The physical adjustment and shared experiences between an adult Alpha and Omega are indispensable.
Lu Siyan hadn’t expected the man to propose it so bluntly and even formally include it in the contract; he couldn’t help but feel nervous. The gland at the nape of his neck heated up slightly, and the fresh, sweet scent of bergamot pheromones began to thread through the air, drifting and spreading.
Sitting opposite him, Xiao Yanxiu’s nose twitched. Detecting the scent, he looked at Lu Siyan with a hint of surprise. The Omega sat with eyes cast down, his soft profile visible as a shy flush spread from the tips of his ears down to his collarbone, disappearing into the neckline of his shirt. It was a sight that involuntarily sparked the imagination.
Normally, an Omega not in their heat cycle would not release pheromones so blatantly out of a sense of self-protection—unless they were currently in a state of abnormal excitement…
Lu Siyan had no reason to refuse. He picked up the pen and signed his name. His hands were beautiful, his nails rounded with healthy pale pink tips. However, compared to holding a pen, those hands seemed better suited to clutching bedsheets, or perhaps clawing at shoulders, a spine… or pressing against a firm, muscular chest.
“I’ve signed it.” The Omega handed the agreement back dutifully.
As the man took it, he reached out and brushed a hand against Lu Siyan’s face. Caught off guard, Lu Siyan had no chance to dodge. The spot where he had been touched felt as if it had been scalded by boiling water; it turned a vivid crimson, and his mind fell into disarray.
Covering his face, the Omega stammered, “You…”
He tried to demand an explanation, but the man simply made a grand gesture with his hand and signed his name in a vigorous, lean script. The signed agreement was made in duplicate and handed to the assistant nearby. Once the approval process was complete, they would have their marriage certificate within half an hour.
Xiao Yanxiu folded his arms and stared at the person before him with a mischievous smirk. The Alpha kindly reminded him: “We are a legal couple. I can touch you whenever I want.”
“A touch on the face is the lightest of it.”
Compared to the future intimacy of a married couple—sharing a bed at night and weathering countless heat cycles together—this truly was nothing. Hearing this, Lu Siyan’s face grew even redder. His gaze flickered away, lacking even the courage to meet the man’s eyes. His breath hitched slightly, coming out in short, suppressed gasps.
The man leaned forward across the dining table, dominantly reaching out to tilt Lu Siyan’s chin up, scrutinizing those shy, timid eyes.
“Lu Siyan, we are married.”
“From this moment on, this is your home.”
“You have your own independent housing and your own private assets. In the future, you will never have to be controlled by your parents again, and you won’t have to go against your own will to follow their arrangements.”
“And I am your husband. If there is anything you can’t decide on in the future, you can discuss it with me.”
The transition in their relationship was sudden. But all the heart-pounding moments combined could not match the sense of security these few sentences provided. It was a foundation he had never possessed in his eighteen years of life. The Omega was utterly captivated by the man’s charisma. Lu Siyan gazed at him blankly, unable to look away.
Until he heard Xiao Yanxiu speak again. “It’s getting late. As a son-in-law, I should personally visit my parents-in-law to announce the news of our marriage.”
The man tapped his fingers on the table. “It’s time to go.”
The events of last night remained unresolved, and Lu Shiyuan was pacing at home in a frantic state.
News that the blind date and Lu Siyan had been taken away by the police during their meeting reached him almost immediately. That twice-divorced man, the morally bankrupt Young Master Qin, was the one Lu Shiyuan had introduced. He was also the one who had conspired with Qin to spike Lu Siyan’s drink.
As long as the “rice was cooked”—the deed was done—Lu Shiyuan would successfully eliminate a thorn in his side, and Young Master Qin would get the beauty. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement entangled with various interests.
Who could have expected Xiao Yanxiu to interfere halfway?
When the Qin parents learned their son had been detained, they issued an ultimatum to the Lu family. If the matter wasn’t resolved, the consequences would extend far beyond the business at the Nanshanling mine. The police hadn’t disclosed the specific reason for the detention, only stating that the Xiao family had intervened and that the matter wouldn’t be easily settled unless the party involved—the young Lu master—personally signed a settlement agreement.
But Lu Siyan was currently unreachable.
Lu Shiyuan didn’t dare tell his parents the truth. Instead, he shifted all the blame onto Lu Siyan, focusing the narrative on how Lu Siyan was refusing to show up and resolve the issue with a simple phone call, intentionally putting the Lu family in this predicament.
Even though the whole family knew Lu Siyan had been taken away by Xiao Yanxiu, no one had the courage to go to the Xiao residence and demand him back.
The Omega’s father wailed, “Now look what happened. We’ve offended both the Xiao and Qin families. I don’t know how this will end.”
“If I had known it would turn out like this, it would have been better to let Yanyan be with Xiao Yanxiu. Even if he didn’t get a formal status, the Xiao family is wealthy; we wouldn’t have lacked for benefits.”
Xiao Yanxiu had even been willing to give them the Huayun project, which carried hundreds of millions in profit—a deal everyone in the capital was eyeing greedily. Yet the Lu family had taken the benefits and then turned their backs on him.
The Omega’s father was indirectly blaming his husband’s dogmatic behavior. The Alpha father was so angry he slammed his hand on the table, cursing his partner for being short-sighted and only seeing small gains.
Lu Shiyuan appeared to be mediating but was actually fanning the flames. “Dad, you don’t understand. The Xiao family is shrewd; they won’t let us get the better of them.”
“Given Xiao Yanxiu’s methods, who hasn’t seen them? It’s a mercy if he doesn’t swallow the Lu family business whole. In the future, if he comes home for dinner, the son-in-law will sit at the head of the table while you, the parents-in-law, have to stand by and pour tea for him.”
“There was a news report recently—the second daughter of the Xiao family’s second branch publicly beat her parents-in-law while her new husband stood by, not even daring to pull them apart. Without a powerful background, who dares enter their door?”
This baseless slander was, by pure coincidence, heard clearly by Xiao Yanxiu, who had just arrived at the Lu residence.
“I didn’t realize my brother-in-law knew the affairs of the Xiao family so intimately.”
Lu Shiyuan was startled by the voice. The man entered the room clapping his hands. Behind him were Lu Siyan, followed by a stream of assistants, bodyguards, and lawyers.
The sudden arrival of this “living ancestor” terrified the family. After the initial shock, they immediately stood up to welcome him. Xiao Yanxiu ignored them. He walked straight to the head seat vacated by Father Lu and sat down unceremoniously. He glanced around at the interior decor, his disdain palpable. Seeing that the hosts were too paralyzed by fear to offer basic hospitality, he tapped the table impatiently.
“Pour some tea.”
The Omega’s father scrambled in a panic. “Tea, tea…”
Xiao Yanxiu brushed aside the clutter on the table. “I should also say a word for my second cousin. The reason she moved her hands that day was that her husband’s family had deceived her, hiding massive gambling debts. It wasn’t until the debt grew so large it could no longer be hidden that the collection calls reached her.”
And that wasn’t the first time.
The Alpha father, not knowing the purpose of this visit, stood obediently like a child who had made a mistake, repeatedly wiping cold sweat from his forehead. “Yes, yes… it was just hearsay on our part.”
Good heavens, who could have guessed Xiao Yanxiu would show up in person? Lu Shiyuan, who usually had eight hundred schemes running at once, couldn’t even manage a coherent sentence when facing a real power player. The entire family stood at attention to receive their lecture.
The man raised his finger slightly. Several black-clad bodyguards understood the signal and followed Lu Siyan upstairs to pack his luggage. The lawyer stepped forward, spreading documents across the table.
The Alpha nonchalantly dropped a bombshell: “My darling and I have already registered our marriage.”
What? Father Lu snapped his head up. The Omega’s father dropped the freshly brewed hot tea on the floor. Lu Shiyuan hurriedly grabbed his father’s hand and gasped, “Dad!”
Xiao Yanxiu remained composed. “After the Huayun project was signed, I heard the family forced him to sign an agreement stating his private assets could not be kept solely by him?”
The lawyer took the cue and stepped forward. “Mr. Lu, a privately signed, unnotarized, and unreasonable contract actually carries no legal weight.”
Xiao Yanxiu clapped again, and the lawyer produced another document, continuing the onslaught. “The Huayun contract was signed in the name of the young Mr. Lu—my client, Mr. Xiao Yanxiu’s spouse, Lu Siyan. Therefore, all profits generated after the marriage belong to the couple as joint property.”
Wha—what? What did he say?
That the money belongs to both of them? So after all that maneuvering, the money still ended up in Xiao Yanxiu’s pocket? The Lu family put in the money and effort to run the project, only to end up being the suckers?
Father Lu was so shocked his brain stalled. Yet he didn’t dare initiate a direct conflict; no one dared offend the legitimate heir of the Xiao family’s primary branch.
The man never got his tea, and the clothes upstairs were mostly packed. Seeing Lu Siyan coming downstairs with his luggage, Xiao Yanxiu stood up gracefully.
“Oh, I almost forgot. I checked the Lu family’s accounts. Even my brother-in-law holds a significant amount of shares and property in his name. Yet my wife gets nothing. This… is a bit hard to justify, don’t you think?”
The Lu family’s favoritism was blatant. Caught off guard by the question, they scrambled for an excuse after a moment of panic. “Yanyan is young and doesn’t know how to manage things. Shiyuan has more experience, so he’s temporarily managing them for the family. In the future, the assets will surely be split between the brothers.”
Xiao Yanxiu wasn’t buying it. “Divide it now. We don’t want more than our share, but my wife gets exactly what my brother-in-law has.”
The man waved his hand. “Lawyer Gu, stay behind and handle this. Make sure it’s settled by today.”
The lawyer nodded and added a “warm reminder”: “Assets transferred after the marriage certificate is issued also count as marital property, held jointly by both spouses.”
The Omega’s father felt his vision go dark. Only now did he realize why his husband had been so opposed to this. Other parents marry off their children and receive chests of gold and silver; he had raised a “losing investment.” Not only did Lu Siyan marry in secret and bring back zero benefits, but he also teamed up with his new husband to fleece his own parents. He truly was an ungrateful white-eyed wolf.
The parents hated him for being so calculating, but they failed to remember that in the four years since he returned from the orphanage, Lu Siyan had never once questioned where the money went.
Lu Siyan felt deeply grateful that Xiao Yanxiu was willing to fight for him. The thought might be a bit petty, but he had to admit—seeing his habitually biased parents suffer a setback felt incredibly satisfying.
After returning to Lyubao Garden, Xiao Yanxiu took a call and hurried upstairs to handle some business.
Lu Siyan didn’t have many personal belongings. He declined the butler’s help and carried his luggage up himself. As he pushed open the master bedroom door, he saw the man sitting by the southwest window, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and his coat was tossed carelessly over the arm of the chair as he sat at the desk working.
Afraid of disturbing him, the Omega froze on the spot. Xiao Yanxiu instinctively looked up, his gaze meeting Lu Siyan’s before he calmly looked back at his work.
“I’ll have someone come up to organize things.”
Lu Siyan gripped his suitcase. “No, no need. There isn’t much, I can do it myself.”
The man didn’t insist but had specifically instructed the butler to clear out two-thirds of the master walk-in closet for him. The Omega huffed and puffed through the process, only to find that all his clothes for the four seasons combined couldn’t even fill one shelf. Meanwhile, Xiao Yanxiu’s luxury couture filled an entire wall—shirts, suits, casual wear, ties, watches, and sunglasses in a dazzling array.
After finishing, Lu Siyan stood before the closet in a daze. In that moment, the reality of entering this man’s life truly set in.
However, he didn’t dare move around too much under Xiao Yanxiu’s gaze. Even after showering and putting on pajamas, he was terrified the man would think he was trying to seduce him. Consequently, he emerged from the bathroom fully covered in long pants and socks. This “heavily armored” look actually caught the man’s attention.
“It’s late, where are you going?”
Lu Siyan was so panicked he forgot how to walk. He wasn’t going anywhere; he just moved his legs mechanically, nearly tripping over himself. He pretended to be busy checking the water and food for the dogs, Coffee and Cola, while stealing glances at the focused man.
As if sensing his gaze, the Alpha looked back. The moment he met Xiao Yanxiu’s eyes, Lu Siyan’s heart nearly stopped. He completely panicked. Caught acting “suspiciously,” he clumsily reached out and slapped the light switch.
Snap.
The room plunged into darkness, making his guilty conscience even more obvious. In the silence, he thought he heard the man’s low chuckle. Lu Siyan dove into the bed, clutching the sheets tightly, wishing he could just disappear.
The Alpha knew exactly what was happening. His words from earlier about “fulfilling marital duties” had clearly scared the boy. But there was likely a hint of anticipation too; otherwise, he wouldn’t have stayed up so late waiting.
In the dark, the sound of approaching footsteps felt like they were stepping directly on his heart. The sound of Xiao Yanxiu removing his outer clothing was exceptionally clear. Lu Siyan curled up at the very edge of the bed, his heartbeat drowning out everything else.
Since they were married, they were a couple, and there was no reason to sleep in separate beds. The Omega, who was about to roll off the edge, was suddenly scooped into a warm embrace. He was held tightly from behind, his shoulder blades pressed against the man’s burning chest.
The Alpha’s arm wrapped around his waist, his hand sliding under the shirt to press against his soft abdomen. He whispered almost into Lu Siyan’s ear:
“Is your heat cycle almost here?”