged you countless times in my dreams, just for you to say 'hold me tight' in the snow."

A beautifully edited video was posted in the super topic. Themed around a secret crush, it mixed footage from Huo Xingye's films with content from the livestream to tell a story from Huo Xingye's perspective about secretly loving Nan Zhou.

It opened with the scene of Nan Zhou riding the electric scooter and asking Huo Xingye whether he was cold, followed by Nan Zhou forming a group with Lu Zhou and their various interactions within the group. Interspersed with Huo Xingye's superb performances in various films, it vividly looked as though he was struggling in agony as he watched the person he liked fall for someone else.

Then came Lu Zhou's widely known statement and Huo Xingye's anger. At the end, the two met again in the livestream, and on the electric scooter that snowy night, Huo Xingye asked Nan Zhou to hold him a little tighter.

The final frame froze on Nan Zhou hugging Huo Xingye tight that snowy night.

The video was only a little over a minute long, but its seamless, perfectly natural editing, paired with a song about a secret crush, quickly earned hundreds of thousands of views.

Shippers flocked to the comments below. "Just say the word, creator, and we Xingzhou fans will immediately back you as the producer of Huo Xingye's next movie!"

The edit became so popular that it even made the trending searches, pushing the buzz around Huo Xingye and Nan Zhou's pairing, along with "You Make My Heart Flutter," up another notch.

Many casual viewers who hadn't watched yesterday's livestream asked when it would begin, planning to head into the stream to enjoy the ship and judge whether it was really worth shipping!

And so, at eight the next morning, the moment the livestream opened, even more people flooded in than at the start of yesterday's broadcast.

[Hurry up! I want to see what Huo Xingye did behind our backs!]

[Who ended up sleeping on the couch? Place your bets, no changing them!]

[What, wasn't the stream supposed to start at eight? It's already eight thirteen. Why hasn't it started? I'm dying here!]

[Pei, what's going on? Do you not want this massive flood of traffic?]

[Sister Jiang next door has already finished her makeup and is eating the breakfast God Xu made. Even Young Master Zhang, who got naughty with Gu Tang last night, is back from his run. Why is there still no sign of life in this stream?!]

[No, the camera's on. The towel's just still hanging over it...]