After a moment of silence, Ning Zhu slowly exploded: “You… did that on purpose, didn’t you!?”

This kid clearly hadn’t even entered the susceptible period where he loses his mind yet!!

“Do you regret it?” Dou Changxiao asked again.

Ning Zhu frowned: “I regret it. Very much.”

Dou Changxiao calmly explained to him, “All Alphas in the susceptible period are such jerks.”

Ning Zhu: “……”

No, you’re the biggest jerk of them all.

He stared wide-eyed at the headboard, mourning his broken bed frame with a heavy heart for a few seconds. The hole drilled by the power drill earlier could at least be passably explained away as artistic design, but this time it really had to be replaced.

“I regret it. Really. There won’t be a next time.” He gazed wistfully at Dou Changxiao. “From now on, during your ruts, I absolutely won’t let you stay here.”

Dou Changxiao: “……”

Very well.

He should be happy.

It’s worth celebrating.

Just then, Ning Zhu happened to catch a glimpse of a terrifyingly red mark on Dou Changxiao’s wrist—likely left from when they’d been struggling with the handcuffs earlier. It looked painful just to look at.

…Sometimes he really couldn’t figure out what this kid was thinking.

Or is it just that S-class Alphas all act this erratically before their heat period?

Unfortunately, Ning Zhu hadn’t met any other top-tier Alphas besides Dou Changxiao so far, so he had nothing to compare it to.

He sighed and said, “I think all that stuff you brought is pointless. With your strength, that protective gear wouldn’t do me any good when your fists come flying at me. At best, it’d just be like hitting a cow from across a mountain…”

“……”

Dou Changxiao ignored the idiom. “I won’t…”

“I won’t hurt you,” he instinctively wanted to say. But this set of protective gear, which he used during his combat competitions, had indeed been brought here by him.

He rephrased himself: “…It’s just in case. I’m not that scary.”

Ning Zhu glanced at the mess he’d made and gave a gentle smile: “Heh.”

Dou Changxiao fell silent.

Ning Zhu was indeed feeling a bit uneasy right now, unsettled by the other’s various antics.

He pressed his lips together and decided to leave this space as soon as possible. “I’ll go back to my bedroom. If you need anything during your susceptible period, just message me on WeChat.”

Dou Changxiao: “Mm.”

He walked Ning Zhu to the door. After watching him walk out, he turned back, looking somewhat hesitant.

Dou Changxiao: “What’s wrong?”

“Well, letting you stay here was my idea after all…” Ning Zhu touched his lips. “If you can’t resist the urge to cause some chaos, feel free to break a few pieces of furniture. It’s your susceptible period—I understand.”

Dou Changxiao: “Got it.”

Dou Changxiao watched him leave the guest bedroom and closed the door.

The intimidation mission was complete, and he had his own business to attend to; he wouldn’t need to go overboard for the next two days.

He locked the door from the inside, packed his protective gear, power drill, and other items he needed—or that were simply too excessive—into his backpack, while leaving the rest of the odds and ends scattered around the room to serve as a constant reminder to the other person.

He then took out his laptop and reviewed professional materials for two hours before washing up and going to bed. The next day, to mimic the manic symptoms of an Alpha’s susceptible period, Dou Changxiao set an alarm to go off every half hour. Whenever it rang, he would stop working, get up, and make some noise in the room.

Over the weekend, Ning Zhu had originally planned to watch a couple of movies downstairs, but was startled by the clanging and clattering noises from upstairs and hesitantly returned to his room.

However, once nine o’clock rolled around, the noisy sounds from upstairs vanished.

Ning Zhu thought: …This kid’s susceptible period is actually quite well-behaved.

━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━

The entire weekend passed peacefully amidst these nerve-wracking noises.

On Sunday evening, Dou Changxiao had to return to S University to avoid delaying the next day’s work. He had scaled back the noise-making from early morning onward, and by evening, he sent Ning Zhu a message saying his susceptible period had passed.

Ning Zhu hadn’t gone out these past two days; after all, he’d signed Dou Changxiao’s registration form, so he had to take responsibility.

Upon receiving the message, he realized it was almost time for his medication. Since Dou Changxiao hadn’t left yet, he wouldn’t have to make him make another trip in a couple of days.

Ning Zhu went to knock on the guest bedroom door.

Dou Changxiao opened the door. Ning Zhu first studied him for a moment; seeing that everything seemed normal, he glanced around the room—to his surprise, it was still quite tidy.

Like a landlord inspecting a room before a tenant moves out, he walked meticulously around the entire room but found no other damaged furniture.

Dou Changxiao turned back to busily unpack the things he’d brought, paying him no mind.

After finishing his inspection, Ning Zhu walked to the window, leaned his back against the edge of the bed, and quietly watched Dou Changxiao’s movements.

The other man moved quite deftly; for a moment, aside from the rustling sounds, no one spoke.

Watching the scene before him, Ning Zhu suddenly felt a warm yet strange sense of familiarity, and the corners of his lips turned up slightly.

Dou Changxiao turned around and saw Ning Zhu looking at him with a faint smile playing on his lips. The smile was framed by the orange-gold glow of the evening sun streaming through the window, giving it a soft, gentle quality.

He stopped abruptly and stared at her for a moment.

There it was again—that beautiful, bewitching smile.

Dou Changxiao held back, not asking a single question.

That bastard would never say anything nice.

Half a minute passed.

“…What are you smiling about?”

“Oh…” Seeing Dou Changxiao looking at him, Ning Zhu explained, “I was watching you pack your bag, and it suddenly reminded me of those parents dropping their kids off at boarding school on weekend nights.”

He gestured between them with his index finger, grinning. “Don’t you think it’s just like what’s happening now? Haha…”

His cheerful laughter continued, and Dou Changxiao’s backpack thudded onto the desk.

Ning Zhu: “……”

His laughter finally ended with an awkward little cough, and he raised his eyes to carefully study Dou Changxiao’s profile for a few seconds.

That thud a moment ago seemed like an accident—after all, Dou Changxiao’s bag was packed with a bunch of heavy, unidentifiable items. The other guy was still calmly packing his things, showing no particular reaction.

But Ning Zhu inexplicably felt that this kid wasn’t in the mood, and even seemed a little… annoyed?

He quickly put his smile away, standing silently beside him with a slightly more serious expression, wondering where his joke had gone too far.

He tentatively called out to him, “Changxiao?”

Dou Changxiao obediently replied, “Mm.”

Ning Zhu let out a soft sigh and stopped dwelling on the joke.

Once he’d stopped second-guessing himself, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself in exasperation: …Surely no other sugar baby acts more subservient than I do.

With that distraction, Ning Zhu temporarily forgot about taking his medicine.

Dou Changxiao kept his head down as he zipped up his backpack.

It seemed he was all packed.

Ning Zhu moved away from the windowsill and stood up to open the door for his esteemed sugar baby.

He turned the doorknob, but just as he cracked the door open a little, it was slammed shut with a single hand.

The Alpha’s body heat pressed against his back, and Ning Zhu froze for a moment.

Just as he was about to turn around in surprise, his ear was suddenly enveloped by something warm and wet.

Something even wetter and softer swept slowly and heavily halfway down his ear, finally circling his earlobe twice.

An intense tingling sensation spread from the base of his spine to the top of his head, but before Ning Zhu could recover from this numbness, a sharp pain followed as his earlobe was bitten hard by sharp canine teeth.

Only then did the Alpha behind him slowly step back.

Ning Zhu gripped the doorknob, frozen in place.

After a few seconds, he turned back, his face dark with anger.

“Sorry, I’ll stay one more night,” Dou Changxiao said calmly and openly, meeting Ning Zhu’s piercing gaze. “It seems my rut hasn’t passed yet.”

Ning Zhu: “…”