Under Ruan Shi’s watchful gaze, Ruan Nian got into Mu Yan’s hovercraft.
For some reason, Ruan Nian always felt as though he caught a faint whiff of a subtle Alpha pheromone scent. It made him somewhat unsettled, causing his entire body to become stiff. He straightened his back and placed his hands obediently on his knees.
It was this exact posture again, just like the day of the consultation.
Mu Yan frowned.
The young man’s eyebrows and eyes drooped downward, and his sitting posture was proper, yet it made Mu Yan feel somewhat uncomfortable.
He should be gentle, just like when he was sitting on the grass drawing, blending seamlessly into the surrounding scenery and making anyone who looked at him feel relaxed and at ease. Instead, he was quietly distancing himself from reality right now, hiding behind a thin outer shell.
It was probably because of him. Riding in his vehicle made the young man feel uncomfortable.
Mu Yan didn’t really want to admit that the one who actually made Ruan Nian feel uncomfortable was himself.
Even though Mu Yan tried his best to restrain himself, the oppression unconsciously emitted by an Alpha would instinctively make Ruan Nian nervous.
His opportunities to interact with Omegas were truly far too few.
His top-tier Tequila pheromone was far too oppressive. Even colleagues who were also Alphas would try their best to avoid direct contact with him aside from necessary work handovers, let alone an Omega.
Mu Yan did not know how to ease Ruan Nian’s nervousness. Several times he wanted to open his mouth to say something, but felt that none of it was quite appropriate. In the end, he simply said nothing at all.
The two of them remained in silence the entire way.
Passing through the very last traffic light ahead, turning right was the destination. Mu Yan stopped at the intersection, his peripheral vision catching Ruan Nian with his head lowered, wondering what he was thinking.
The Omega’s dense, curly eyelashes were like a bird’s tail feathers, trembling slightly in the air. His exquisite jawline and slender, swan-like neck resembled a treasured work of art in a museum.
Mu Yan suddenly spoke up.
“What were you drawing just now?”
The Alpha’s tone was very low. Perhaps due to the prolonged silence, his voice carried a hint of hoarseness.
Ruan Nian was startled. He had not expected that the Alpha had kept silent the entire way, only to suddenly strike up a conversation right as they were about to reach their destination.
Ruan Nian instinctively tilted his head in Mu Yan’s direction. Mu Yan happened to turn his head to look at him as well, their gazes meeting in the air.
Strictly speaking, this was the first time Ruan Nian had looked properly and closely into this Alpha’s eyes.
His gaze revealed determination, along with an innate nobility and composure.
Perhaps it was a few seconds, perhaps ten-odd seconds. In the end, Ruan Nian took the initiative to look away.
He withdrew his line of sight and shifted it to the traffic light not far away.
Mu Yan waited patiently for a moment, realizing that Ruan Nian didn’t seem to have any intention of answering. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, realizing that his question seemed a bit abrupt.
Just as he was hesitating whether to say something to remedy it, Ruan Nian suddenly answered his question.
“The wind and the sunlight.”
The wind and the sunlight?
Before he could ponder it, Ruan Nian quickly added another sentence: “We can go now.”
The traffic light had changed.
The hovercraft finally stopped in front of a villa.
The building in front of them was somewhat different from where Ruan Nian lived. It had taken quite a bit of driving time to get here from the previous building, showing that the distance between the two villas was not small. The footprint of the villa was roughly comparable to the original one, but it possessed a very large courtyard. Ruan Nian even caught a glimpse of the faint glasshouse roof behind the house through the window.
It is just that the uneven shrubs in the yard felt a little strange.
After getting out of the car and observing closely, Ruan Nian burst out laughing.
The style of the courtyard formed a sharp contrast with the simple and generous appearance of the villa building: various shrubs of different heights and colors were arranged randomly in the yard in a nonsensical manner, and they had been trimmed into all sorts of bizarre shapes. No matter how one looked at it, it felt rather comical.
It was the first time Ruan Nian had ever seen such a strongly styled and highly individual courtyard design in all his years of growing up.
This really didn’t match Mu Yan’s style in the slightest. Ruan Nian’s brows curved, revealing his white teeth as he laughed heartily.
Hearing his laughter, Mu Yan’s mood improved a bit unconsciously.
Perhaps because he had arrived home, the familiar environment allowed his body and mind to relax somewhat, and a rare expression other than his usual cold and stern face finally appeared.
“The courtyard has always been tended to by Uncle Rong. Uncle Rong is the Beta in charge of my food and daily life. It must be old age, as he is quite enthusiastic about gardening.”
Ruan Nian had never heard Mu Yan use such a helpless tone, one that even faintly carried a trace of indulgence.
It was quite interesting.
Ruan Nian didn’t even realize himself that he was much more relaxed now than he had been in the car.
The two of them carried their luggage through the fence and the stone slab pathway. Before they even stood still in front of the front door, the black double doors were pushed open from the inside.
An elderly man with an apron still tied around his waist appeared in the doorway with a smiling expression.
This was probably the Uncle Rong that Mu Yan had mentioned, right? The old man wore sophisticated gold-rimmed glasses, which should have given off a somewhat distant feeling, but the moment Ruan Nian thought of those bizarre-looking topiary arts in the courtyard, he felt this old man instantly become approachable and kind.
This was probably what the cute fans on Star-Blog called contrast moe.
It really was quite cute. The lingering smile on Ruan Nian’s face welled up once more.
“Welcome home, Xiaoyan. This must be Mr. Ruan Nian, right? Welcome to stay here as well. Come on in quickly, there are new slippers prepared at the entrance.”
Ruan Nian quickly said: “You can just call me Niannian, all the elders at home call me that.”
Being addressed as Mr. by an elder made Ruan Nian feel very embarrassed. Entering the house, Ruan Nian took off his coat, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately chose to hold it in his arms instead of hanging it on the coat rack nearby.
Two pairs of slippers had been placed in advance at the entryway. Both were dark gray, except that the pair on the left looked slightly brighter in color than the other.
Ruan Nian consciously changed into the pair on the left. The fluff inside the slippers felt soft and warm when stepped on, and the size was just right.
After finishing all this, Ruan Nian began to officially observe the interior decoration of the villa.
A simple black, white, and gray color scheme: the living room featured a black leather sofa and a matching rug, and the marble countertop in the dining and kitchen area was designed in a simple and generous manner. In stark contrast to the disorganized gardening in the courtyard, Ruan Nian instinctively felt that this was truly Mu Yan’s style.
Ruan Nian suddenly had a sense of reality. The coat he had taken off had carried away a hint of warmth, and his body had not yet adapted to the indoor temperature.
He was about to live in close quarters with an unfamiliar Alpha for an unknown duration of time.
“Alright then, Xiaoyan, take Niannian to give him a tour of the house. We can eat in a little while,” Uncle Rong said with a smile before turning and walking toward the dining and kitchen area.
Only then did Ruan Nian notice that something seemed to be boiling in the kitchen. Being far away, he could only hear a faint bubbling sound. He glanced over in that direction, then quickly withdrew his gaze.
Mu Yan quietly took everything in.
Ruan Nian lagged half a step behind Mu Yan. He instinctively wanted to follow Mu Yan out of the entryway and into the house, only to find that Mu Yan was still standing in place without moving an inch.
Before he could make his next move, Ruan Nian’s arms suddenly felt empty.
Mu Yan suddenly closed in, pulled the coat Ruan Nian was holding in his arms away, and hung it on the coat rack in the entryway.
His movements were as practiced as if he had done it many times before.
Mu Yan didn’t say a word, picking the luggage back up immediately after he finished. He walked deeper into the house, and noticing that Ruan Nian hadn’t followed, he stopped in his tracks, turned around to glance at him, tilted his head slightly, and motioned for Ruan Nian to keep up.
Ruan Nian heard something emit a click sound, splitting open just a tiny bit.
He pressed his lips together and hurried to keep up with Mu Yan’s pace.
The two of them carried their luggage upstairs, and Mu Yan led Ruan Nian straight to the room at the end of the hallway.
Opening the door, the room was very large, fully equipped with bathroom facilities. The air inside the room was clean, and everything was bright and as good as new, clearly having been meticulously cleaned not long ago. The curtains were half-open, and the sunlight streamed through the window onto the pure white bedsheets and light wood-colored floor.
Mu Yan placed the luggage on the floor of the room. Ruan Nian always felt there was something not quite right about this room.
Yet for a moment, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“You’ll stay here for this period. Uncle Rong cleaned the room,” Mu Yan stated concisely before leaving the room. After Ruan Nian put away the remaining small portion of luggage he was holding, Mu Yan led him to start touring the second floor.
For some reason, Mu Yan skipped the room directly adjacent to Ruan Nian’s and walked straight to the next one. Ruan Nian didn’t pay too much attention, subconsciously categorizing that room as off-limits.
Storage room, guest room, second-floor terrace, and home theater. Looking at them room by room, Ruan Nian roughly figured out what felt a bit off.
Most of the room decorations in Mu Yan’s villa were dignified black and gray tones, including the other guest room, which was distinctly different from the bright light color scheme of his own room.
Ruan Nian couldn’t quite describe how he felt inside.
He had always thought it was merely a temporary stay to cooperate with treatment, and that Mu Yan only needed to treat him as a guest. But Uncle Rong’s tone was kind and friendly, Mu Yan’s action of hanging up his coat was as practiced as if he had done it many times, the slippers that were the exact right size, and the specially modified interior decoration, these inadvertent details made Ruan Nian feel as though he wasn’t a guest, but rather the other master of the house who had finally returned home after wandering far away.
Even though it was a sternly styled home design, it made Ruan Nian feel warm. Ruan Nian’s perception of this taciturn Alpha, Mu Yan, underwent a somewhat different change.
Halfway through the second floor, there was a room that was noticeably much larger than the others. Even the dimensions of the door seemed specially customized, appearing taller and heavier than the other doors.
Mu Yan pushed the door open, and Ruan Nian instinctively looked inside just like he had when touring the other rooms, only to be startled by the scene before his eyes:
The room featured a two-story loft space, filled completely to the brim with tall bookshelves, with one side even featuring a wooden ladder specifically designated for retrieving books. There were also many scattered dark brown bookshelves, each densely packed with books. There were at least tens of thousands of books inside, rivaling the book collection of some small private libraries.
One had to know that in the New Era, digitization had long since become widespread. Convenient electronic display instruments replaced the vast majority of paper documents used in daily life and work, and physical paper books had almost vanished from the lives of young people, increasingly becoming a fragile and expensive collectible.
Ruan Nian owned quite a few books out of personal hobby, but compared to Mu Yan, it was truly not worth mentioning.
He was somewhat dazed, his words slipping out before his brain could process them: “You like books?”
Mu Yan turned back to look at him, only to find that Ruan Nian was still blankly staring at those bookshelves instead of glancing away immediately like he did when touring the other rooms.
Perhaps because of Ruan Nian’s intense focus, Mu Yan seemed bewitched. Instead of answering Ruan Nian’s question directly, he said: “You can come over and read the books here anytime.”
“Really?!” Ruan Nian emitted a response almost instantly. The young man raised his head, colliding straight into Mu Yan’s line of sight. His eyes lit up brilliantly, as if they had been instantly ignited.
His tone was finally no longer obedient and distant, revealing a bit of the liveliness and cheerfulness belonging to a twenty-year-old, his voice filled with undisguised delight.
Mu Yan’s expression softened a bit.
The surroundings were completely quiet, with no one speaking for several seconds.
Ruan Nian finally realized that his reaction seemed a bit over the top. He immediately looked away, awkwardly and quietly pressing his lips together.
Even though this was perhaps just Ruan Nian’s subconscious reaction without any particular meaning, Mu Yan still replied to him earnestly:
“Mn, of course.”
In the natural and bland tone, there was a hint of indulgence that neither of them noticed.
The atmosphere between the two of them seemed to have changed slightly. Such a change made Ruan Nian feel a bit unsettled, so he simply shut his mouth afterward and stopped speaking.
After finishing the tour of the remaining rooms one by one, as they were about to reach the end of the hallway, Mu Yan stopped in his tracks.
“That last room is my bedroom.” Having said that, Mu Yan paused for a moment, as if he still had something more to say.
Ruan Nian stopped as well, quietly waiting for the unfinished words.
Yet in the end, Mu Yan said nothing more, turned around, and took the lead in walking toward the stairs.
Just as they were about to reach the first floor, Ruan Nian suddenly heard the Alpha’s deep voice.
“If you need anything, you can come to my room to find me.”
Mu Yan added this sentence with his back turned to Ruan Nian, his gaze staring straight ahead without deviation, an angle that avoided any possible reaction from the Omega.
He felt as though he had said a rather redundant sentence.
Ruan Nian would probably never walk to the other side of the hallway.
The face that had been slightly softened by the Omega’s smile once again settled into calmness.