Li Mo actually had an extremely light sleep. However, because he was utterly exhausted from the day’s travels and relentless running around, he slept quite deeply this time. It wasn’t until Huo Jingsi finished showering, cleaned up, and climbed into bed that Li Mo felt the presence of another person beside him.
Huo Jingsi’s movements were simply too large, and this man insisted on holding him while he slept specifically wrapping his arms around him so that Li Mo was completely enclosed in his embrace.
Sensing Li Mo’s awakening, Huo Jingsi instantly discarded the moderated movements he had adopted while Li Mo was asleep (under the misconception that he was moving very lightly). He then neatly and decisively readjusted their posture. Although Li Mo’s consciousness was still somewhat groggy, he instinctively turned over, reached out to hug the man back, rubbed the other person’s backside, and murmured softly, “You must be exhausted…”
Though the place I’m petting is a bit off, he’s actually worrying about me even while asleep.
From this small gesture, Huo Jingsi felt an infinite wave of warmth, and his fatigue from the entire day seemed to dissipate completely.
Leaning forward, he planted a fierce kiss on Li Mo’s lips. His stubble scratched Li Mo’s cheek a little, and though his voice was somewhat hoarse, his tone was filled with happiness and contentment: “Not tired. Go to sleep.”
Li Mo let out his tension. He was simply too sleepy to bother arguing with Huo Jingsi, completely unaware that his unintentional action had been misinterpreted by the man. He found a comfortable position and obediently burrowed into Huo Jingsi’s arms.
It was, overall, a night of sweet dreams.
The next day, when Li Mo woke up from his slumber, his mind was entirely blank.
It wasn’t because he had suddenly been rendered foolish after finally getting such a wonderful night’s sleep; rather, he figured that if anyone else woke up, opened their eyes, and immediately found two fair, solid pectoral muscles blocking their view, they would probably be just as blank-minded—or perhaps even more dazed than he was.
After all, he had faced this exact scenario countless times over the past three years. (Though experienced, he still felt utterly speechless every single time.)
Furthermore, he clearly remembered going to sleep entirely by himself last night.
The meeting in Sector 8 must have run pretty late last night, right?
He hadn’t expected this man to rush back overnight. He could easily have just returned this morning without delaying the evening’s banquet, while getting a good night’s rest in the bargain.
Li Mo felt utterly baffled by Huo Jingsi’s actions, but since Huo Jingsi wanted to come back, let him come back; there wasn’t much he could say about it anyway.
At this moment, Li Mo’s face was pressed directly against Huo Jingsi’s chest. Maintaining a deadpan expression, he tried to sit up only to discover he couldn’t break free from the man’s embrace at all. With no other choice, he gave up and closed his eyes again, refusing to look so he wouldn’t have to be annoyed.
Even though his eyes were shut, his senses remained fully active. He felt Huo Jingsi’s arm tighten around him once more, pulling him inward, which caused his face to bury itself firmly right into the man’s chest muscles.
The pheromones belonging exclusively to an S-grade Alpha washed over him in a suffocating wave, choking Li Mo to the point where he secretly guessed whether this guy had forgotten to apply his pheromone inhibitor patch again after showering last night.
What difference was there between an S-grade Alpha’s loose, drifting pheromones and public indecency on the street?!
Li Mo fumed inwardly, before immediately resigning himself to the reality—
Fine. He was Huo Jingsi’s wife, so Huo Jingsi didn’t need to wear a patch in front of him anyway. Besides, since he himself counted as half an S-grade Omega, this tiny bit of pheromone still couldn’t inflict any major impact on him.
Meanwhile, seemingly sensing his subtle movements, that tired, hoarse voice sounded right above his head: “Momo, sleep a little longer…”
As he spoke, Huo Jingsi rubbed the back of Li Mo’s head, causing his face to scrape back and forth against those chest muscles a few more times.
The sudden movement left him with zero time to hold his breath; now, his entire nose was completely filled with Huo Jingsi’s scent.
Damn it.
Li Mo clenched his fists tight.
One of these days, I’m going to teach you alphas what personal boundaries really mean!
Yet, before his tough act had even lasted half a minute, Li Mo felt Huo Jingsi’s hand sliding downward toward his waist, causing him to immediately relax his grip.
Then, Huo Jingsi’s lazy voice drifted down: “Why are you awake so early today?”
Feigning sleepiness by rubbing his eyes, Li Mo replied in a soft voice, “I went to sleep too early yesterday.”
Simultaneously, he reached behind himself to grab the hand Huo Jingsi had slipped beneath his clothes Dammit, stop touching my backside!
“What time did you get home yesterday?”
“Close to eight.” As he spoke, Li Mo guided Huo Jingsi’s hand toward the front of his chest. To prevent this scoundrel from acting on evil impulses again, he chose to lock fingers with him directly, stripping him of any further opportunity to commit improper acts against his backside.
“So late?” The hand Huo Jingsi had resting beneath the nape of his neck stroked his back-neck, then slowly, inch by inch, peeled away the inhibitor patch stuck right there.
Li Mo: ……
Here he goes debauching in broad daylight again.
“Got held up on the road a bit.” Feeling a chill at the nape of his neck, he was just about to reach his hand behind to brush Huo Jingsi’s hand away when Huo Jingsi seized the opportunity to pin his wrists down and press him flat against the bed.
He watched as the Alpha leaned close to his neck, taking a deep, heavy inhalation while his lower body couldn’t help but shift restlessly twice.
Ah, no whether Huo Jingsi was doing it uncontrollably or not, Li Mo didn’t know, but Li Mo himself felt utterly despairing right now. The Alpha’s sudden action made his whole body go numb, but that wasn’t even the primary issue right now. The most critical problem was.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you haven’t brushed your teeth yet, you haven’t brushed your teeth yet !!!!!!!!
Fortunately, Huo Jingsi didn’t end up doing anything else to him; he merely lingered around his nape, sniffing back and forth like a dog turned goblin.
In those mere dozens of minutes upon waking up in the morning, Li Mo felt as though he had aged a solid eight years.
True to form, the hardest part of this mission wasn’t assassinating Huo Jingsi it was figuring out how to get along with him while maintaining the persona of a gentle, kind-hearted spouse.
Damn it, acting was exhausting him to death. He clearly loathed the guy to his core inside, yet on the surface, he had to project a coy, alluring, coyly-reluctant-yet-shy facade.
Glancing at his own reflection in the mirror, he wondered if his disguise skills were so formidable that once the mission was over, he could consider a career change into acting.
That illusion, however, was quickly dispelled. By the time that day arrived, he’d probably be old anyway and wouldn’t be able to rely on a youthful face to make a living.
Suddenly, Huo Jingsi appeared behind him, reaching out to wrap his arms around his waist from behind.
This big brother is teleporting again.
Li Mo uttered a mental complaint while his hands naturally clasped the arms plastered against his waist, asking softly, “What is it?”
“Nothing.” Huo Jingsi rested his chin on Li Mo’s shoulder like a large-breed canine, drooping his head in a plea for comfort, “Just a bit tired.”
Tsh, this again. Li Mo felt like he had run out of conversational topics with this man; every single day it was just holding him and complaining about being tired. He wasn’t a phone charger; what good did hugging him do when he was tired?
Besides, I’m acting 24/7 without a break, terrified of OOCing if I want to relax even for a second. Clearly, I’m way more exhausted than you are.
Though those were his internal thoughts, he couldn’t let his mask slip. So, Li Mo patted the back of Huo Jingsi’s hand soothingly and said, “If you’re tired, get some good rest. That old duck soup yesterday wasn’t bad; I’ll ask Auntie Wu to stew some for you today so you can try it.”
Since he hadn’t drunk enough of it yesterday, today he正好 (happily) used wanting to make Huo Jingsi drink it as an excuse to get Auntie Wu to whip up another batch.
At the mention of soup, Huo Jingsi suddenly recalled something: “I heard the guards say yesterday evening that you sent soup out to them?”
“Yeah. I had Auntie Wu send it over,” Li Mo answered. “Auntie Wu stewed a huge pot of it yesterday with a whole duck, and I couldn’t possibly finish it all by myself. Figuring you were stuck in meetings last night and wouldn’t rush back overnight anyway, I didn’t save any for you. Seeing them standing outside keeping watch through the night was tough work, so I had Auntie Wu share it among them.”
“Was it really that good?” Huo Jingsi’s expression soured slightly before he muttered, “I’ll have Auntie Wu stew it again today so I can try it.”
Knowing the man was getting jealous, Li Mo raised a hand to stroke his head, teasing, “Then today’s duck soup probably won’t taste good.”
“Why?”
“Because it’ll be sour,” Li Mo laughed.
While teasing the guy on the surface, internally he was dying to deliver a flying kick to his face Seriously, why are you jealous of literally everything?
Hearing this, Huo Jingsi immediately started acting up, reaching out to tickle Li Mo’s ribs.
“Alright, alright, I’ll save some for you next time, okay?” Li Mo coaxed.
Next time I’d rather choke myself drinking a whole pot alone than leave a single drop for you.
Only then did Huo Jingsi stop.
Even so, Li Mo hadn’t forgotten to pull the conversation back to the main point—
“For tonight’s banquet, both the Meng and Kong families are coming?”
The Meng, Kong, and Huo families were hailed as the empire’s three major clans. Economically speaking, each of the three excelled in their respective fields without interfering with one another, and originally there hadn’t been much friction between them. However, ever since some distant grandfather of Huo Jingsi’s countless generations ago began dabbling in imperial politics, the three families came to govern the empire’s three major bases respectively, sowing the seeds of conflicting interests.
As for this election for the Governor-General, one of the front-running candidates was Huo Jingsi, while the other fiercely contested candidate was the eldest son of the Meng family, Meng Jinze.
The two men shared similar backgrounds, both stemming from the highest aristocratic bloodlines and backed by the empire’s most formidable patrons. By any metric, they were evenly matched. Consequently, right now, the two of them or rather, the Huo and Meng families were locked in an intensely fierce rivalry where victory was too close to call.
The position held by the Kong family, on the other hand, was rather awkward. With the Huo and Meng families at each other’s throats, the Kongs had no overt bones to pick with either faction. Leaning even slightly toward one side would be equivalent to offending the other. Therefore, for a banquet like this, the Kong family chose to sit it out entirely and avoided proactive participation whenever possible.
Not to mention, tonight’s banquet was organized by Huo Jingsi himself.
“Surface-level courtesy is at least required,” Huo Jingsi replied. “The invitations have already been sent out. Whether they come or not is their business; if they brush off our hospitality this time, we won’t have to hold back so many reservations when handling things in the future.”
When Huo Jingsi spoke of such matters, he carried a bland casualness, as if he were discussing how today’s dishes were a bit too salty. Only Li Mo knew that when it came to the election, Huo Jingsi genuinely didn’t take his rival seriously at all even though, compared to him, the opponent wasn’t lacking in any particular area.
“That’s true.” Li Mo nodded, then slid his hands away to pull himself out of Huo Jingsi’s embrace. Turning to face him square-on, he began straightening the man’s clothes while offering earnest, heart-to-heart counsel: “Still, don’t push things to absolute extremes. Maintaining good relations with the Meng family can never hurt; at least once you ascend to the position of Governor-General, mutual cooperation down the road will be indispensable.”
I know you thoroughly despise the Meng family, but at least exercise some caution, will you? What if I’m not the only one trying to kill you what if they want to kill you too?
Besides, don’t worry even if the whole world turns against you, your pillow-partner will undoubtedly step up as the very first person to pick up a knife and stab you to death.
Though those were Li Mo’s private musings, they were still legally a married couple after all, so he decided he should still offer Huo Jingsi a mild reminder.
Watching him express concern for his safety, Huo Jingsi raised a hand to flick him lightly on the forehead in a flirtatious gesture: “I know. I’m just running my mouth in front of you without keeping my guard up, that’s all.”
Li Mo laughed along, using a coquettish tone to tell him to stop fooling around.
Yet the second he finished speaking, acutely aware of the tone he had just used, he mentally gagged through several rounds of nausea.
“Before we head to the banquet, Father wants us to drop by his place first,” Huo Jingsi shifted topics abruptly.
Go to the Huo family residence a place even more agonizingly torturous than death itself?!
Alarm bells blared wildly inside Li Mo’s heart.