In truth, Li Mo didn’t like attending these aristocratic banquets in the least.
Flattery and sycophancy, hypocrisy and deceit, each harboring their own hidden agendas.
Words like these couldn’t be more fitting to describe them.
Yet as it happened, he was forced to deal with them regardless, finding it annoying as hell.
“Wu Ma made some pastries; remember to eat a little to line your stomach before we head out later.” Huo Jingsi’s voice suddenly rang out beside his ear.
Following the sound, Li Mo looked over, only to discover that the man was stripped to the waist, getting ready to change his clothes right in front of him.
Li Mo: ……
I know you have an exceptionally good physique, but…
Mentally shouting out a powerless and helpless cry of unbecoming of a gentleman, he silently averted his gaze.
“Alright, I’ll go change my clothes first.” Li Mo picked up the formal wear Wu Ma had ironed for him and walked toward the walk-in closet.
He wasn’t going to change his clothes in front of other people like Huo Jingsi did how shameless!
Yet the moment he stood up, he was pulled back by Huo Jingsi.
Without the slightest deviation, he crashed straight into Huo Jingsi’s arms.
The man had just put on his inner white dress shirt and hadn’t had time to fasten the buttons yet, allowing the pheromones exclusive to an S-class Alpha to aggressively drill into Li Mo’s nose, choking him so badly he almost gagged.
Looking at the two snowy, broad pectoral muscles right before his eyes, Li Mo: ?
Why did this scenario feel a bit familiar?
Though his gland had been modified and pheromones from other individuals basically had no effect on him, the post-modification compatibility between his pheromones and Huo Jingsi’s stood at 100%. This resulted in Li Mo still experiencing a minor physiological reaction whenever Huo Jingsi engaged in daytime debauchery.
Things like nausea and discomfort, for instance.
Meanwhile, Huo Jingsi only knew that Li Mo’s pheromones had reached a 100% compatibility rate with his own. From a physiological standpoint, such intimacy felt to him like an entirely comforting contact that made both parties feel immensely pleased.
“No rush yet, the clothes will get wrinkled later.” Huo Jingsi pinched Li Mo’s waist, burying his head into the crook of his neck and rubbing against it. All of his warm breath sprayed directly onto Li Mo’s most sensitive spots.
Long ago, Li Mo had noticed that Huo Jingsi was exceptionally fond of performing this action on him, truly resembling the kind of clingy, large dog that kept sniffing at him incessantly as if he could never get enough of the scent.
Li Mo let out a helpless sigh. While comforting himself internally that he should just grit his teeth and endure these trivial matters, he fished Huo Jingsi’s hands which were on the verge of sliding into his trousers out from his clothes. At the same time, a thought suddenly occurred to him: “Is your rutting period coming up soon?”
Huo Jingsi froze: “I almost forgot if you hadn’t mentioned it.”
No wonder he had only been thinking about getting up to unchaste things with Li Mo every time he looked at him these past few days.
With that, the arm wrapped around Li Mo tightened by several notches, and he rubbed against the back of Li Mo’s neck once more, as though desperate to knead Li Mo straight into his own body.
Concurrently, he clung closely, leaning in to kiss Li Mo’s lips.
Okay, stop!
Mentally, Li Mo wanted to call a halt to this sort of behavior that was dangerously prone to crossing the line, yet on the outside he had no idea how to push him away. Furthermore, he knew he certainly wouldn’t escape unscathed tonight.
“Alright, put your clothes on first,” Li Mo patted his back, offering a word of comfort. “We can talk about everything else tonight when we get back.”
Following that, he retrieved an isolation patch with superior blocking properties from the drawer on the bedside table and said to Huo Jingsi, “I’ll help you put it on.”
Huo Jingsi obediently sat on the edge of the bed and lowered his head, while Li Mo knelt behind him, meticulously applying the isolation patch for him.
Truth be told, this genuinely was a posture perfectly suited for assassination.
Looking at the carotid artery and windpipe exposed so bare before his eyes, Li Mo recalled all the scenarios of assassinating Huo Jingsi that he had previously fantasized about in his mind.
If he could kill Huo Jingsi right this instant, he would slice Huo Jingsi’s throat open with a dagger without the slightest hesitation, then leap out the window and flee. Furthermore, he was confident he could pull it off with absolute neatness and precision.
Yet now was not the time; he still couldn’t do it.
Being unable to kill the target right in front of him left him feeling an itchy, restless frustration.
As for Huo Jingsi, having Li Mo’s soft fingers trace back and forth across the back of his neck felt like scratching an itch on his heart through a layer of gauze. Yet because they had to attend a banquet shortly, he couldn’t simply pin Li Mo down and devour him right then and there.
Being unable to eat the meal served right to his mouth left his entire body feeling uncomfortable all over.
“All done.” Li Mo smoothed down the isolation patch, casually helped straighten Huo Jingsi’s clothes, stepped down from the bed, and gently patted Huo Jingsi’s cheek with his hand. “All set, go change your clothes.”
Huo Jingsi looked up at Li Mo. When this person smiled as he looked at him, his entire body seemed coated in a layer of soft radiance. He involuntarily grasped Li Mo’s hand. Clearly, the action of Li Mo patting his cheek should have carried an insulting connotation, yet it inexplicably stirred a unique sense of satisfaction deep within his heart.
Had someone told him three years ago that he would develop the notion of wanting to spend eternity with another person, he would never have believed it. He wouldn’t have believed that there could exist someone in this world whom he could adore to such an extent, nor would he have believed that he could harbor such profound emotions for another individual.
Yet right now, with Li Mo standing here right before him, he even hoped that he could remain with this person in his next life as well.
At the banquet venue.
“Clink”
High-end glassware collided, producing a crisp ring. Li Mo raised the champagne glass in his hand and gently took a small sip, tilting his head back.
“Mr. Li’s popularity these days is almost about to catch up with those entertainment celebrities.” A young Alpha chuckled playfully.
This person was the newly appointed magistrate of District Seven, only twenty-three years old this year. He could be considered promising and accomplished among his peers, provided one ignored his prominent aristocratic background behind him.
Yet that was precisely the most ridiculous part. If Li Mo remembered correctly, just last year, the person before him had landed on the imperial court for sexually assaulting a civilian Omega while intoxicated in District Five. Not only had the facts been twisted to claim that he was merely escorting a frail Omega home that night, but he had also smoothly and splendidly ascended to the position of District Seven magistrate.
“You flatter me, Magistrate,” Li Mo smiled politely, flattering him in return. “I can’t compare to your youth and capability.”
While his exterior remained composed, inwardly he had already spat in disdain.
If he were able to, he would be more than happy to let the person before him lose his head on the spot.
“Naturally. Thanks to the grace of Lord Huo, I even get to witness an elite among commoners like Mr. Li.” A trace of sarcasm crept into the man’s tone, and his gaze no longer held the pure playfulness it had moments ago.
Li Mo hailed from a civilian background. When he married Huo Jingsi, it coincided with the former governor abolishing the regulation prohibiting intermarriage between aristocrats and commoners, a process involving extremely complex relations and disputes. In short, to prevent the former governor from seizing the military power held in the Huo family’s hands, the Huo family responded proactively, arranging for Huo Jingsi to marry Li Mo, a commoner.
Although everyone maintained silence on the surface out of apprehension toward the Huo family, Li Mo’s civilian background was frequently brought up and ridiculed by these aristocrats in private as dinner-table gossip.
And Li Mo was well aware of all of this.
He simply didn’t care about such things. What baffled him most right now was why this person felt the need to mock him right to his face. To take a step back, didn’t he fear that Li Mo would go complain to Huo Jingsi?
Li Mo clicked his tongue inwardly, confirming in his heart that the individual before him had secured his position as magistrate entirely through connections; as for his intelligence and emotional quotient, he didn’t possess a single ounce of either.
“This gentleman certainly has a silver tongue.”
Before Li Mo had time to adjust his expression, another voice chimed in from the side.
Following the sound, Li Mo watched as Meng Jinze walked over. Courteous and smiling, he said to the magistrate: “I just wonder if these words would sound as pleasant to others if they happened to reach Lord Huo’s ears?”
Realizing that Meng Jinze had stepped in to bail Li Mo out, the man found it dull and turned away, walking off.
As for Li Mo, he felt somewhat puzzled.
Why is he here?
Li Mo had assumed members of the Meng family wouldn’t show up. After all, this was a banquet hosted by Huo Jingsi; even if one had to put on a show of superficial courtesy, still.
Sigh, he couldn’t figure out or even care to puzzle out the underlying stakes; these aristocrats always loved fussing over trivial matters that served no purpose.
It was the kind of stuff he, a commoner, felt was entirely unnecessary.
“Mr. Meng, thank you.” Li Mo raised his glass to Meng Jinze, clinking it across the empty space.
“Don’t thank me,” Meng Jinze walked closer to him and said, “You are a member of the Huo family; he had no business speaking to you like that.”
Hearing this, Li Mo merely smiled without uttering a word.
He certainly wouldn’t stoop to relying on someone else’s power to bully others.
“I used to only hear others talk about how peace-loving and mild-tempered you were. Now seeing it with my own eyes, I realize those people really weren’t wrong at all.” Meng Jinze accepted a glass of wine from a passing server. Without drinking it, he set it down on the round table in front of him.
“If I bothered to fuss and haggle over every little trivial matter every day, how could I go on living my life?” Li Mo replied with mild humor.
Simultaneously, a surge of vigilance rose within him, because Meng Jinze didn’t seem to be merely acting out of a simple desire to help him out of a tight spot.
“I doubt it.” Meng Jinze shook his head, politely puncturing his polite facade.
Hearing this, Li Mo met his gaze head-on, only to discover that the man’s smile was filled with hypocrisy, utterly devoid of the earlier friendliness and politeness.
On second thought, that made sense. The Meng family’s influence permeated nearly the entire Imperial Parliament—the empire’s highest-ranking organ of power. Children of the Meng family grew up immersed in such an environment from youth, naturally absorbing the shrewd calculation of career politicians. Meng Jinze standing before him was a prime example.
“The look in your eyes just now clearly wanted to kill that man.”
Li Mo possessed absolute confidence in his own acting skills, knowing full well that Meng Jinze was simply trying to probe him.
“However, if I recall correctly, imperial law explicitly stipulates the death penalty for rapists,” Li Mo remained unbravely poised. “Logically speaking, this person ought to have died around this time last year. Yet here he is, appearing here today and even serving as the magistrate of District Seven. Mr. Meng, don’t you find that utterly ridiculous?”
“Mr. Meng should have known long ago that imperial law holds no sway over us aristocrats,” Meng Jinze retorted. “However, if Mr. Li wishes to execute him personally, that wouldn’t be a problem either after all, the Huo family treats you as one of their own now.”
Meng Jinze paused briefly, then flashed Li Mo an ambiguous look as he stated: “It’s just hard to say whether Mr. Li actually views himself as a member of the Huo family.”
Having said that, Meng Jinze smiled at him, picked up his glass from the table, clinked it against his, and walked away directly without waiting for a reply.
Watching the man’s retreating figure, Li Mo froze in place. Meng Jinze’s cryptic words made him feel as though his heart had been viciously yanked.