After the Corporate Slave Beta and the Top Alpha Married - Chapter 20

Because of the doctor’s orders, Ji Yu had originally prepared himself for a period of rest where he and Shang Yuanzhou would be stuck in the house together, constantly seeing each other.

To his surprise, after eating breakfast, Shang Yuanzhou prepared to leave for the company.

Ji Yu froze mid-bite into a shengjian mantou. He looked up at the standing Shang Yuanzhou: “Eh? You’re going to the office already?”

“Didn’t the doctor say you should get more rest during this time?”

Shang Yuanzhou replied, “The company has a lot of matters to attend to, and the rut has already passed.”

The Beta before him was fair and clean, his cheeks slightly puffed out from the food. As he looked up, his ears were not covered by his black hair; a very faint red mark on his pale earlobe was visible, though one would have to look closely to see it.

After a moment of satisfaction, a greater greed surged in Shang Yuanzhou’s heart.

It was too faint.

What Shang Yuanzhou truly wanted was a deeper mark to have his canine teeth pierce the nape of the neck, leaving a scarred bite.

He didn’t linger on the sight, turning instead to head out the door.

“Wait,” Ji Yu blurted out, regretting it the moment the word left his mouth.

But Shang Yuanzhou had already stopped and turned back to look at him.

Ji Yu felt a bit flustered, his eyes darting around as he spoke: “Has your rut really passed?”

He asked this because, in reality, he didn’t believe it.

How could someone go to the hospital for a rut one night and have it been completely over the next morning? It was a rut, not a common fever. Even with a fever, a person would feel more or less uncomfortable after the temperature dropped.

It was probably because Shang Yuanzhou was busy. Being the CEO of a major corporation wasn’t as easy as TV dramas portrayed; he didn’t have the luxury of doing nothing but resting at home. That was likely why he casually claimed the rut was over as soon as he felt slightly better.

Ji Yu had expected to hear an affirmative answer like “It’s really over,” after which he could comfortably watch documentaries at home without any psychological burden.

Because he was a bit guilty when asking, his gaze flickered, and he didn’t quite dare to meet Shang Yuanzhou’s eyes.

“Actually, it hasn’t.”

“Then let’s—” Ji Yu’s expression blanked as he blinked slowly. “Eh?”

Shang Yuanzhou: “I intended to hide it from you, but since you asked again, I thought it best to tell the truth.”

Seeing Ji Yu’s unconcealed chagrin an expression that practically screamed ‘Why did I have to open my big mouth?’ Shang Yuanzhou let out a low chuckle.

“Since we are living together, I don’t want any friction to occur between us because of the rut.”

In truth, Shang Yuanzhou did feel as though the rut had passed. It had come violently and departed quickly, like a sudden explosion that had been forcibly suppressed restrained and silently accumulating, just waiting for a day to be fully unleashed.

No one can freely control when a rut arrives, not even Shang Yuanzhou. He just had this feeling a subconscious intuition.

And changing his answer was a result of seeing Ji Yu’s hesitating gaze. Perhaps he could look forward to something.

Ji Yu silently bit his tongue, making a somewhat reluctant suggestion: “In that case… how about I accompany you to the office?”

“The doctor told me to keep an eye on your condition, and it should also help with the rumors about our relationship being good.”

No worker loves working overtime, and Ji Yu was no exception especially when it was a task he had volunteered for. As an ordinary corporate drone, he usually faced enough work dumped on him by others; he would never proactively complete a task his boss hadn’t mentioned.

But this time was different. Shang Yuanzhou paid him a high salary, and he owed the man for taking care of him while he was injured, not to mention the doctor’s instructions.

Though Ji Yu didn’t know what good he would do by “keeping an eye” on an Alpha’s rut which was the main reason he regretted speaking since Shang Yuanzhou had admitted it wasn’t over, he might as well follow through with his proposal.

Considering the amount of money Shang Yuanzhou would pay him after the contract was finished, it was enough for Ji Yu to not work for half his life. With that in mind, Ji Yu felt that occasionally, he could be proactive about “overtime.”

He didn’t consider the possibility of being rejected, and indeed, Shang Yuanzhou did not refuse.

Shang Yuanzhou was stunned for a moment before quickly masking his emotions. “Alright.”

Ji Yu didn’t have a true sense of what the title “Head of the Shang Family” meant until he arrived at the company. Looking up at the building whose top he could barely see, he finally felt a subtle realization that the person beside him was truly powerful.

Shang Yuanzhou looked at Ji Yu, who had stopped in his tracks. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Ji Yu shook his head and smiled. “Let’s go.”

Ji Yu’s appearance at Shang Yuanzhou’s side naturally drew the attention of almost everyone. However, with Shang Yuanzhou right there, no one dared to approach Ji Yu to satisfy their curiosity.

The elevator went straight to the top floor where Shang Yuanzhou’s office was located. Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling windows was an extension of the skyline. The office decor was simple and grand; besides the essential desk and sofa, there was even a wine cabinet.

Ji Yu looked at it curiously for a few moments until he heard Shang Yuanzhou, who was already sitting behind the desk, speak: “Want a drink?”

“I’m a lightweight.” Ji Yu shook his head, staring in awe at the dazzling array of bottles. He couldn’t tell good wine from bad, but he hadn’t expected so much alcohol in the office it felt like they could host a gala right there.

Shang Yuanzhou walked over and took a bottle of white wine from the cabinet. “You can try this; the alcohol content is very low.”

He agreed with the fact that Ji Yu was a lightweight; the bottle he pulled out was low enough to be considered a fruit wine or juice. It wouldn’t be intoxicating.

The poured white wine was a sparkling light yellow with a translucent golden hue. The color was beautiful, and Ji Yu took a curious sip. It was indeed very low in alcohol and pleasantly sweet.

Ji Yu sat on the sofa with his headphones on and started a documentary, occasionally picking up the wine glass on the coffee table for a sip.

By the time Secretary Li knocked and entered, he saw a strange Beta sitting on the sofa, drinking a bottle of white wine worth six figures as if it were common juice. He poured himself half a glass at a time, not savoring it, just drinking.

Meanwhile, his boss sat behind the desk, head down, processing documents as if he had implicitly allowed it.

“President Shang,” Secretary Li walked to the desk. “About the bidding proposal for the Lincheng project…” He hesitated, glancing at Ji Yu on the sofa.

Ji Yu had only looked up once when Li entered and hadn’t paid him any more attention. Noticing the voice had stopped, he looked up instinctively and met the secretary’s gaze. He realized belatedly that it might not be appropriate for him to be here. “Should I”

Before Ji Yu could finish, Shang Yuanzhou interrupted: “Keep watching your show.” He then signaled Secretary Li to continue. “This is Ji Yu. You don’t need to hide anything from him.”

Ji Yu—the legendary partner of President Shang.

Secretary Li actually had a rough idea that the Beta on the sofa had a deep relationship with the CEO; the residual pheromones on the Beta were so dense that Li felt a slight difficulty breathing just passing by. But he hadn’t expected this to be the Ji Yu who would be marrying Shang Yuanzhou.

He understood even more clearly how much Shang Yuanzhou valued Ji Yu bringing him to the office and allowing him to overhear important confidential files at will.

Seeing that the two had started discussing business, Ji Yu silently swallowed his suggestion to go for a walk and continued immersing himself in the animal kingdom. Fluffy, adorable lynxes were far more interesting to Ji Yu than bidding proposals or estimated quotes.

In less than a morning, Ji Yu witnessed just how busy Shang Yuanzhou truly was. From the moment he sat down at the company, he processed various matters without pause, like a precise machine issuing orderly instructions one by one.

Ji Yu had finished an episode of the documentary and saw no abnormality in Shang Yuanzhou. He handled affairs with steady composure. When dealing with subordinates who had made mistakes, a few simple sentences were enough to make them tremble or offer a better direction for improvement that won their total respect.

Since Shang Yuanzhou seemed fine, Ji Yu could no longer stay seated. He decided to go for a walk, find some snacks in the pantry, and come back to continue watching.

As he stepped out after greeting Shang Yuanzhou, Ji Yu didn’t expect to stumble into such a situation.

“Lina worked up the courage to go in under the guise of a report, and she came out crying.”

“Crying? About what?”

“What else? Crying because she has no chance. It was impossible from the start; she’ll be fine once she recognizes reality.”

“But Lina said that Beta is completely covered in President Shang’s pheromones. It’s terrifyingly dense.”

“Lina didn’t even need to say it. When the two of them walked in together this morning, anyone who wasn’t a Beta could smell it just by passing them.”

There was laughter inside, tinged with suggestive overtones. Someone boldly spoke their mind: “I wonder how intense the ‘bed activities’ must be to leave such a heavy residue of pheromones.”

“Now who knows how many people in the company will be heartbroken. With pheromones that thick, you can’t even lie to yourself that it’s just a business marriage or that President Shang has no feelings for that Beta. Everyone knows an Alpha only leaves pheromones that represent such strong possessiveness on someone they like.”

Gossip seems to be an innate human trait; no matter the company, there will always be a group of people who love it.

Ji Yu didn’t enter the pantry, nor did he continue listening. He wasn’t actually that close; he only stood at the door for a moment. If the people inside hadn’t become more animated as they spoke, he likely wouldn’t have heard them.

He didn’t go back to Shang Yuanzhou’s office either. Instead, he found a corner by himself and started to daze.

Or rather, he began to organize his thoughts.

Those idle words were like a fuse, causing Ji Yu to pull out one question after another from his mind.

Why didn’t the contract involve someone else? Why were the terms in the contract strict and cold, yet Shang Yuanzhou didn’t seem to care about them in person?

Last night, he had even slept in Shang Yuanzhou’s room. He had thought it was because Shang Yuanzhou felt bad about waking him up after the late hospital trip.

Why was he willing to help him bathe and clean up? Why did he care if his work was going smoothly? Why did he proactively order meals for him? As a boss who hired him to act, Shang Yuanzhou was far “too good” for a boss.

Ji Yu had previously found “reasonable” excuses for all of this, but now that he looked closer, they seemed unable to hold water.

More importantly, why did he have such dense residual pheromones on him?

Ji Yu looked down and sniffed himself. A faint fragrance the scent of body wash. Other than that, he could smell nothing.

Inevitably, the plots of overbearing CEO romance dramas he had watched flashed through his mind. Combined with these “whys,” the questions pushed toward the deepest doubt of all.

An incredible thought appeared in his mind

Could it be that Shang Yuanzhou… likes me?