A Fatal Attraction from Lawyer A - Chapter 75

After a thirty-minute stalemate, Luo Panzhi decided to temporarily stop discussing whether or not they would be cuddling. He had come to realize that for Lawyer Gu during pregnancy, logic was a foreign concept.

He was somewhat at a loss; his wife’s pregnancy trumped everything. He would just have to find another way to handle things, otherwise, he truly feared Gu Yuxi might actually try to climb onto him in the middle of the night—which wasn’t exactly out of the realm of possibility.

“Drink this glass of milk before you eat the dumplings.” Luo Panzhi placed a bowl of hot soup dumplings in front of Gu Yuxi. He sat across from him, leaning back with his arms crossed, staring intently as if he wouldn’t look away until every bite was finished.

Gu Yuxi took a sip and his expression shifted immediately. He frowned at Luo Panzhi. “Why is it sweet?”

“It’s sweet because I made it that way. Drink it. I’m going to ask the auntie later what exactly you’ve been eating while I was away on business. If I find out you haven’t been eating properly, you’re in trouble. Since when has your blood sugar ever been this low?” Luo Panzhi said firmly. “For the time being, I’ll be making sweet things for you. No picking at your food.”

Hearing that Luo Panzhi was going to interrogate the housekeeper, Gu Yuxi felt a sudden wave of guilt. “I don’t like sweet milk.”

“You have to drink it anyway. Your blood sugar isn’t just low; it’s dangerously low. During pregnancy, the baby absorbs nutrients from you. If you don’t eat enough yourself, the baby will take what little you have, leaving you malnourished. You’re the one who gets hurt.”

The “Nagging Young Master Luo” was back in session.

Despite his dislike for sweets, Gu Yuxi tilted his head back and drained the glass. He set it back on the table and looked at Luo Panzhi. “I finished it.”

Because he drank it so quickly, a small smudge of milk remained on the corner of his lip.

Luo Panzhi reached out and tapped the corner of his own mouth. “You missed a spot.” Just as he was about to push a napkin toward Gu Yuxi, he watched as the other man simply licked it away.

As the tip of Gu Yuxi’s tongue swept across his lip, Luo Panzhi’s eyes flickered. His hand holding the napkin froze mid-air.

Gu Yuxi didn’t notice the change in expression; he was already busy with the dumplings. The moment he tasted Luo Panzhi’s cooking, he felt a deep sense of satisfaction. He truly preferred Luo Panzhi’s meals over anyone else’s.

“Panpan, I admit… I didn’t eat much of the auntie’s cooking while you were away.”

“Why?” Luo Panzhi rested his head on his hand, watching Gu Yuxi eat. A look of doting affection—one he wasn’t even aware of—emerged in his eyes.

“It’s not that her cooking is bad; it’s quite good. It’s just that I basically threw up everything I ate. Maybe the baby didn’t like it.” Perhaps due to the intense hunger from earlier, Gu Yuxi had a great appetite, finishing nearly twenty dumplings. He looked at Luo Panzhi with lingering desire.

Luo Panzhi arched an eyebrow and pushed his own bowl toward Gu Yuxi. “You can have a few more, but the rest are mine. Don’t overeat.” The baby doesn’t like it? More like you’re just a picky eater.

“I feel like I could eat twenty more,” Gu Yuxi said, diving back into the bowl. “But I’ll stop whenever you say.”

Luo Panzhi smiled without a word, continuing to watch him eat. Feeding the person you love and seeing them so satisfied brought a double sense of fulfillment: the joy of giving and the joy of seeing them happy in return.

He loved taking care of Gu Yuxi; he relished the feeling of Gu Yuxi relying on him.

However, affection was one thing, and a lesson was another. He wasn’t going to let Gu Yuxi off the hook so easily this time. This man had become far too bold, knowing he was favored.

“Gu Yuxi, you know I just blew up at my fathers for your sake.”

Seeing about a dozen dumplings left in the bowl, Gu Yuxi had planned to eat a couple more. But at Luo Panzhi’s question, he silently put down his spoon and pushed the bowl back across the table. “I’m full.”

It seemed the time for a reckoning had come. He suddenly felt a bit of indigestion.

“So, what do you think we should do about this?”

Luo Panzhi threw the ball back into his court. Gu Yuxi couldn’t come up with a solution on the spot, so he tried to address the facts. “I had already reached a consensus with Papa and Big Dad. Your outburst was your own decision. While it was my fault for going to the check-up without telling you, it was your fault for speaking to Papa in such a loud voice.”

Luo Panzhi was provoked into a laugh again. “Wow. You make your mistake sound quite reasonable. Listen: yes, even if you wanted this check-up, you should have told me first because I am your husband. Second, you are pregnant. Did you consider if this test would harm you or the baby? Finally, you hurt my feelings. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t over.”

“I knew you wouldn’t agree if I told you.”

“And you still dared to hide it from me?”

On the table between them, the bowl of dumplings sat steaming while they stared each other down.

“Because I wanted to do something for you.” Gu Yuxi leaned back in his chair. “You do things for me, and I want to do things for you. Luo Panzhi, I am an Alpha, not an Omega. I’m not as fragile as you think. You can protect me, but I can protect you too.”

Luo Panzhi understood his sentiment perfectly. “I don’t treat you like an Omega, and I don’t think you’re fragile. My point is that since we are partners, informing each other before making a decision is about giving each other security. What you did made me feel very insecure because I couldn’t be certain if the test would harm you.”

“I confirmed it with Papa. They said there would be no impact.”

Luo Panzhi countered, “Even if it’s safe, that’s beside the point. To me, it’s still terrifying because so many things have happened to you right in front of my eyes.”

As he spoke, Gu Yuxi stood up, walked around the table, and sat directly on his lap. His five-month-pregnant belly brushed against him. The moment they touched, Luo Panzhi’s heart wavered for a second.

Here he goes again. This kind of unintentional acting spoiled was lethal.

Gu Yuxi picked up the bowl and offered a dumpling to Luo Panzhi’s lips. “It’s my fault. I made you afraid. I promise I won’t do anything like this again. I swear it.”

Luo Panzhi felt the spoon carefully touching his lips. He looked up at Gu Yuxi, seeing right through his intentions. “Acting spoiled won’t work this time, do you understand?”

He figured it would take at least a few days for his fear to fully subside.

“I’m not acting spoiled. I just wanted to feed you.” Gu Yuxi touched the spoon to his lips again, looking down at him. “Eat a few.”

“I can eat by myself. Get down,” Luo Panzhi said coolly. On matters of principle, “spoiling” was ineffective.

Gu Yuxi felt a pang of sadness at the lukewarm tone, but he had no choice but to climb down. As he did, his lower back accidentally bumped into Luo Panzhi’s hand, which was guarding the corner of the table. He instinctively looked up.

Sure enough, he was met with Luo Panzhi’s deep, stern gaze, which seemed to reprimand his clumsiness.

“I know you’re an Alpha, and usually your physical condition is fine. But during pregnancy, your reactions and stamina have declined—I think you can feel it too. Right now, your physical constitution might not even match an Omega’s. Have you forgotten that when we first conceived, you needed six injections in your belly every day? Have you forgotten the shots to protect the pregnancy?” Luo Panzhi lowered his hand and spoke gravely:

“That is why I am so afraid. Your gender is Alpha, but your constitution is weaker than an Omega’s right now. How could I not be scared? How could you just go and do that test?”

Gu Yuxi lowered his eyes, his lashes trembling. This was not going to be solved with just a few sweet words.

“Regarding this matter, I am treating you and my fathers the same. I am furious that they performed this test without informing me. I will find a time to explain my stance to them and demand the report. Without my permission, that report cannot be used for research.”

Luo Panzhi watched Gu Yuxi stand there in silence. After a moment, he pushed back his chair and stood up. “As for the cuddling… if you dare to climb on me tonight, you’ll be sleeping alone. I’ll go back to my own place and we’ll take a few days to cool off.”

With that, he gathered the dishes and went to the kitchen.

Gu Yuxi stared after him in disbelief. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped. Seeing the bowl of dumplings being taken away, he hesitated. “…Baby, you haven’t eaten.”

“As long as you’re full, it’s fine.” Luo Panzhi threw the sentence over his shoulder and vanished into the kitchen.

Those words stung Gu Yuxi’s heart. The feeling of being scolded by the person he loved—knowing he was in the wrong but not knowing how to fix it—left him feeling helpless. A stern Luo Panzhi was a problem he didn’t know how to solve.

Since they met, Luo Panzhi had never been this serious. It made him realize that this was a genuine punishment: his husband would still stay, take care of him, and protect him, but he would withhold the intimacy Gu Yuxi craved.

It hurt.

Gu Yuxi watched Luo Panzhi’s back as he worked in the kitchen. His nose began to tingle and his eyes grew red. He turned and headed for the bathroom. He didn’t know that the moment he turned away, Luo Panzhi stopped what he was doing and turned to watch where he was going.

The entire day passed like that.

Though Luo Panzhi stayed home with him, it didn’t mean he had dropped all his work. He handled online tasks and meetings from the study. In the evening, he had another emergency video conference.

Knowing he was busy, Gu Yuxi didn’t disturb him. He lay in bed, scrolling through a group chat where his legal colleagues were discussing cases. He answered their questions when they hit snags, helping where he could. It was a way to kill time; he had never imagined he would be a “pregnant man” who had to stop working. The shift from a busy life to idleness was hard to adapt to.

Aside from cases, the group chat occasionally touched on company rumors.

ZK: I heard the WHO went to Galaxy Group because of the zoonotic disease outbreak in L Continent. Lately, all the top executives have been present. It’s rare to see President Chu and President Luo at the headquarters together; it must be serious.

. : Mostly because the Galaxy Research Institute handled the case of the first re-differentiation patient… wasn’t that our Lawyer Gu? Is Galaxy Group in trouble because of Lawyer Gu?

After that message, the entire group fell silent. The person who sent it quickly retracted the message.

Gu Yuxi turned off his phone and put it on the nightstand. He pulled the duvet over his head. The feeling of being a burden and the weight of his helplessness were amplified in the darkness. He felt a profound sense of aimless wandering.

He had faced public pressure before during the Ruixing Hospital incident, but back then, he felt nothing; he only thought about how to solve the problem. Why was it that now, hearing a colleague mention it so casually, he found it unbearable?

After some time, he felt the bed dip slightly. Someone pulled the duvet away from his head, and a warm body moved closer. It was Luo Panzhi.

Luo Panzhi had finished his meeting and found Gu Yuxi in bed. He knew the man wasn’t asleep; Gu Yuxi used to need alcohol to sleep, but now he needed to hold onto someone. Luo Panzhi turned off the main lights, leaving only the amber glow of the bedside lamp. He planned to stay until Gu Yuxi fell asleep before heading back to the study.

“Panpan.”

The moment the light dimmed, Luo Panzhi heard the soft call. “Mm.”

He waited for a response, but none came. He frowned slightly. It was several minutes before Gu Yuxi spoke again.

“…If only I didn’t have this re-differentiation genetic defect.”

The voice coming from under the covers was muffled and thick with emotion. But Luo Panzhi heard it perfectly.

This man was crying.