“Hasn’t Song Xu been missing for years?”
“No matter how long he plays hide-and-seek, he would want to show up when he hears Admiral Lu is injured. After all, they grew up together. I even heard the Lu and Song families were planning to ally.”
The sentence trailed off, but the Alphas in the room all wore knowing expressions.
The topic veered sharply toward gossip. A group of Alphas who had been worrying about the country just a moment ago suddenly turned into gossip mongers.
“Hey, tell me, what is really going on between Admiral Lu and that Beta fiancé?”
“I heard that Beta was quite calculating. Relying on the fact that his grandfather saved the Admiral’s life, he insisted on staying by his side. Later, taking advantage of the Admiral’s susceptibility period, he intentionally took photos of them together and sold them to magazines, forcing the Admiral to acknowledge the relationship.”
“Tsk, tsk. Now that Major General Song is back, that Beta will probably be kicked out soon.”
“Since Major General Song is back, will he be taking over our military academy?”
Chu Li listened to their back-and-forth, his expression slightly vacant as he sat immobile in his chair.
Mo Yizhou tapped on the table. Chu Li snapped out of it and looked at him.
“Going back?”
“Ah, yes. Going back.”
Chu Li packed his things absent-mindedly. By the afternoon, news reports clarified that Lu Jin was fine and had already left the military hospital.
That evening, he and Mo Yizhou ran laps on the field. He added ten extra laps, running until he was drenched in sweat. Yet, he did not seem to feel the exhaustion, continuing to run as if driven by something.
While running, Mo Yizhou received a communication. He stopped and said to Chu Li, “Go back first. I have something to take care of and will be back later.”
Chu Li nodded.
At eleven o’clock, he turned off the lights to sleep. Mo Yizhou had not returned. He sent a message to check in and then shut off his communicator.
The night world was exceptionally quiet; it was so quiet that the sound of the wind blowing through the protective railings was audible. Having run twenty laps today, he was truly exhausted and soon fell asleep to the sound of the wind.
In his haze, it felt as if a hand had landed on his face. His skin felt a bit itchy. He moved his eyelids impatiently, his consciousness gradually clearing as a thick scent of blood filled his nostrils.
Instantly, he was wide awake. Turning over, he saw a man lying on the outer edge of his narrow bed. The bed curtain happened to have a gap, and the silvery moonlight spilling in from the balcony allowed him to vaguely make out the man’s clothing and physique.
It was Lu Jin.
Chu Li thought he was dreaming. He touched the person in front of him; it was not a dream. The person was truly Lu Jin.
The smell of blood came from Lu Jin. Chu Li looked down and saw that the Admiral’s coat was stained with sticky, fresh blood. “Admiral, what happened to you?”
Lu Jin did not speak. His features, cast in shadow, looked as though he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Chu Li unbuttoned Lu Jin’s coat but found no wound on his chest. He moved to undo Lu Jin’s belt when the Admiral suddenly grabbed his wrist. A soft, muffled chuckle escaped into the darkness.
“Why do you like stripping me so much?”
Chu Li’s face instantly burned. His mind flashed back to the times he had stripped Lu Jin’s clothes during his pseudo-heat, and he felt so embarrassed that his toes curled under the covers.
His lips moved, and his voice sounded as if it had detached from his body, offering a self-contained explanation. “I just wanted to check your wounds.”
Lu Jin sat up, his face emerging bit by bit from the darkness. His deep-set eyes were inches away from Chu Li’s, and that familiar, fresh scent rushed into Chu Li’s nose.
“I am fine,” Lu Jin said.
Chu Li then noticed the blood on Lu Jin’s uniform seemed to belong to someone else. “The blood on you is…”
“A bad person’s.” Lu Jin was laconic, seemingly unwilling to discuss the matter.
Chu Li blinked, not prying further. Across the room, Mo Yizhou’s bed was empty; he was still not back.
“Admiral, why did you come here?”
Lu Jin coughed slightly, his skin looking unusually pale. “To reply to your message.”
To reply to his message? The one asking if he was okay; could he not have just replied via communicator?
“I saw on the news that you were injured.”
“The media talks nonsense.” He had taken Lu Tao to the hospital for treatment and was photographed entering and leaving. For the sake of traffic, the media claimed he was the one hurt.
He seemed exhausted. After speaking, he lay back down on the bed. The bed, already narrow, was now mostly occupied by him.
Chu Li moved toward the edge. Hearing that he was okay, the heaviness in his heart subsided. He whispered a reminder. “Admiral, my roommate could come back at any time.”
“Mhm. I will leave when he returns.” His voice dropped, laced with a hint of hoarseness, speaking with an air of indisputable authority.
Chu Li said no more. He sat there, looking down at the man on the bed. The other seemed very tired, eyes closed, unwilling to talk. Chu Li did not speak again either.
A silent tranquility enveloped the two. The darkness blurred their outlines, leaving only fuzzy silhouettes.
After a while, he tried to get off the bed, but his wrist was caught by Lu Jin. Lu Jin’s voice was slurred. “Don’t move.”
“Admiral, I am going to get you some water.”
Lu Jin kept his eyes closed and repeated, “Don’t move.”
Chu Li sighed and sat still. Lu Jin was not injured, but he seemed ill. His breathing was a bit erratic, and his burning palm held him tight.
He comforted him softly. “Let go of me first. I will not leave.”
Lu Jin continued to hold him, silent. The sound of steady breathing filled the room.
Chu Li could only sit by the edge, nodding off. His head bobbed, and he accidentally slumped into Lu Jin’s arms. Lu Jin instinctively reached out to wrap an arm around his back.
Though Chu Li was not short, tucked into Lu Jin’s embrace, he still felt small. His nose was buried in the man’s neck, the scent of blood mingling with the Admiral’s personal aroma.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by the sound of an electronic password being entered.
Mo Yizhou was back.
Chu Li quickly shook Lu Jin awake. Lu Jin sat up alertly, his lips brushing past Chu Li’s cheek. Chu Li froze for an instant.
In that split second of his daze, Lu Jin’s figure leaped from the bed and, almost instantly, vaulted over the balcony. His movements were clean and swift, as if he had never been in the room at all.
Only a gust of displaced air brushed against Chu Li’s cheek, leaving a faint trace.
Chu Li pulled back the curtain and looked toward the balcony. He had not even had time to shout “fourth floor” before the man had jumped.
A corner of a black mecha was vaguely visible before it vanished into the thick night.
Beep.
The door opened. Mo Yizhou stood at the entrance, instantly sensing something wrong.
A dense scent of Alpha pheromones filled the entire room, hanging like an invisible sword overhead, releasing an overwhelming sense of deterrence and pressure.
It was as if he were being told to recognize this sovereign territory and not to covet it.
Even though Mo Yizhou was a top-tier Alpha, he was so deterred by the pheromones intentionally left behind that his bones felt numb and his back stiffened. He stood by the door, almost unable to move.
Meanwhile, his roommate, the Beta, had just withdrawn his gaze from the balcony and offered him a guilty-looking smile.
The Beta could not smell pheromones and thought everything was perfectly hidden.
“Mo, you’re back.”
Chu Li got out of bed. As he got closer, he realized Mo Yizhou was covered in mud, his face a mess of bruises and scrapes. He quickly supported him.
“Did you get into a fight?”
Mo Yizhou walked into the room with stiff legs. The scent of the strange Alpha’s pheromones seemed to surge even more violently in his nose. He discreetly avoided Chu Li’s touch and sat in a chair.
“Recently Feng Yuming asked me for another match.”
Chu Li. So the two of them were wrestling in a mud pit all night? Is this what top-tier Alpha pride and competitiveness looks like?
Mo Yizhou looked outside. “The window.”
“Ah, the window. I felt a bit stuffy just now, so I opened a window for some air.” Chu Li forced a natural-looking smile and walked to the balcony, glancing down as if by accident. There was no sign of Lu Jin. Just as he was about to close the window, Mo Yizhou’s weak voice came from behind.
“Open all the windows.” The pheromones were suppressing him so much his legs were shaking.
“Oh.”
Chu Li opened all the windows, letting the cold night wind howl in.
Mo Yizhou rushed into the bathroom as if fleeing for his life. Only after turning on the ventilation system could he finally breathe.
As the hot water fell, he lowered his eyelids, deep in thought.
A Beta.
The partner is an Alpha with pheromones at S-level or above.
The identity was already self-evident.
He closed his eyes. His Alpha father’s words before he entered the military academy echoed in his ears. “Yizhou, entering the academy this time requires you to protect someone in secret.”
When he finished his shower and walked out, Chu Li was already back in bed with the curtains tightly drawn. Shallow breathing sounded in the quiet dorm.
On the desk sat a small medicine box; bruise liniment and ointment were specifically laid out in a prominent position.