Perhaps because he’d been woken once before, Ning Zhu slept restlessly through the latter half of the night.

When he woke in the morning, his body felt unnaturally heavy. But Ning Zhu soon realized this wasn’t solely due to poor sleep.

…The air in the bedroom was saturated with his scent.

Ning Zhu’s pheromones were usually a soft, sweet fragrance, but their concentration was so high now that they actually felt cloying.

Sitting up in bed, he felt no part of his body was comfortable. It was as if every muscle bore twice its usual weight, making his entire being feel unbearably heavy.

Sniffing the cloying sweetness in the air, he realized it must have drifted downstairs by now. He suddenly felt relieved that Dou Changxiao had left in the early hours, sparing him much unnecessary awkwardness.

Changing into fresh clothes, he descended the stairs. From the medicine cabinet, he retrieved a vial of suppressant injection placed on the outer shelf. Lifting the stray hair at his nape, he furrowed his brow and slowly pushed the needle into his skin. The muscles around his neck immediately tensed.

Ning Zhu closed his eyes briefly.

The suppressant took effect quickly. Unlike cold or fever medication, which worked gradually, the suppressant hit hardest immediately after injection.

He tossed the syringe aside and leaned against the storage cabinet for a moment to recover.

The suppressant Ning Zhu used carried a mild sedative effect. By the time he returned upstairs to retrieve his collar, his glands had settled down, leaving only a faint lingering scent on his skin.

On weekdays, Ning Zhu wore his collar properly. During heat cycles, he was even more cautious, ensuring the inner patch adhered tightly to his skin.

He activated the collar’s barrier function and sprayed on some scent-blocking agent for extra precaution before heading out.

Old Zhao was already waiting downstairs. Ning Zhu looked no different than usual when he got into the car, though his wrists were limp as he opened the door.

This damn gland had been with him since birth. From his first heat during school days to now, Ning Zhu had long grown accustomed to managing it, never letting anyone see his discomfort.

Entering the Qisheng Company building, Ning Zhu waited for the elevator downstairs when a text message arrived.

[…Delete the video.]

He stared at the message for a moment, imagining Dou Changxiao’s cold, disheartened tone as he spoke those words. An involuntary chuckle escaped him. Just as he pondered a reply, two junior managers noticed his cheerful demeanor and boldly approached to greet him.

Ning Zhu nodded with a smile. Just then, the elevator arrived. He tucked his phone away, putting the reply on hold.

Today’s schedule was packed. Ning Zhu dove straight into work upon entering his office, back-to-back meetings consuming his attention. The text message slipped his mind until lunchtime.

With his lunch break tightly scheduled, Ning Zhu had no time to visit the company cafeteria. He asked Xiao Tao to order a meal instead, which he ate in the small break room adjacent to his office.

He opened the lunch Xiao Tao had delivered. To avoid post-lunch drowsiness, the meal consisted of several small boxes containing light meat and vegetable dishes, with little in the way of carbohydrates.

Ning Zhu slowly picked out the carrots and celery from his meal while glancing at the text message again.

The sender was surprisingly patient. After sending the first message and receiving no reply for a while, they hadn’t even sent a second one to follow up.

Hardly anyone used text messages these days. Ning Zhu typed his reply in the chat window, then awkwardly searched for an emoji: [Deleted [Wink]]

A quick response came: [Thanks.]

A moment later: [Really?]

The sender seemed unable to believe Ning Zhu would be so accommodating.

Ning Zhu wasn’t. Feeling a bit better, he playfully teased back: [Not true[winking]]

He waited a few minutes for a new message, but got none. He enjoyed the moment of happiness before putting his phone away and returning to his meal.

Ning Zhu’s efficiency was low today, leaving a small amount of work undone as the workday ended.

Though the documents weren’t urgent and could easily wait until tomorrow, Ning Zhu didn’t like leaving unfinished work for the next day. Besides, he anticipated feeling worse tomorrow than he did now, so he decided to stay an extra hour to wrap things up.

Xiao Tao’s first thought was that Ning Zhu might be coming down with a cold. He rarely saw his boss fail to finish the day’s work. But Ning Zhu waved him off, dismissing him, so Xiao Tao had no choice but to clock out and head home.

Not long after Xiao Tao left his office, Ning Zhu’s phone rang.

The inefficiency had left Ning Zhu slightly irritable. Without even looking, he grabbed his phone and answered it casually.

Still, his tone remained gentle when he spoke: “Hello.”

Silence hung over the line for several seconds before a voice came through: “Have you clocked out yet?”

The voice was deep and clear, strangely soothing. Ning Zhu paused, hesitating. “…Changxiao?”

A faint ‘Mhm’ came from the other end. “Have you clocked out yet?”

“Uh…” Ning Zhu glanced at the pile of documents on his desk. “Almost.”

A thought struck him, and he asked incredulously, “You didn’t call just to ask me to delete the video, did you?”

“If I say it over the phone, will you delete it?”

Ning Zhu replied briskly, “Of course not.”

The other end sounded unsurprised, stating matter-of-factly, ” I’m downstairs at your company.“

”…………“

Ning Zhu doubted his own ears. ”…What?“

Dou Changxiao clarified the company name more distinctly: ”Outside Qisheng Corporation.”

Ning Zhu shot up from his chair, his lips parting and closing.

He was utterly at a loss for words.

How could someone travel all the way to the entrance of someone else’s company building just to make a trivial, embarrassing video disappear from the world!

He hurried to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down, but could only see tiny figures the size of beans below Qisheng.

Ning Zhu’s eyesight wasn’t sharp enough to pick out Dou Changxiao from among those little dots.

“You…” Ning Zhu rubbed his forehead, hesitating for a long moment before finding his voice again. “Wait for me a few minutes.”

He hung up, strode out of his office, pressed the elevator button, and hurried downstairs toward the exterior of Qisheng Tower.

If not for his weak legs and the need to maintain his professional image, Ning Zhu would have nearly jogged there.

It was rush hour, and the building’s exterior was swarming with Qisheng employees clocking out for the day. Spotting someone in this crowd wouldn’t be easy. Yet Ning Zhu quickly spotted the tall, upright figure standing not far away.

Dou Changxiao waited for him in a small open space set slightly back from the sidewalk.

His gaze remained fixed on the main entrance of Qisheng, neither darting left nor right nor glancing at his phone like others waiting. He made the inherently tedious act of waiting seem focused and deliberate, as if no movement around him could draw his eyes away.

Such a handsome man standing there was undeniably eye-catching. Passersby always glanced back after walking past him, curious about who this Alpha was waiting for.

Yet when they saw the person approaching the Alpha was their own company’s boss, those curious gazes turned to stunned stares.

Ning Zhu arrived before Dou Changxiao, standing opposite him in silence for half a minute, his emotions complex.

This time, Dou Changxiao spoke first: “Please delete that video…”

Oh my, he even used “please.”

Ning Zhu found it rather amusing.

He realized the man before him possessed a truly unpredictable personality. At times, he was exceptionally thin-skinned—like when he’d damaged a potted plant in someone’s shop and, feeling embarrassed, had denied it without batting an eye. Yet at other times, he was remarkably bold—like now, willing to go to great lengths to make sure the evidence of his own humiliation vanished.

It was quite entertaining.

Putting aside his work to rush downstairs, Ning Zhu didn’t want to let the other person get away with it so easily. He deliberately sought amusement from Dou Changxiao: “Why should I delete it? You were the one acting drunk. I didn’t even hold it against you for causing trouble.”

Dou Changxiao frowned. “You gave me the alcohol.”

Ning Zhu asked curiously, “When I asked you last night, didn’t you say your tolerance wasn’t that bad? That you weren’t actually drunk because I made you drink?”

Dou Changxiao, who had dug his own grave: “…”

As they spoke, numerous Qisheng employees passed by, their surreptitious glances never ceasing.

Ning Zhu was, after all, famously eligible among Qisheng staff—handsome, charismatic, and with a fortune beyond measure. For a time, his romantic life dominated the company’s breakroom gossip.

Some had even tried to set him up with Ji Chi, reasoning that as co-founders and both single, sparks might fly behind the scenes. That was until a meeting where they clashed fiercely over a strategic direction for Qisheng. The tension was palpable, the confrontation so intense it startled the finance department next door. confirming that the friendship between these two bosses was as pure as could be.

Ning Zhu usually managed the company’s upper echelons and rarely visited the lower-level departments, so he rarely had the chance to observe them closely. Now, with this rare opportunity to gawk, no one passing by wanted to miss out.

Relying on the fact that the big boss wouldn’t remember the faces of minor employees, they watched with unrestrained curiosity. When Ning Zhu noticed, the corner of his mouth twitched. Everyone loves a good spectacle, huh?

He figured if he chatted with Dou Changxiao a few more minutes, tomorrow morning, his gossip would be flying all over the company.

Ah, whatever…

Ning Zhu turned his gaze to Dou Changxiao, thinking maybe he should just agree and let the person go. But then he heard the other man say coldly, “What do you want me to do so you’ll delete that thing?”

The “Alright” that nearly slipped from Ning Zhu’s lips was swallowed back. He looked up in surprise, studying Dou Changxiao’s face repeatedly to confirm he wasn’t joking.

Since the other party had offered so readily, Ning Zhu felt it would be unreasonable not to make a request.

He tentatively suggested, “Then the mark…”

The air instantly grew half a degree colder.

“…Just kidding,” Ning Zhu silently amended. “First… accompany me for a meal.”

He’d originally planned to use his last breath to finish work, not intending to waste time on dinner.

But since Dou Changxiao had already summoned him down, he might as well grab something to eat and escape the gaze of this group of human surveillance cameras.

Dou Changxiao lowered his eyes, deliberating for a long moment. His reluctance was obvious, but with his weak spot exposed, he could only concede. He followed Ning Zhu, keeping a half-step behind.