Eighth floor, office.
There was only a single step between the two of them.
Huo Chengye had single eyelids and narrow, slanted eyes. Whenever he looked at someone seriously, he always carried an overpowering and fierce aura that made people shudder.
Ji Xingjian felt his scalp tingle under that stare, not daring to lift his eyes to meet his gaze.
Huo Chengye’s gaze lingered on Ji Xingjian’s face for a long time, moving from the wisps of hair on his forehead to his panicked and bewildered eyes, then down to the bridge of his nose damp with sweat from nervous anxiety, and finally to his tightly pursed thin lips.
His line of sight slid lower, landing on a slender, fair neck that was very pretty. From Huo Chengye’s angle, he could vaguely see the faded red marks just beneath the slightly open collar.
Sensing where the Alpha’s gaze had landed, Ji Xingjian’s expression turned awkward. He unassumingly took two steps back, the gap between the floor tiles acting like a boundary line that separated the two of them. The meaning was self-evident: he did not want any further entanglements with him.
Seeing this, Huo Chengye raised an eyebrow slightly and stepped forward, shortening the distance between them even more.
The visitor was not harboring good intentions. Ji Xingjian felt flustered and chaotic, biting his lips slightly as if suppressing something. His brow furrowed quickly, then relaxed gently, before taking another step back.
Huo Chengye pressed forward once again.
Ji Xingjian continued to retreat until he stumbled back into his chair.
The next second, Huo Chengye suddenly bent down, his hands resting naturally on the armrests on both sides of the chair, boxing him in. His gaze was playful, and the corners of his mouth curved into an ambiguous smile.
Ji Xingjian froze for a second. Facing the Alpha at such close proximity, his heart almost stopped beating, and a thin layer of cold sweat broke out densely across his back. He had no idea what the Alpha wanted to do, and precisely because he did not know, he felt even more flustered and anxious, facing him like a formidable enemy.
Although Ji Xingjian tried his best to remain calm, his drifting eyes betrayed him.
Watching him put on a brave front, Huo Chengye felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of amusement. He curved the corners of his lips and said, “If it isn’t the new Professor Ji. Why are you so nervous when you see me? Afraid I’m going to eat you up?”
Ji Xingjian’s whole body stiffened. He darted a quick glance at him and swallowed nervously, asking, “Is there something you need, classmate?”
“Classmate?” Huo Chengye gave a low chuckle. “Just one day and you are calling me so distantly. Turns out Professor Ji is the kind of person who pulls up his pants and refuses to acknowledge what he did.”
“No.” Ji Xingjian instinctively retorted, thinking to himself that this guy probably took him for someone with a chaotic personal life.
The prompt tone of a mobile phone rang at the exact right moment, breaking the oppressive atmosphere.
Huo Chengye took out his phone and tapped on a notification. It was a voice message sent by his cousin, who worked as a doctor.
The oppressive feeling hanging over his head vanished. Ji Xingjian relaxed slightly, using his peripheral vision to secretly size up the Alpha before him.
He had to admit that even among Alphas, whose looks were generally outstanding, this face was exceptionally striking and full of recognition. His bodily proportions were also nothing short of perfection, resembling a work of art.
Ji Xingjian vaguely remembered touching his abdominal muscles and shark lines that night, but unfortunately, he wasn’t skilled at drawing figures and couldn’t use artistic methods to fully replicate the lines in his mind.
Thinking of this, Ji Xingjian felt a sense of regret and let out an involuntary sigh.
Huo Chengye tapped the screen twice to convert the voice message into text, glancing at Ji Xingjian while he waited.
By this time, Ji Xingjian’s gaze had already drifted below his waist and abdomen, lingering briefly before snapping back up.
“…”
Caught red-handed in the act of peeking, it was entirely too humiliating.
Ji Xingjian hurriedly lifted his head and pretended to study the ceiling, feeling so awkward internally that he wanted to dig a hole right there on the spot and bury himself in it.
In Huo Chengye’s eyes, his current appearance looked even more like a startled rabbit.
Withdrawing his gaze, Huo Chengye looked back at his phone screen.
“Constantly using medication to control it will cause irreversible damage to your body, so I suggest you quickly find a partner. An Omega won’t do, but a Beta or an Alpha is fine. Appropriate sexual activity can soothe the body and mind, making the rut phase a little less agonizing.”
After reading it word for word, Huo Chengye originally intended to reply with an “Oh.” However, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Ji Xingjian was sneaking peeks at him again, his heart stirred. He deleted the original letter and sent a “Got it” instead.
Putting away his phone and leaning in close once more, Huo Chengye took a deep breath, catching the scent of laundry detergent lingering on Ji Xingjian.
“Are you a Beta?” Although he had already guessed the other’s secondary gender, he still asked as a formality.
Ji Xingjian was startled by the sudden movement, his limbs stiffening as he blankly stared at the other person. It took him half a moment to realize that this reckless move was an attempt to confirm whether he was a Beta.
From a physiological standpoint, a Beta’s gestational pouch was equivalent to an Omega’s womb, with the only difference being that an Omega’s chance of pregnancy was five times higher than a Beta’s.
However, Ji Xingjian was an Omega with genetic defects. Not only were his pheromones bland and scentless, but he was also extremely unlikely to conceive.
Huo Chengye’s probing gaze made Ji Xingjian feel as though he was worried about getting trapped, so he lowered his eyelids to ponder how to explain it to him in simple terms.
In Huo Chengye’s eyes, his reaction at that moment looked like a tacit admission.