Li Zhao froze for a moment too, he clearly hadn’t expected there to be so many people at Ouyang Pei’s home.
There were about seven or eight of them, all strangers to Li Zhao. But the man walking at the very front looked somewhat familiar, though for the life of him, Li Zhao couldn’t remember where he’d seen him before.
That man, however, seemed to recognize Li Zhao immediately, because the moment he saw him, he furrowed his brow and turned to look at Ouyang Pei with reproachful eyes.
Li Zhao: …
Ouyang Pei exchanged a glance with the man, then quickly walked over to Li Zhao and asked in a low voice, “What are you doing here?”
“I—I texted you this morning and called you, but you didn’t reply. I was worried about you, so I thought I’d come check on you.” Li Zhao carefully studied Ouyang Pei’s expression as he answered, just as quietly.
Li Zhao watched as the furrow between Ouyang Pei’s brows gradually smoothed out, and his wary, serious expression softened.
“Then wait inside for now,” Ouyang Pei said. “I still have some things to take care of.”
“Oh, okay.” Li Zhao agreed, then walked into the villa under the gaze of everyone else.
Behind him, once Ouyang Pei and the others had all stepped out the door, the front gate was shut firmly behind them.
Li Zhao stood in the entryway, glanced back at the tightly closed door, then turned to look at the interior of the villa.
The villa was large and luxuriously decorated, in a European palace style. Li Zhao knew nothing about interior design, but he could still tell that the furnishings in this villa had been there for quite some years.
Ouyang Pei had told him to wait inside, so Li Zhao was prepared to obediently do just that. But after looking around the entryway, he couldn’t find a single pair of slippers, so he had no choice but to walk into the living room with his shoes still on.
While sitting on the sofa waiting for Ouyang Pei, Li Zhao finally remembered who that man at the door who’d seemed hostile toward him was, it was the ordinary-looking man who’d been sitting next to Ouyang Pei the first time Li Zhao had struck up a conversation with him at the bar!
That man had been rude to him back then, and just now too… Li Zhao couldn’t help but reasonably suspect that this ordinary man had designs on his omega.
And those other strangers, why did they all show up at Ouyang Pei’s home looking so secretive? What exactly did they all do?
Just as Li Zhao was sitting alone on the sofa letting his thoughts run wild, the front door opened from outside, and Ouyang Pei walked in alone.
Li Zhao quickly stood up, watching as Ouyang Pei walked toward him step by step.
Today, Ouyang Pei was wearing a milky-white loungewear set, his jet-black hair falling naturally over his forehead. His youthful skin was bright and luminous, his tender, affectionate eyes shimmering with warmth his whole body radiating an irresistible, alluring charm.
As he drew near, Ouyang Pei looked down at Li Zhao, the corner of his lips curling up. “I was at home playing games with them all day today. I didn’t hear my phone.”
Playing games? Li Zhao didn’t know what kind of game required that many people gathered together to play, but since Ouyang Pei had explained why he’d been unreachable all day, Li Zhao chose to believe him unconditionally.
“Oh, as long as you’re okay.” Li Zhao said. “By the way, have you had dinner? Is there anything you’d like to eat? I can go buy you something.”
Ouyang Pei stretched lazily, then sprawled bonelessly onto the sofa. “Haven’t eaten. Not hungry.”
Li Zhao glanced at his phone, it was already past six so he said, “It’s mealtime. Even if you’re not hungry, eat a little, or you’ll be hungry tonight.”
“Oh,” Ouyang Pei replied lazily. “This place is too out of the way. Everything I want to eat is far off. I don’t feel like going out.”
“Then should I go buy it and bring it back for you?”
Ouyang Pei smiled and reached out to tug at the hem of Li Zhao’s sleeve, saying flirtatiously, “Being this good to me, huh?”
Li Zhao’s face flushed red in an instant. “Well, i-it’s only right.”
“How is it only right? Tell me.”
“……” Li Zhao was utterly mortified, and without realizing it, a hint of pleading crept into the way he looked at Ouyang Pei.
That shift in his expression was completely unconscious, so Li Zhao had no idea just how endearing he looked at that moment in Ouyang Pei’s eyes.
The more he acted like this, the more Ouyang Pei wanted to “bully” him, to make him show even more of that helpless, innocent, guileless look.
“Come on, say it, say it for me to hear,” Ouyang Pei said, tugging Li Zhao’s sleeve back and forth. “I want to hear you say it out loud.”
“……”
Though Li Zhao wasn’t good at expressing himself, since Ouyang Pei was begging him like this, he could only grit his teeth and say, “We’re like this… you’re my… I’m your… ahem. In any case, I promised I’d be good to you, that I’d respond sincerely to everything you need, so I’ll do my best to follow through.”
By the time he finished, Li Zhao’s face was burning red. Stammering and vague as it was, for Li Zhao, this was already the absolute limit of what he could manage for now.
Ouyang Pei drank in the sight of Li Zhao, shy to the extreme yet forced to summon the courage to bare his heart and felt both satisfied and stirred.
He was an Alpha, and moreover one with the highest S-Class pheromone level.
That night at the bar, he had only just returned from abroad not long before. He’d been there on business, when out of nowhere a silly Alpha came stumbling over, drunkenly insisting on buying him a drink, and had dumbly mistaken him for an Omega.
Ouyang Pei knew he was good-looking, and many people gave him extra attention because of his beauty.
But he was, after all, a top-tier Alpha broad-shouldered, long-legged, powerfully built so no one ever mistook him for an Omega.
Plenty of people had bought him drinks because of his looks, but Li Zhao was truly the first person in history to do so on the grounds that “he was an Omega.”
Out of curiosity, Ouyang Pei had accepted, wanting to see what other antics this silly Alpha would get up to. He hadn’t expected that, unable to hold back that very night, he’d end up in bed with him…
And once they’d been in bed, everything changed. Ouyang Pei could no longer look at Li Zhao with calm eyes, because the moment he did, that night’s fevered passion would come flooding back into his memory like a tide, leaving him restless, leaving him craving more, leaving him unable to help thinking… about doing it again.
But here was the problem: if they did it again, with the two of them both Alphas, who would be inside whom? And if Li Zhao knew the truth, would he still be willing to fool around with an Alpha?
“Ahem,” Ouyang Pei said, not daring to think further, nor to keep pressing Li Zhao’s words. He changed the subject. “So, um, there’s food in the fridge. Can you cook?”
“Uh, I can cook, sort of,” Li Zhao said, scratching his head. “But my cooking is pretty average. I’m afraid it might not suit your taste.”
“No worries,” Ouyang Pei said with a smile. “You’ve got me.”
Ouyang Pei led Li Zhao to the kitchen. It was huge Li Zhao even thought it was bigger than the living room of his own two-bedroom apartment.
It was fully equipped with all kinds of cookware and appliances. The stovetop and cabinets were spotless, looking as if they weren’t used very often.
“The fridge has everything. Take a look and see what you’d like to eat,” Ouyang Pei said.
“Oh.” Li Zhao responded and walked over to open the fridge on his own.
Just as Ouyang Pei had said, the fridge was packed full and neatly arranged with all kinds of vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy products, all of which looked quite fresh they must have been stocked recently.
Li Zhao took a quick look around, then took out some bright green spinach, lettuce stems, pork ribs, and eggs from the fridge, and turned to set them on the stovetop in the middle of the kitchen.
“Braised pork ribs, stir-fried crisp lettuce stems, and a spinach and egg soup?” Li Zhao asked tentatively. “Or take a look and see if there’s anything you’d like?”
Ouyang Pei waved a hand. “This is fine.”
Li Zhao nodded, washed his hands, and started preparing to cook.
He was usually busy with work and did a lot of overtime, so he didn’t cook at home very often. On the rare occasions he did, he would first look up tutorials online and then pick the simplest one to practice with.
So out of habit, Li Zhao pulled out his phone, ready to search for a foolproof braised pork ribs recipe.
Beside him, Ouyang Pei asked, puzzled: “? What are you doing?”
“Looking for a tutorial,” Li Zhao answered, a little embarrassed. “To follow along.”
“…” Ouyang Pei couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I guess you really weren’t being modest earlier.”
Li Zhao tilted his head away, revealing the tips of his ears slightly flushed from awkwardness and embarrassment.
That patch of fair, pink skin stirred something in Ouyang Pei, setting his heart racing. Without thinking, he stepped forward and pressed himself against Li Zhao’s side.
“Then just watch from the side. I’ll do the cooking.”
As he spoke, Ouyang Pei’s lips hovered near Li Zhao’s fair, burning-hot ear. And very quickly, he was satisfied to see that before he’d even finished speaking, that patch of skin had grown even redder and hotter.
Li Zhao gave a vague sound of acknowledgment, then obediently stepped aside, yielding the spot directly in front of the stovetop to Ouyang Pei.
Ouyang Pei glanced at Li Zhao with a smile, then rolled up his sleeves and gave orders. “Get me a basin.”
“…Okay. Where is it?”
“No idea. Go dig through the cabinets.”
“Oh.”
And so, with Ouyang Pei in the lead and Li Zhao as his assistant, the two of them worked together to prepare a sumptuous dinner.
“Let’s eat in the dining room. I remember there are some candles.”
At first, Li Zhao didn’t understand what Ouyang Pei meant, but out of unconditional indulgence toward him, he agreed without a second thought. It was only after he’d carried the dishes and rice to the table that he discovered Ouyang Pei had somehow gotten hold of two thick, stubby, pale-yellow candles and was lighting the wicks with a lighter.
So it was a candlelit dinner, Li Zhao thought. Truly worthy of an Omega of unparalleled beauty even just having a meal, he was this romantic.
The candlelight flickered, casting a faint warm glow on Ouyang Pei’s face, making him look exceptionally gentle and beautiful. Li Zhao sat beside him, so entranced by the sight that he even forgot to eat.
Ouyang Pei had already felt Li Zhao’s burning gaze from the moment he lit the candles, but he pretended not to notice as he pocketed the lighter. Then he sat down and tugged at the wide V-neck of his milky-white loungewear, “inadvertently” revealing his slender neck and translucent shoulders.