HOYSE CHAPTER 90

Chapter 90 — Why Are There So Many Turns

A sandstorm whipped through Gu Xi’s head. From the day they met until now he had managed his image so carefully, so how did it all fly out the window in a heartbeat?

He could not believe his luck. When Rong Jing made a small gesture meaning “wait outside,” Gu Xi wanted nothing more than to plant himself right there and refuse to move.

He shuffled to the corridor outside the martial arts room and saw Rong Jing on the third-floor landing, one leg slightly bent, leaning against the railing as he checked his phone. The hollowed bamboo lantern hanging over the reception hall threw a warm lattice of light that made him look even more striking.

Gu Xi shook off his daze and his gaze softened. His whole aura shifted. In his head he was already drafting a dozen explanations. He had to make Rong Jing believe he was soft and helpless, otherwise it would tank his future Husband-Material Index.

Rong Jing noticed him and lifted a hand. His face gave nothing away, so Gu Xi had no idea what he was thinking.

Gu Xi lowered his head, annoyed at himself for going for that moment of satisfaction. Why had he not just held back?

His feet moved slow, his mind spun fast.

As he drew close, his brain misfired. The instant their eyes met, he toppled in the opposite direction and fainted.

Opposite direction, which made it look perfectly unforced.

Rong Jing had wanted to ask questions. He already suspected what readers once assumed with rose-tinted glasses: Gu Xi in person was even more captivating than on the page. He had just told Zhou You to check into that executive, and the report came back ugly. Several managers who had jumped to Shengteng Entertainment mentioned that the man had a record of harassment and used disgusting tricks that left omegas unable to speak up.

Rong Jing saw red. If that scum had laid a finger on Gu Xi, no wonder Gu Xi had dropped the polite act and delivered a lesson.

He opened his mouth to ask, and Gu Xi, as if unable to bear another shock, collapsed.

Rong Jing reacted on instinct, catching the fragile omega before he hit the floor. Gu Xi melted naturally into his arms, breath so light it could barely be heard, face a touch too pale, brows pinched as if enduring some pain.

Rong Jing’s first thought was a pheromone-related illness. His fingers pressed to the soft skin at Gu Xi’s nape, and he reached to peel the inhibitor patch to check for irritation. He had barely brushed the edge when Gu Xi trembled and let out a soft “Mm~.”

The sound rippled through his ear like a thrown stone on water.

Rong Jing glanced down at Gu Xi and felt deeply ashamed for having even a flicker of an unseemly thought right now.

He shook himself, whipped off his trench coat and draped it over Gu Xi’s face, then lifted him cleanly into his arms.

The original novel flashed through his mind. Sometimes Gu Xi fainted there too, always after being driven past his limits by some scumbag. Thinking of that executive who left with a face like a swollen pig, Rong Jing decided Gu Xi had been too gentle.

He strode to the elevator and told Zhou You to bring the car to the front at once. His voice betrayed his worry. “Move. It is urgent.”

Zhou You almost cried. He had barely left earlier and still had a stack of tasks. “Huh?”

If it is not life or death, maybe handle it yourself? You seem capable!

Rong Jing searched for the nearest hospital on his phone but the reviews were awful. The better one was over an hour away.

He saw Zhou You lagging a half-beat and ground out, “Very urgent. The kind that needs a hospital.”

When they first met, this assistant had been lightning-fast. Maybe Rong Jing had rubbed off on him, because the once efficient aide now liked to call it “meticulous,” which somehow meant slower.

Zhou You assumed Rong Jing had hurt himself, floored it, and screeched up to the door. It was probably the fastest, cleanest driving he had ever done.

He arrived to see Rong Jing carrying a person-shaped bundle to the car. No need to guess. Their descended-from-the-clouds Gu Xi.

Zhou You wiped an imaginary bead of sweat. Thank goodness. If they had been a minute later and something had happened, regret would have come too late.

Up on the third floor, in a private room, Wu Hanqi glanced at his phone. As expected, a message from Rong Jing: urgent situation, apologies, would make it up to him next time.

Wu Hanqi stood at the carved window lattice, watching Rong Jing speed away with someone hidden under a coat.

Across the table, Wu Fuyu bit into his fifth beef ball. The juice burst in his mouth. He suddenly understood one reason his father succeeded. This club sold its image, yes, but if you added great food, top facilities, and a membership model that raised the cachet, how could the word of mouth not explode?

“Dad, I am going to the bathroom.” Why had Rong Jing not shown? He had not fallen into a toilet, had he?

“No need. He will not be back,” Wu Hanqi said, eyes on the car pulling away.

“…Huh?” Why do you always know what I am thinking. Dad, leave me a little dignity.

“What ‘huh.’ Sit and eat,” Wu Hanqi said evenly.

“Oh.” Head down, Wu Fuyu slumped back into his seat.

He chewed and tasted wax. His father, across from him, ate at the same unhurried pace as always. Even without taste these days, nothing in his expression betrayed a change.

After a hot-then-cold hotpot, Wu Hanqi wiped his hands with a moist towel.

He asked, “If there is a known bug in a game that is breaking the balance, you mean to remove it. Then you discover the bug itself is something you like. Removing it might make the game dull again. What do you do?”

On the road, Rong Jing told Zhou You to head for another hospital with a good reputation. He wanted a full workup for Gu Xi. He also wanted answers about the last time Gu Xi’s pheromones spiked and he dodged the question. Why had that happened?

He lifted the coat to free Gu Xi’s face, warm and flushed from his own scent, and kept an eye on the sky.

It looked wrong. The sun blazed, then clouds rolled in and a storm threatened, then the sun punched through again. The cycle repeated, again and again.

Rong Jing stared at the fickle weather. Was the heavens hitting menopause?

He thought of himself. He had not been back long enough to trigger another “confinement,” right?

In his lap, Gu Xi felt needles of foreign pheromone prickling all over his skin. He could smell a scent on Rong Jing that was not his, like an intruder in his territory.

Rong Jing had touched another alpha recently. At least an embrace.

Who was it? Not Wu Fuyu. This scent was softer than an alpha’s and more scorching than an omega’s. The trainee from that video with the killer face?

Accident or deliberate?

You asked for it. Gu Xi felt his patience snap beneath that tide of foreign pheromone.

Some things he did not do only because he was not provoked enough. These flitting butterflies had become obnoxious.

He would just have to show his claws.

“Mmm.” Gu Xi came to, eyes hazy as he looked at Rong Jing and then the car. “What happened?”

“You fainted. We are going to the hospital to check.”

“I am fine. Low blood sugar. A little candy and I will be fine.” He refused the hospital. He knew his body. Even as he said it, he did not move from Rong Jing’s arms. He leaned into that solid chest, voice smooth as water. “Do you have any candy?”

One look from those clear eyes and Rong Jing almost forgot his questions. “We should still get you checked. Fainting out of nowhere…”

A fingertip touched his lips and cut him off. Gu Xi had done it before and it worked again. His other hand slipped into Rong Jing’s pocket. There was only two layers of fabric between the pocket and Rong Jing’s waistline. The friction was like scratching an itch through cloth, brushing back and forth.

Rong Jing nearly jolted him out of his lap.

Before he reached the breaking point, Gu Xi fished out a candy.

“Lemon,” he said, the tail of the word curling.

He held it up. Rong Jing gave in, unwrapped it and lifted it to Gu Xi’s mouth. A warm tongue flicked his fingers.

Hiss.

Rong Jing drew a breath and snatched his hand back, glaring at the disobedient omega.

He glanced at Zhou You. The man was unruffled. He should not have panicked and called earlier.

In this bridal carry, Gu Xi’s hips had ended up squarely over Rong Jing’s important place.

With every turn the car made, Gu Xi’s hips shifted, a light brush.

Another corner. Another brush.

Again. Again.

Friction births sparks. Unless one has no sex life at all, who could endure it?

Rong Jing could control desire, but he was not broken. All his functions worked perfectly, which meant that with every small drag, sparks really did begin to fly.

Gu Xi felt something and blinked. “Feels like there is something…”

His hand started to move. Rong Jing’s eyelid twitched hard and he grabbed the offending hand. “Nothing. That is my phone in my pocket.”

Gu Xi drew back, syrup-sweet. “It is hard.”

A vein jumped on the back of Rong Jing’s hand. “Why are there so many turns on this road?”

Zhou You: …

I want to know too. We raced here like our pants were on fire and found a grease fire already in progress. For what exactly?

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