After the Corporate Slave Beta and the Top Alpha Married - Chapter 17

“Knock, knock, knock”

Ji Yu stood at the entrance of Shang Yuanzhou’s study. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to knock.

It was very quiet inside. If he hadn’t seen Shang Yuanzhou go in with his own eyes, Ji Yu might have thought the study was empty.

Is he so focused on work that he didn’t hear the knocking?

“Knock, knock, knock”

Ji Yu knocked again. This time, a voice came from within: “Is something the matter?”

“Dinner has been delivered. Why don’t you eat before continuing your work?” The study was different from other areas; Ji Yu made no attempt to open the door to speak, nor did he even place his hand on the doorknob.

The two communicated through the closed door.

Shang Yuanzhou replied, “I won’t be having dinner.”

Ji Yu frowned subconsciously. “No matter how important work is, you still need to eat dinner. It’s bad for your stomach.”

In every television drama he had watched lately, the CEOs always suffered from stomach problems. This led Ji Yu to blurt out the remark about it being “bad for the stomach” without a second thought.

As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, Ji Yu had a sudden realization.

So, the role I’m playing now is the CEO’s attentive old butler!

Ji Yu touched his own face. No, an attentive young butler.

It worked out perfectly. Since he and Shang Yuanzhou were in a contract marriage, he was the “delicate little wife” to the outside world, and the “attentive young butler” in private. It was very reasonable.

It was just a shame that since he occupied both roles, he wouldn’t have the chance to say that classic line: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Young Master smile like this.”

The response from the study was still a refusal: “No need.”

Ji Yu persisted, “Is the work you’re handling right now that important? How about I set some food aside for you and keep it warm? You can eat after you’re finished.”

“Ji Yu, are you interfering in my life?”

Through the door, Shang Yuanzhou’s voice sounded somewhat distorted to the point of being icy cold.

The little actor performing in Ji Yu’s mind instantly vanished into thin air. He took a step back and whispered an apology toward the study door.

The first clause of the contract: Do not interfere in Shang Yuanzhou’s life.

He wasn’t some overbearing CEO’s attentive young butler; he was an employee hired by Shang Yuanzhou who needed to act according to the rules.

To put it bluntly, he was just a corporate drone.

This boss didn’t even require his employees to offer fake concern or social pleasantries. For a workplace “social animal” like Ji Yu, who wasn’t good at sweet-talking, he was the ideal boss.

Long live President Shang.

Ji Yu stared at the two-person meal for a few minutes before finding clean dishes and setting aside half of every dish.

This portion wasn’t for “President Shang.”

It was for “A-Zhou” the friend who had rushed to save him and had taken proper care of him.

It was still sunset. The sinking sun hung precariously on the horizon. The lights in the study weren’t on, and a few rays of the afterglow filtered through the glass window, segmented by the window frame into several warm yellow spots of varying sizes on the floor.

Warm colors usually make people feel cozy, especially the lingering glow of a sunset.

Yet, Shang Yuanzhou sat in the chair behind his desk, his face a mask of coldness.

The moment the words had left his mouth, Shang Yuanzhou regretted them. His emotions had surged, becoming difficult to control which wasn’t like him. Even after sensing Ji Yu’s unhappiness, he hadn’t stood up to leave which also wasn’t like him.

Worse still, he had no way to apologize.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t say it out of pride, but rather that apologizing for mentioning the contract terms would be no different from laying his hidden feelings bare.

Given Shang Yuanzhou’s understanding of Ji Yu, if Ji Yu knew the truth, he would leave without looking back.

His brain felt waves of dizziness; Shang Yuanzhou couldn’t tell if it was physical or a psychological sense of frustration and defeat.

Ji Yu ate dinner in the living room and finished watching his documentary before heading off to wash up. Doing many things with only one hand was inconvenient, but fortunately, he had learned how to make his cast-bound arm provide a bit of leverage.

After slowly getting himself ready, Ji Yu returned to his room to rest.

His sleep quality was usually excellent, and he fell asleep quickly once he hit the bed. The clock hands moved silently. Just as Ji Yu was drifting between wakefulness and deep sleep, a dull, heavy thud startled him upright.

His consciousness wasn’t fully clear yet; he was dazed, his hair was a mess, and his heart was thumping wildly in his chest. His body had sat up purely out of a startled instinct.

Ji Yu came to his senses, covered his mouth to yawn, and threw off the covers to see what had happened.

The study door was wide open, but no one was inside. Shang Yuanzhou’s bedroom door was also open. Feeling worried, Ji Yu poked his head in to take a look.

The bed was empty. The person who should have been in bed was lying on the floor with his eyes closed.

So, did he fall out of bed while sleeping?

Ji Yu hesitated repeatedly before finally walking in. He called out tentatively, “Shang Yuanzhou? A-Zhou? President Shang?”

He crouched on the floor, feeling rather troubled. In his current state with a plaster cast, it was impossible for him to drag Shang Yuanzhou back onto the bed.

The person on the floor made no sound. Left with no choice, Ji Yu reached out and nudged him.

“Wake up. Go back to bed to sleep.”

Still no reaction.

However, the spot his hand touched was shockingly hot. Ji Yu quickly used the back of his hand to check Shang Yuanzhou’s forehead; it was also abnormally scorching.

He stopped holding back his strength and shook Shang Yuanzhou vigorously. “A-Zhou, A-Zhou, wake up! You have a fever!”

Ji Yu pushed and patted, using every ounce of strength in his one good hand. He spent a long time trying to wake him, nearly breaking into a sweat from anxiety, but Shang Yuanzhou remained unresponsive.

The man was burning up so badly that Ji Yu couldn’t just leave him be. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed one of Shang Yuanzhou’s hands to pull him up.

Not only did the man not budge, but Ji Yu’s footing faltered. Just as his fractured arm in the cast was about to hit the floor, a hand braced against him.

The hand supporting him possessed immense strength; even with one hand, it held Ji Yu’s body firmly.

Ji Yu breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes met Shang Yuanzhou’s and instantly lit up. He said in surprise, “You’re finally awake!”

“Don’t you know you have a fever? You! What are you doing?!”

Ji Yu was suddenly grabbed by the waist. His world spun, and by the time he came to his senses, he was lying flat on his back on the floor. The person hovering over him was Shang Yuanzhou, whose eyes were dark and heavy.

Ji Yu first checked his own hand, confirming that it hadn’t been bumped or injured in that moment.

That was a close one.

He exhaled, then tried to push the man who was hovering over him like he was in the middle of a push-up. “You… you have a fever. Get up, I’ll take you to the hospital.”

“I’m not going to the hospital.” The man who had been silent since the beginning finally spoke.

As the words fell, his body pressed down as well.

Ji Yu was startled instinctively. Just as he was about to dodge, he saw Shang Yuanzhou carefully avoid his cast-bound arm, half-pressing against him or rather, half-embracing him.

So, when he flipped me just now… he also deliberately avoided my injury?

This was the first time Ji Yu had faced such a situation. His body was stiff as he was held and pressed down by Shang Yuanzhou. His waist was held tightly; the arm around him was like an iron shackle, making it difficult to move even an inch.

“You have to go to the hospital. Your fever is very high.”

“I’m not going.”

The person beside him pressed even closer, eventually burying his head in the side of Ji Yu’s neck. His scorching breath was like a flicking tongue of flame against Ji Yu’s long, fair neck. Ji Yu moved uneasily, trying to break free, but he was held in a death grip.

The force was so great it felt as if the man wanted to merge him into his very bones and blood as if he wanted to knead Ji Yu and himself into a single, inseparable entity.

Ji Yu took a deep breath and continued to persuade him: “How about I call for a hospital car to pick you up? You’re burning up right now; you need to see a doctor.”

“I’m not going.”

Ji Yu grew anxious. Why was “I’m not going” the only thing he would say? He felt like Shang Yuanzhou’s brain was being fried by the fever. “No! You must go to the hospital!”

Compared to his stern tone, he was powerless against Shang Yuanzhou’s immovable brute strength. His body was forcefully shifted, carefully avoiding his injured arm, until he was forced to be half-pressed beneath Shang Yuanzhou.

A scorching, hot chest pressed against his back. A hand reached from in front of him and covered his mouth. “So noisy.”

Ji Yu’s eyes widened suddenly. He wanted to speak, but his mouth was held shut tightly, allowing only muffled, frustrated sounds to escape.

In the next second, his entire body went rigid.

He was licked.

The back of his neck was heavily licked by something wet and smooth.

That was… Shang Yuanzhou’s tongue.

Shang Yuanzhou stared obsessively at the long, fair neck before him. There was slight, damp traces on the thin skin. He didn’t just want to lick it; he wanted to bite it to bite out a bloody mark, like a brand he was placing on this body, on this person.

But he couldn’t.

Wife will be angry.

He had originally wanted to go find his wife, but the tiny shred of logic remaining told him that if he went to find his wife now, something terrible and disastrous would happen.

Like an eggplant hit by frost, he had simply lain on the floor. But then his wife had come to him voluntarily, touching him constantly and calling his name.

So, it should be okay to hold my wife for a bit, right? It should be okay to lick him once, right? What about a bite… just one bite, a very gentle bite.

Shang Yuanzhou’s gaze became increasingly obsessed. The roots of his canine teeth began to itch with a sensation that was impossible to ignore.

He leaned in with a low murmur, his scorching breath spraying against that fair nape. His lips pressed against it, and his teeth slowly began to part

The moment before he bit down, a choked voice suddenly rang out: “Shang Yuanzhou!”

Ji Yu didn’t know what he was trying to do. He desperately broke free from the hand covering his mouth and called out to him in a mix of anger and anxiety, “You are sick! Now, immediately, get up and go to the doctor with me!”

He rarely used such a sharp tone; his “fierce” demeanor hid a forced sense of bravado.

Shang Yuanzhou looked at the nape of the neck right in front of him, at the wife held in his arms who was unable to resist.

He was restless and in pain. His Adam’s apple bobbed repeatedly. One hand was clenched into a tight fist; even the sharp pain couldn’t clear his mind in the slightest.

He could bite down. That weak struggle wouldn’t be able to stop him.

But his wife seemed to be crying.

The hand Shang Yuanzhou had originally used to grip Ji Yu’s chin moved forward, grazing the curve of his lips and the tip of his nose. Even the shrinking back of the body in his arms couldn’t make him stop until he felt a trace of dampness from a tear at the corner of an eye.

That hand pulled away quickly as if it had been burned.

Wife doesn’t want to be bitten by him. He doesn’t want to be marked.

Wife… doesn’t like him.

Shang Yuanzhou closed his eyes and slowly withdrew the other hand that had been forcibly restraining Ji Yu.

The man, who had been so strong he seemed to have gone mad, was now led submissively to the hospital. The doctor glanced at Shang Yuanzhou, then at Ji Yu.

“He doesn’t have a fever.”

“Didn’t you know his rut (rutting period) has arrived?”

Ji Yu’s expression was incredibly blank. What?

The doctor’s next sentence was: “You’re a Beta, aren’t you?”

It made sense. This man was completely enveloped in Alpha pheromones, yet this person thought the Alpha had a fever. The only possibility was that he was a Beta.

Ji Yu nodded, feeling deeply innocent. He was a Beta; how was he supposed to know if Shang Yuanzhou was in his rut or if he had a fever?

So…

The doctor continued to nag Shang Yuanzhou: “During the rut, emotions will be irritable, aggressive, and sensitive. But you should already know all this; just pay more attention yourself.”

After receiving an injection, Shang Yuanzhou, who had cleared up a bit, rubbed his brow. He said quietly to Ji Yu, “I’m sorry. This is also my first time experiencing a rut. I didn’t expect it to be like this.”

The doctor instinctively replied, “Impossible. You’re already twenty-five. You presented years ago; how could this be your first rut?”

Shang Yuanzhou said, “It’s true.”

He had never experienced a rut after his presentation. That day when he was helping Ji Yu bathe, his casual remark about his rut possibly approaching had merely been a random excuse for his rapidly rising excitement and unreasonably hot body temperature.

It had unexpectedly hit the mark.

Thinking about it now, his rut seemed to have withdrawn as Ji Yu left, and then surged forth violently upon Ji Yu’s return.