CH 76

Warning: torture 

Lu Shangjin embraced the slightly trembling little rabbit tightly, sitting cross-legged on the bed, and his hand, stained with soothing pheromones, held his cheek and rubbed behind his ear. 

“I scared you, didn’t I?” Lu Shangjin lowered his head and loosened Yan Yi’s tightly clenched fist, moving it to his heart, “I won’t hurt Yan Yan in the future. Don’t be afraid of me.”

Yan Yi was just a little rabbit who had learned to disguise himself to be as cold and unfeeling as a human. He was easily startled and was also timid; he didn’t dare to do anything, but was willing to do anything for Lu Shangjin.

Yan Yi’s hands were placed on his belly, and his tense breathing finally calmed down a little. Gasping lightly as he leaned against the crook of Lu Shangjn’s shoulder, his cold sweat wetted the tips of his hair. 

“I want to be an alpha,” the pale lips opened and closed. Yan Yi tilted the corners of his lips with difficulty and said softly, “So I wouldn’t be so weak.”   

“You’re not weak.” Lu Shangjin caressed him patiently, “You’ve marked me, haven’t you? You also drew me Tuzki. If you’re happy, you can draw another one tomorrow.”

Yan Yi bit his lips, his ears suddenly filled with heat, flushing red as they hid into his hair. 

“Do you want to bite me again?” Lu Shangjin bent down to kiss his lips and said with a chuckle, “Let you be an alpha when you’re with me.”

He guided Yan Yi to divert his attention and also deliberately avoided touching his belly again when he was not paying attention to not startle him. 

The alpha’s voice was low and pleasant, like the smoke of a cigar whirling around his vocal cords, carrying a sticky muted tone. 

Yan Yi failed to avoid the kiss and nervously clenched his teeth, but realized that Lu Shangjin only gave him a peck on the lips.

When Yan Yi’s emotions were completely relaxed, Lu Shangjin took him into his arms to sleep, patting his back like he was coaxing a child, while keeping the concentration of soothing pheromones unchanged all night.

There was a meeting early in the morning, so Lu Shangjin didn’t have time to eat with Yan Yi after preparing breakfast so he left a note on the table.

When Yan Yi woke up and went downstairs, he picked up the sticky note on the table which had three lines written on it: respectively instructing him to warm the breakfast up, saying he couldn’t come back in the afternoon as he had matters to attend to, the assistant will deliver lunch, he can only eat the fruits cut-up in the kitchen, and don’t be greedy and eat the cold ones from the fridge. 

Lu Shangjin’s writing style hadn’t changed. The technique was swift and very fast, but each stroke was never perfunctory. 

He went to the kitchen to have a look. The cut-up fruit was in the tupperware and the breakfast was still warm in the pot.

He didn’t know if he had a better appetite after four months of pregnancy but he felt that Lu Shangjin’s cooking was actually quite acceptable.

After eating, he made two laps around the house, moved the two pots of daffodils in Lu Shangjin’s study to the balcony, cut the dead leaves, and poured some plant nutrient water in.

At four in the afternoon, Lu Shangjin’s car was parked outside a high-class spa. The attendant bowed and pulled open the car door to lead him to a KTV room on the first floor.

The noise of the demons dancing and howling made a racket down the corridor; the young masters who frequented were getting high on drugs in their own rooms. 

When he pushed the door of the deepest room, someone was already waiting in the booth.

Xia Pingtian’s feet were on the tea table with a white and delicate omega in his arms who he was feeding wine mouth-to-mouth. Bi Ruijing flipped a lighter in his hand, occasionally making a light sound of the shell snapping close. He lifted his gaze and said imposingly, “So late.”

“I had a meeting. Was busy until late.” Lu Shangjin unbuttoned his suit one by one and threw his coat away, leaning back. His eyes fell on the beta kneeling on the ground with a black head covering.

Xia Pingtian gently inserted a room card into the omega’s slim waistband of his pants, coaxing him to go out with a whisper and close the door on his way. He pinched the omega’s round buttocks before he left. 

Lu Shangjin turned on the stereo to the maximum, drew out a cigar from the cedar wood box on the tea table and cut it open, and unhurriedly plugged the miniature headset to brief them, “Shao gongzi sent me a gift. Lu Lin’s trusted follower.”

The deafening drums of the music drowned out the heart-wrenching screams in the room.

Lu Shangjin leaned forward slightly with his two arms on his knees, staring indifferently at the beta handcuffed to the chair wailing mournfully. In his hand, he held a cigar cutter with the edge of the blade stained with clotted blood.

Xia Pingtian crossed his legs and leaned back, putting his hands around the backrest while holding a glass of wine and smiling, “Come on, Mr Jiang, if you’d spat it out clean earlier, we wouldn’t have to resort to violence, right?” 

The middle-aged beta was covered in blood, leaning back against the back of the chair with his neck tilted up, only able to exhale but couldn’t inhale. 

Lu Shangjin narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at the neck of the beta bursting with veins. He threw down his cigar cutter and walked over to him. Glaring at him as he put his hands on the handle of the chair, the bottom of his deep eyes fluctuating like a swamp and lava that swallowed people.

“Uncle Jiang, don’t hold it in. Lu Lin is my father, you tell me what he’s tossing about now. Tell me everything. It’s not considered betrayal.” Lu Shangjin exhaled smoke slowly, the cigar between his fingers nudged lightly against the flesh of the beta’s neck, and the hissing burnt smell filled his nose.

The beta struggled frantically and cried for mercy. Lu Shangjin’s cold and indifferent face did not move a single bit as he dug his fingers along the skin of the beta’s neck and gouged into the flesh, ruthlessly pulling out a bloody chip from inside.

Immediately after, a bunch of pitch-black vines spread and grew from Bi Ruijing’s fingers and snaked over the beta’s corpse. The corpse turned into a puddle of steaming blood in an instant, flesh and bone disappearing without a trace. 

The accompanying ability of the poison arrow-wood race, “Bone Transformation”. 

Bi Ruijing clapped his hands, “Wrap it up.”

When the server came in to clean up and saw a large pool of blood on the ground, they were so scared that their face turned pale. Lu Shangjin put the blood-stained gloves onto the server’s tray, “The fight was a little violent, go clean it up.”

The three alpha went upstairs for a soak in the spa. Lu Shangjin’s wounds couldn’t be soaked in water so he went to take a shower to wash off the blood stains on his body.

Xia Pingtian soaked in the hot pool and sighed languidly, “I think Lu ge has a tendency for violence. I have chills all over when I’m in a room with him.”

“Indeed a little bit.” Bi Ruijing smiled.

Originally, they were sent into the army together. On the first day of training, Lu Shangjin had dislocated the instructor’s jaw. It just so happened that the leader came down to patrol that day, and Lu Shangjin also conveniently took care of the leader. 

A rebellious teenager who was usually not very talkative was then firmly pinned to the ground by a group of alpha instructors, kicked in several places, and had his bones cracked. They pointed at his nose as they mocked and taunted the PBB higher-ups, spewing abuse, and he was sent home the same day.

“I know what kind of person he is.” Bi Ruijing dusted the ashes outside the pool, “He held a little bride in his heart when he was young and refused to join the army whether he lived or died. He stayed outside to take the opportunity to grow and think of ways to get Yan Yi out.” 

“Later, the two of them…hai, things in life change, let them do their own thing.”

Xia Pingtian pondered and didn’t understand what the hell was so good about the little rabbit, who had also charmed his Xiao Jing-zi to the point where he was so infatuated and head over heels in love. In a spur of the moment, he called Dr Zhong for a chat, asking him to say a few nice words for a change of mood.

Lu Shangjin showered three times. After carefully smelling that there was no bloody smell on his body, he grabbed a new set of clothes and came out. 

An omega wearing a bathrobe happened to come out from the opposite changing room. He looked up and saw Lu Shangjin. Staring at the dripping pectoral muscles exposed from the collar of the bathrobe, his eyes brightened slightly.

Lu Shangjin’s attention was focused on what to eat for dinner and subconsciously met the omega’s eyes. 

“Hey, xian-sheng.” From behind, the omega gently slid down the contours of Lu Shangjin’s back with his fingertips. The air was filled with simple but elegant and light narcissus pheromones; rich in aggression and oppression. An ordinary omega could not resist such an attraction.

“I feel like our compatibility fit is very high…” The omega came around to the front, ambiguously hooking his finger on Lu Shangjin’s belt and digging inside. He lifted his eyelashes to look at him, “Come to my room to play?”

A wisp of slightly sweet courtship pheromone clung stickily around Lu Shangjin’s glands. 

Lu Shangjin didn’t stop in his steps as he took the omega’s hand off his belt, “Go to the baths and serve President Xia, you’ll make money faster from him than from me.”

“I don’t want money, I want you.” The omega frowned, increasing the concentration of courtship pheromones, “You’re already here, what are you pretending to be prudish for.” 

Lu Shangjin suddenly grabbed his wrist and pushed the omega to the wall with one hand, his grip making the omega scream out in pain.

His voice was impatient, close to the edge of irritability, “Put your slutty smell away. Now I have to go back up to take a shower again.”

So, the time he went home was more than half an hour later than expected.

Yan Yi made a cup of tea at six o’clock and put it on the work table in the study.

He waited until the clock pointed to half past six and the entire sky turned dark. Holding his phone, Yan Yi silently scrolled through his message logs. 

He hadn’t received any new messages since this afternoon.

Going back to the study, he poured out the cold tea, washed the cups and put them back in the cupboard, pretending that nothing had happened.

At 6:35, Lu Shangjin opened the door and placed a small bouquet of roses and a box of Timothy hay on the shoe closet and then looked all over the house for Yan Yi.

He found him in the bedroom on the second floor hugging a pillow as he sat on the bed reading a book. 

“Baobei, I’m home.” Lu Shangjin propped his hands on the edge of the bed and leaned over to look at him, apologizing, “Something temporarily came up today and my phone was out of battery. You must be starving, are you?” 

Yan Yi looked up at him. The tips of his hair were still wet and his body was covered with the obvious fragrance of body gel. 

Lu Shangjin had a little guilty conscience, not knowing whether the chaotic smell on his body had washed off. He had squeezed out a lot of body gel when he took a shower. 

Seeing Yan Yi’s expression visibility changing from clear to cloudy, Lu Shangjin scratched his hair, “Don’t be angry, I had a meeting today. It’s the weekend tomorrow. I’ll accompany you well.”

Yan Yi’s expression turned completely overcast as he showed Lu Shangjin the chat interface on his phone. 

Tan Meng said Bi Ruijing, the three of them, had gone to the bathhouse. 

Yan Yi asked, “You had a meeting at the bathhouse? What international conference chose that place?”

Lu Shangjin froze for a moment and suddenly laughed.

“Are you afraid I went out to fool around?” 

Yan Yi moved his head to the side as if he was poked in the heart. He didn’t expect Lu Shangjin to climb up and pull him between his lap, holding his face and asking, “Is my wife finally willing to care about me?”

Yan Yi pushed his chest but was hugged tighter. Lu Shangjin told him the itinerary of the day exactly how it was, a little downcast as he explained: 

“I washed myself really clean. Don’t suspect me.”

It made Yan Yi at a loss for words.

Before going to bed, Lu Shangjin had to first medicate his wound. It was unbearably painful when he dipped the liquid medicine onto the wound, but he was so used to getting hurt that he wouldn’t go as far as to make exaggerated expressions, remaining as flat as usual. 

It wasn’t as easy to apply the medicine to his shoulder blade. He couldn’t reach it with his left hand so he could only take the bottle of medicine and splash it a few times over his back. 

Looking into the mirror, he suddenly saw Yan Yi standing outside the bedroom door.

The little rabbit didn’t come in but was just holding the door frame and watching quietly. It seemed as if his feet moved forward but retracted hesitantly, holding the hay snacks he brought back in his hand. 

Lu Shangjin turned around and begged him softly, “Wifey, I can’t reach the back.”

Only then did Yan Yi come in, picking up the medicine bottle and cotton swab to apply it to the wound on his shoulder blade, not talking much.

Lu Shangjin closed his eyes, secretly touched. All of a sudden, acting impulsively, he cried out in pain, “Wifey, I want soothing pheromones too…” 

Getting too carried away, he wanted a mile after getting an inch. 

Yan Yi frowned. He put the medicine bottle on the table, turned around and left.

“Ai, don’t go. I don’t want it anymore, I don’t want it.”