CH 69

This fever was due to the overuse of his glands and the mental stress and exhaustion he usually had, causing disordered glandular secretion.

The family doctor came by in the morning and hooked Lu Shangjin up with an IV bag and an energy shot.

When he woke up, Lu Shangjin habitually reached out to touch Yan Yi sleeping beside him, but his fingers only felt the cold bed sheets. He abruptly opened his eyes to find the back of his hand taped with medical tape.

Ever since dismissing the nanny, Lu Shangjin would personally prepare breakfast every day. He looked at the time; it was already nine o’clock. 

“Yan Yan.” Lu Shangjin put on his slippers and hurried downstairs where Yan Yi was frying eggs in the kitchen.

The eggs were skillfully fried until golden brown. Yan Yi concentrated on putting the eggs on the bread slices, then evenly sliced up a piece of ham, and tore a leaf of lettuce before shaking off the water droplets and piling it on. 

He rubbed his heels gently as he stepped on the soft suede slippers with his bare feet.

Through the glass door of the kitchen, Lu Shangjin stared at him dazedly with his hands hung by his sides. He unconsciously approached, touching Yan Yi’s lowered eyelashes through the glass.

Could time stop at this moment and stay still? It was also good to watch the moving gentleness through the glass.

When Yan Yi noticed him, he pulled open the door and walked out with two breakfast plates.  Lu Shangjin hurriedly received the plates and set them on the table, blowing on his fingertips that had been scalded by the milk.

“Are you feeling better? You made a lot of noise in the middle of the night.” Yan Yi came over and touched his forehead. Fortunately, his temperature had gone down.

“It was already 9:30 AM and I wanted to wake you up, but you looked a little unwell, so I took it upon myself to let you sleep. I don’t know if I had delayed any meetings.”

“No, there’s nothing going on at the company today, so I’m not going.” Lu Shangjin took the hand that was over his forehead and placed it on his cheek, “I had someone drive the car back yesterday and bring some vegetables along the way. I wanted to cook vegetable porridge for you this morning.”

He ate his breakfast clean from his plate and didn’t leave a single drop of milk left, just like a kid in kindergarten who wanted to please his teachers.

Yan Yi rested his cheek on his hand as he gazed at him.

“Is it good?” 

Lu Shangjin nodded his head repeatedly. As long as it was made by Yan Yi, even the most basic sandwich would be accompanied by a light sweet scent of milk-candy when it entered his mouth.

“…Do you like me that much?” Yan Yi stepped on the beam under the vintage chair, holding his elbows and asked with a smile, “What’s so special about me?”

Lu Shangjin bluntly blurted out, forgetting all the flirtacious tactics he had at his fingertips, “You’re very special. To me, you’re someone I can’t lose.” It was the raindrops and rainbows that descended on their teenage years.

Yan Yi smiled and shook his little rabbit ears, perplexed. Being emotionally pinned by high expectations made one feel more pressured.

Later, he didn’t have the heart to be troubled by these problems again. Lu Shangjin took his annual leave and took Yan Yi all around Europe to play. 

On the private plane on the return trip, Yan Yi looked intently at the travel photos taken by the photographer.

Lu Shangjin took him by the shoulders and looked with him, “You pick the one you like best, I’ll have it framed and hung in our bedroom. Then I’ll get a wall made in my study to hang up the photos.”

“Would it disturb your work?” Yan Yi smiled as he leaned against the hollow of Lu Shangjin’s shoulder. After flipping through the photos for a while, he yawned slightly.

“How would it? I’m glowing with energy just looking at you.” Lu Shangjin glanced down and kissed his hair, “Sleepy? Sleep then.”

Yan Yi was worried that he would make his alpha’s shoulder go numb from pressing against it for too long, but Lu Shangjin refused to let go, so Yan Yi had to lean on him and close his eyes.

His alpha was always releasing excessive amounts of soothing pheromones. Being wrapped around in it was like lying down on an eiderdown duvet, soft and warm. 

Lu Shangjin looked down at Yan Yi who was sleeping against the hollow of his shoulder. He gently pushed aside the little rabbit ears blocking his cheek and gazed at his peaceful sleeping face.

If only he hadn’t ever done anything to make Yan Yi sad. Even if Yan Yi were to be as estranged as this in the future, Lu Shangjin could pour the amended ways of his love into his arms. 

It was already nine o’clock in the evening when the plane approached landing. Yan Yi, woken up by a kiss, was covered with a thin blanket. Lu Shangjin didn’t want the bumpy landing to frighten the little rabbit.

Just after leaving the airport, Lu Shangjin frowned slightly and looked around. There was a sense of restlessness permeating the air.

He couldn’t help but tighten his grip on Yan Yi’s hand and quicken his pace towards the driver’s car.

“What’s wrong?” Yan Yi raised his little rabbit ears, carefully listening to the movement around him.

“There’s a smell of bedbugs.” Lu Shangjin opened the car door for him before going to the trunk himself to pull a silver suitcase out, then sat next to Yan Yi and shut the door.

The driver originally wanted to take them back to their new home, but Lu Shangjin glanced at his watch coldly and said to return to the villa first.

Feeling the subtle change of aura on his alpha, Yan Yi inched a little nervously towards the other side of the car door.

“Don’t be afraid, baobei.” Lu Shangjin pulled him closer and kissed the corner of his temple, “It’s okay.”

Yan Yi silently clutched Lu Shangjin’s lapel as a hint of oppressive narcissus pheromones transmitted into his glands. His body writhed in pain and he subconsciously wrapped his arms around his faintly aching stomach.

The all-black Bentley drove smoothly along the night highway. Lu Shangjjin leaned back against the seat and fastened the seat belt for Yan Yi, gently patting his shoulder to soothe him, as his left hand idly rapped against the steel buckle of the silver suitcase.

Lu Shangjin’s low voice broke the silence in the car.

“On the count of three, take the direction to the left and kill.”

The driver froze for a moment, but being used to hearing President Lu’s unquestionable demands, he subconsciously obeyed.

“One, two…”

The red target point had already shifted to the tire. 

“Three.”

With an ear-piercing screech, the high-speed Bentley sharply turned direction from the road and hurled out. A deep bullet hole was sniped out from the flat ground. 

“Baobei, wait for me in the car.” Lu Shangjin half-kneeled in the back seat as he held Yan Yi’s frightened white cheeks and soothed, “The glass on the car doors are all bulletproof, don’t come out.”

He then glanced at the driver, “Make an S turn and go forward, don’t stop even if there’s a red light.” 

The driver shivered and nodded.

Lu Shangjin jumped from the speeding Bentley, rolled twice on the highway and tumbled into the green belt. A sniper bullet landed close to his feet but only made a hole in the dirt of the green belt.

There was an office building a few hundred meters away. Lu Shangjin looked up at the rooftop of the building where a dark figure was collecting a gun, ready to flee.

Lu Shangjin pressed the buttons of all the elevators on the first floor and ran up the stairs.

By the time he reached the third floor, he had already dropped his suitcase and was carrying an assembled shotgun on his back and an MP433 in each hand. He flipped over the handrail of the stairs and flew upstairs with a row of Luger bullets in his hand.

When the sniper saw that all the elevators on the top floor had been called down, he knew that Lu Shangjin would block him in the stairwell, so he immediately dropped a steel cable outside the building and slid down quietly with the sniper rifle on his back.

At the fifteenth floor, he slowed his sharp descent in preparation for landing, but as he slid past a floor-to-ceiling window, the sniper locked eyes with the cold, awaiting alpha through the glass window.

Bang!

The exploding glass refracted irregularly in the moonlight in a blinding dazzle. Powerful arms crashed through the tempered glass and grabbed the sniper by the neck, ruthlessly yanking the man in.

So far, no species had been able to surpass the speed of the peregrine falcon’s accompanying ability “seize”, not even the M2 grade golden eagle alpha.

The golden eagle alpha struggled desperately as his neck was gripped by the iron pincer-like claws and pinned down onto a ground full of broken glass. Without a single word of nonsense, Lu Shangjin expressionlessly fired the gun against the serial number “PBB000099” on the golden eagle alpha’s throat. 

Anyone who lit up a red aiming point in front of Lu Shangjin should be prepared to be pounced on and killed by the peregrine falcon at that very moment.

The gunfire reverberated in the empty building. At the same time, the rising elevator just happened to stop at the fifteenth floor with a ding. 

The elevator doors slowly parted and a dense burst of bullets sprayed the opposite floor-to-ceiling windows, shattering the glass in all directions.

But they were surprised to find that there was no one there. 

Before the alphas who were ready to ambush him could get out, two smoke bombs were thrown at their feet, hissing and bursting out pungent smoke, and the visibility of the dark space was sharply reduced to zero. 

Lu Shangjin pressed the “close” button for the alphas who had yet to come out. The elevator door caught the muzzle of the shotgun in his hand, and the trigger was pulled three times in succession. When there was no more movement inside, he withdrew the muzzle and smashed the smoke alarm at the same time.

The elevator door closed tightly, and the room turned dark, but the look in Lu Shangjin’s eyes was distinctively clear. 

He leaned over the elevator and whistled softly, summoning the alphas that had wandered around looking for him.

Two MP433, with 18 bullets in his left hand and 17 bullets left in his right hand, shot towards the pitch-dark chaotic shadows with one shot between the brows.  

Three minutes later, Lu Shangjin flew downstairs and conveniently smashed the surveillance behind him.

The solid black Bentley was turning back from the intersection on the left.

“Why did you come back?! I told you to take him away!” Lu Shangjin hurriedly pulled open the car door, anxiously releasing soothing pheromones. The little rabbit must be scared, he had to coax him well. 

“Yan Yan, don’t be scared.”

Before the words were out of his mouth, he suddenly froze, facing the black muzzle of a gun right in front of him.

Yan Yi pointed his pistol at Lu Shangjin with a cold expression.

The eyes contained the melancholy of a twenty-seven-year-old widow.

“Yan Yan…it’s me…” Lu Shangjin stood outside the car in a daze. 

Glaring sparks flashed past Lu Shangjin’s eyes. He even forgot to dodge, dumbfounded, waiting for sharp pain and a bullet to fall on his body.

A scream came from behind. Lu Shangjin looked back and saw an alpha chasing behind him shot between the eyebrows, falling softly a few meters away.

The early spring night was still cold and biting. Lu Shangjin tightened his coat and found that the frost in his heart could not be warmed by clothes.

He had built a snow rabbit in winter, and no matter how carefully he took care of it, it melted away in the cold night of early spring.

Yan Yi blew on the muzzle, came out, and leaned against the car door. He lowered his head, lit a cigarette, and took a light puff, the cool smoke obscuring his eyes.

Yan Yi dusted off the ashes for a very long time.

“Jin ge, don’t you have anything to say.”