Chapter 2
Come Home with Me
“Xingxing, you finally came out! Let Godmother take a look. Did the drinks upset your stomach? Why are you so pale?”
The moment Qi Xing stepped out of the lounge, a graceful, luxuriously dressed middle-aged woman in designer formalwear hurried over. Tang Wanrou shoved her own son, Huo Shaoyan, out of the way and cradled Qi Xing’s face with concern.
Huo Shaoyan stumbled back half a step, looking helpless. “Mom, he’s fine. He just had a little to drink. Though his tendency to ramble has definitely gotten worse.”
“Shut up!” Tang Wanrou shot her son a fierce glare. “It’s Xingxing’s birthday today. So what if he had a couple extra drinks because he was happy? As his older brother, you don’t know how to stay by his side and keep an eye on him—you just hide inside and look at your phone! Why did I even give birth to a blockhead like you?”
Huo Shaoyan: “…” He wisely chose to keep his mouth shut. After all, in this family, his standing had always ranked below Qi Xing’s.
Looking at the living, breathing Tang Wanrou in front of him, Qi Xing’s eyes grew hot again.
In his previous life, he had been orphaned and, by a twist of fate, met and fell in love with Shaoyan. In this life, the original owner’s parents had died in a car accident, and it was Aunt Tang who had given him unconditional maternal love.
He obediently rubbed his cheek against Tang Wanrou’s palm, his voice softening. “Godmother, I’m fine. I just missed you.”
“Oh, my sweet baby.” Tang Wanrou’s heart practically melted.
Qi Xing had always been clingy with her, but there had usually been an indescribable awkwardness and caution in it. Today, however, his simple “I missed you” was exceptionally sincere.
She turned to Huo Shaoyan, her tone instantly switching into command mode. “Shaoyan, Xingxing is drunk. Don’t let him go back to the Qi family estate tonight. Take him to your downtown apartment and take good care of him. If I find even one hair missing from Xingxing tomorrow, you’re dead. Do you hear me?”
Huo Shaoyan rubbed his brow and glanced at Qi Xing, who wore an innocent expression with the faintest hint of a provocative smile. In the end, he answered in a low voice, “Got it.”
The luxury sedan moved steadily through the night.
The back seat was exceptionally well insulated, completely shutting out the noise from outside.
Qi Xing leaned against the leather seat. The aftereffects of the alcohol were setting in, making the body of this recently presented Omega feel warm.
A faint, almost imperceptible rose scent quietly spread through the air. It wasn’t an ordinary rose scent, but a cool fragrance with an alluring, soul-hooking quality.
Huo Shaoyan’s fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel. As a top-tier Alpha, his perception of pheromones was frighteningly sharp. What was more, Qi Xing’s pheromones had always held an inexplicable attraction for him.
“Qi Xing.” Huo Shaoyan glanced at him through the rearview mirror, his voice a little lower and raspier. “Rein in your pheromones. And shouldn’t you replace the patch on the back of your neck?”
Qi Xing gave a self-deprecating smile. This body was too weak, and he still hadn’t fully adapted to the ABO physiology of this world. He raised his long fingers and gently stroked the square scent-blocking patch on the back of his neck.
The old “Qi Xing,” because of his inferiority complex, had always desperately used scent-blocking patches to smother his pheromones, terrified of letting even the slightest trace escape and making Huo Shaoyan think he was “seducing” him.
But the Qi Xing of today wouldn’t do that anymore.
“Shaoyan.” Qi Xing opened his eyes. The beautiful peach-shaped eyes no longer held their former evasiveness; instead, they were astonishingly bright.
He leaned forward slightly toward the back of the driver’s seat, drawing the distance between them extremely close.
“Does my pheromone smell bad? Or is it that… you can’t resist it?”
“Screech—” Huo Shaoyan nearly slammed on the brakes. His handsome brows drew tightly together as he stared at Qi Xing through the rearview mirror again.
This young master had always been a little troublemaker, but when it came to love, he was like a hedgehog, shrinking back at the slightest touch. And today, he actually dared to speak to him in a tone that was practically flirtatious?
“Qi Xing, you’re really acting strange today.” Huo Shaoyan’s voice turned cold, carrying the distinctive red-wine scent of an Alpha and sounding almost like a warning.
“What’s strange about me?” Qi Xing wasn’t afraid in the slightest. Instead, he smiled even more broadly.
He looked at Huo Shaoyan’s extremely short buzz cut. Though his words were dismissive, the deep affection in his eyes was practically spilling over. “Have I started liking you even more, or have I become… even more eager to get closer to you, hmm?”
Huo Shaoyan’s heartbeat inexplicably skipped. His red-wine pheromones exploded uncontrollably through the car, thick with possessiveness.
In the past, Qi Xing would have been frightened pale by the pressure of a high-level Alpha, then started making a scene while saying one thing and meaning another.
But now, Qi Xing merely narrowed his eyes slightly, like a lazy cat, even taking a deep breath as if he enjoyed it.
“President Huo, drive faster.” Qi Xing issued the order with brazen indulgence. “I’m tired. I want to sleep.”
The knuckles of Huo Shaoyan’s hands around the steering wheel turned faintly white. He looked away and gave a cold snort, but quietly pressed down on the accelerator.
This little troublemaker… really did seem different somehow.
But damn it, he discovered that he didn’t actually dislike this change.
By the time they reached the underground parking garage of the apartment building, Qi Xing was already half-asleep and drifting.
Huo Shaoyan walked around to the back seat and opened the door. Looking at the young man sprawled across the seat, his long legs with nowhere to go, he sighed helplessly. “Get up. We’re here.”
Qi Xing mumbled and stretched out his long arms. “Carry me.”
Huo Shaoyan laughed despite himself. “Qi Xing, you’re twenty-two, not two.”
“I can’t move. I’m tired.” Qi Xing kept his eyes closed and shamelessly played helpless. “My legs are weak. I can’t walk. Are you carrying me or not? If you don’t, I’m calling Godmother right now and telling her you abandoned me in the underground parking garage.”
A vein throbbed at Huo Shaoyan’s temple.
Great. Using Tang Wanrou—his own mother—to threaten him. Qi Xing was getting smoother and smoother with that trick.
“You’re really spoiled.” Though he complained, Huo Shaoyan resignedly bent down, slipped one arm around Qi Xing’s shoulders, and threaded the other beneath his knees, easily lifting him into his arms.
“Mm…” The instant he fell into that familiar embrace, Qi Xing instinctively buried his head in the hollow of Huo Shaoyan’s neck. In a flash, the rich red-wine scent wrapped around him completely. It was the safe harbor he alone had chosen, spanning more than five hundred years of time.
The nerves Qi Xing had kept taut for five hundred years finally relaxed completely in that moment.
Huo Shaoyan carried him toward the elevator, the Omega’s softness and warmth continuously flowing into him.
As Qi Xing relaxed, his collar loosened slightly, revealing his long, fair neck and the somewhat worn scent-blocking patch at the nape.
The skin there was unusually sensitive, rising and falling faintly with Qi Xing’s even breathing.
Huo Shaoyan lowered his head, his gaze falling on Qi Xing’s completely unguarded sleeping face.
Without his usual ferociousness, Qi Xing’s delicate features looked somewhat androgynous and obedient beneath the elevator’s soft lighting. His skin was fair and his face beautiful, with a faint flush of drunkenness still lingering at the corners of his eyes.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but Huo Shaoyan felt that Qi Xing was holding him incredibly tightly, as if he were… embracing a priceless treasure he had lost and regained.
“Shaoyan…” The person in his arms murmured unconsciously and burrowed even deeper into his embrace.
Huo Shaoyan’s chest inexplicably grew warm, as if stuffed full of cotton, unbearably hot and soft. He tightened his arms around him and said in a low voice, “I’m here. Go to sleep.”