The sweet, coconut scent in the air grew increasingly distinct.

Ning Zhu’s gaze drifted blankly for a few seconds. Whose fruit stall is this… with coconuts this sweet?

Those things have such thick shells—aren’t they usually tasteless?

…Huh?

Ning Zhu’s expression froze for an instant before he turned his head in disbelief to look at Dou Changxiao beside him.

“…Whoa.”

Dou Changxiao heard a faint, sharp intake of breath, like a pained reaction.

Glancing over, he saw only the sucker idly rubbing the back of his neck with a soft sigh.

Ning Zhu recovered, activating the collar’s isolation function. Sure enough, the coconut scent faded slightly.

It really was the scent of pheromones.

Stealing a whiff of someone else’s pheromones was truly unethical, though it hadn’t been Ning Zhu’s intention.

Silently, he adjusted the collar’s barrier setting to maximum, completely blocking the other’s scent, and then fell into deep thought.

Wei Tingfeng had once told Ning Zhu that his glands were insensitive to the pheromones of low-matching Alphas. Only when the compatibility exceeded a certain threshold could Ning Zhu potentially detect the other’s scent.

Over the years, Ning Zhu had encountered two Alphas with relatively high compatibility in the pheromone database. He had paid a hefty sum to acquire samples of their pheromones, taking them to Wei Tingfeng for more precise compatibility testing. The results were 90% and 92% respectively. Yet Ning Zhu could only detect the latter’s scent.

Ning Zhu glanced at Dou Changxiao’s retreating figure.

His compatibility with this Alpha before him was at least 90%.

By the time police and store staff arrived, Dou Changxiao had already withdrawn his pheromones. Only the cold night breeze lingered in the air. Among the staff rushing over from the nightclub, Ning Zhu recognized several—the manager who had granted him privileges not long ago, and the Omega boy who had helped him call the police and summon help.

The manager approached, apologizing profusely, but Ning Zhu waved him off. “It wasn’t a conflict that started in the store. It’s not your fault.”

He glanced toward the Omega standing further back, who immediately hurried over. “Mr. Ning, are you hurt?”

“No.” Ning Zhu pointed toward Dou Changxiao, who stood with his back to him. “Did you call for help?”

The Omega nodded. “I didn’t know which way you’d gone, so Cheng Yang and I went to search the other end.”

Cheng Yang was an Alpha standing behind him. Ning Zhuo glanced at him and felt a sense of familiarity. His memory was sharp; he recalled the man as one of Dou Changxiao’s companions from earlier.

Police escorted the unconscious bodies lying on the ground into the patrol car. Ning Zhuo and other relevant individuals were also notified to report to the police station for questioning.

The Omega who reported the incident, Fang Huaixin, sat beside Ning Zhu during questioning.

“…You’re from S University?” the officer asked in surprise. “Attending such a prestigious school, only a sophomore, and you’re out doing this?”

Fang Huaixin pressed his lips together. “Someone in my family is ill.”

Ning Zhu heard this and was somewhat surprised.

He had attended S University himself, but didn’t expect to run into an alumnus on this outing.

After that, it was time for individual statements. The auxiliary police officer conducting the questioning noticed Ning Zhu’s upright posture and straight neck, and couldn’t help but smile. “No need to be nervous. Just relax and answer the questions.”

Ning Zhu: “Ah, well, it’s because…”

His voice abruptly halted.

At this very moment, the glandular area at the back of his neck showed no signs of discomfort.

Ning Zhu raised his hand to tug at the collar, the inner patch device rubbing against his skin.

Yet still, not a single tinge of stinging sensation.

━━━━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━━━━

By the time everything was settled, it was already late into the night.

Ning Zhu was the last to finish his statement. Stepping out of the interrogation room, he encountered Fang Huaixin in the hallway, backpack slung over his shoulder. The other seemed to have been waiting for him. The moment Ning Zhu appeared, Fang Huaixin waved and approached.

“Mr. Ning,” he said, unzipping the backpack to reveal an unopened bottle of liquor inside. “You left your liquor behind.”

Fang Huaixin carefully retrieved it. “Before coming here, I stopped by the store and brought it over for you.”

“I can’t handle a drop right now,” Ning Zhu smiled faintly. “Put it back. You keep it for yourself.”

Fang Huaixin froze. “But…”

“Where’s your colleague?” Ning Zhu interrupted gently.

“The one named Changxiao.”

Fang Huaixin clutched the bottle of wine worth its weight in gold, his mind foggy. He hadn’t even registered Ning Zhu’s use of the word “colleague.”

“Huh? Oh… He’s waiting with Cheng Yang in the lobby.”

━━━━━ 🐈‍⬛ ━━━━━

Lobby.

Cheng Yang glanced once more toward the exit of the interrogation room corridor. Seeing no one emerge, he sighed heavily, his mind heavy with worry.

He turned to look at Dou Changxiao, who was flipping through his phone. “How long has it been? The statement should be finished by now. Why hasn’t Huaixin come out yet?”

Dou Changxiao didn’t even look up. “No idea.”

Cheng Yang sighed dejectedly, “There’s no other way out of here, right? He couldn’t have already gone back?”

Dou Changxiao: “Possible.”

Cheng Yang: “…Could you at least say something nice?”

Dou Changxiao briefly lifted his head: “I can’t think of anything nice to say.”

Cheng Yang had fallen for a junior two years his junior. After chasing him for over a year, they finally got together. But barely two months in, the other guy dumped him without even a decent reason.

Dou Changxiao usually didn’t care much about such matters. Tonight, he’d been dragged to the bar by the heartbroken Cheng Yang to drown his sorrows in alcohol.

The moment they walked in, they spotted Fang Huaixin—Cheng Yang’s ex-boyfriend, who worked as a host at the nightclub.

Cheng Yang’s expression turned serious. “Huaixin isn’t like that. He must be going through something tough.”

Dou Changxiao wasn’t close with Fang Huaixin, so he kept quiet and continued staring at his phone screen.

“What have you been looking at?”

“The exam syllabus.”

Cheng Yang: “…Oh, you mean that exam you missed last week?”

A few days prior, Dou Changxiao had inexplicably missed a rather important exam. The instructor, having to create a separate make-up exam, was furious. Not only had they changed the syllabus, but the difficulty level had also skyrocketed.

This guy was studying clinical medicine, so it was pretty rough.

Hearing Cheng Yang mention the exam, Dou Changxiao couldn’t help but picture that poor sucker surnamed Ning’s face.

Last time they met, the guy fainted, and Dou Changxiao ended up chasing after the ambulance, missing his exam.

This time, the guy got cornered in an alley, dragging Dou Changxiao into the mess and forcing him to spend half the night at the police station.

Conclusion: That Ning fellow must have been some kind of jinx in a past life. Not only is he unlucky himself, but he seems to drag everyone he encounters down with him.

Cheng Yang: “They’re out!”

Dou Changxiao glanced down the hallway. Fang Huaixin was hugging his backpack, and Ning Zhu was right behind him, hands in pockets, strolling along at a leisurely pace.

The moment his gaze met Dou Changxiao’s, Ning Zhu’s nonchalant expression vanished instantly. He tilted his head slightly with a smile, as if offering a greeting.

“…”

Dou Changxiao couldn’t shake the feeling that the smile held an unsettling edge.

Before they drew near, Cheng Yang strode toward Fang Huaixin, seized his wrist, and whispered something. Ning Zhuo cast a puzzled glance at the two sharing secrets before silently circling around them.

Dou Changxiao lowered his head to continue studying the exam outline.

As he turned a page, a figure stopped half a meter in front of him, blocking most of the light shining on Dou Changxiao.

The person handed him a business card.

Dou Changxiao glanced at the two characters “Ning Zhu” printed in semi-cursive script and wasn’t particularly inclined to take it.

He turned off his phone screen, looked up, and asked directly, “What do you want?”

Ning Zhu promptly withdrew the card and said amiably, “My surname is Ning. I’m the Boss of Qisheng Technology.”

Standing against the light, his face was entirely cloaked in soft shadow. His features and contours blurred into a gentle haze, yet the eyes fixed on Dou Changxiao shone with an inexplicable brightness.

Unnaturally warm. Dou Changxiao’s brow furrowed briefly.

“No need for thanks,” he said.

Ning Zhu: “Oh, I am here to thank you. But this isn’t solely about that matter.”

Not solely about that matter, then it must be about the incident at the art exhibition last time. Dou Changxiao thought impassively: He was so drunk he could barely stand, yet he still remembered me.

Ning Zhu stared at Dou Changxiao’s face, gathering his thoughts for a moment. “…Changxiao, right?”

Being addressed so familiarly by a stranger made Dou Changxiao slightly uncomfortable, but he couldn’t be bothered to correct him.

Ning Zhu smiled warmly at him, continuing to ponder, “It’s a beautiful name.”

Dou Changxiao: “.”

I know.

Worn down by this roundabout small talk, he spoke up, “There’s no need to be polite about last time—”

Ning Zhu: “Name your price.”

Dou Changxiao’s ‘damn’ hung on his tongue for a split second before he swallowed it.

He paused. “…What?”

Ning Zhu stepped half a pace closer, his shadow falling over Dou Changxiao.

The small gap between them was filled with darkness, tinged with a hint of intimacy.

Dou Changxiao felt the other’s hand brush against his chest…

His eyelid twitched, and he raised his hand to push the person away. But when he lowered his gaze, he saw that between those slender white fingers and his own fabric lay a black bank card.

“…”

A rare blank look of bewilderment flashed across Dou Changxiao’s face.

“I said, name your price.”

Ning Zhu repeated the words in a suggestive whisper audible only to them, yet his tone was as straightforward as discussing a legitimate business deal:

“Mark me once. How much do you want?”

Dou Changxiao: “……………”