This Alpha Is So Devoted to His Wife - Chapter 32

Night fell.

Duan Yifan and Jiang Nianqiao had evening classes, so they left after spending the afternoon in the lab.

Now, only two people remained in the laboratory.

“…Could my code be wrong? Why is it incorrect…”

In a corner of the room, Duan Yiluo sat cross-legged on the floor, frowning as he fiddled with the data detection instrument. Although he had entered his simulated code, the resulting output was wrong and far off from the data the operator had given him.

He had probably been working on it for quite a long time, and his state wasn’t great. When the last code he entered was still incorrect, he became a little exasperated.

He angrily slapped his thigh hard.

“Hey, hey, hey.”

Lu Xinghe was sitting beside him, translating papers on his laptop. Seeing Duan Yiluo do that again, he quickly grabbed his hand, frowning: “Why are you hitting yourself? What kind of bad habit is this? It was one thing when you were a kid, but you’re still doing it now.”

“I can’t figure it out.” Duan Yiluo patted the machine, briefly venting his frustration, and looked up at Lu Xinghe.

Seeing that Duan Yiluo looked clearly tired, Lu Xinghe closed his laptop and chuckled: “I thought you were made of iron and never needed rest.” He then placed the computer aside, pushed himself up with one hand, and stood: “Want something to drink? I’ll go buy something from the vending machine outside.”

“Do they have ice cream?” Duan Yiluo looked up at him as Lu Xinghe stood.

Lu Xinghe was speechless: “Where do vending machines sell ice cream?”

“Fine, then I’ll just have mineral water.” Duan Yiluo leaned against the wall. He was likely truly exhausted; his shoulders drooped slightly, and his eyes were lowered, his clear, handsome face tinged with weariness.

“I’ll go buy it for you.” Lu Xinghe pulled his gaze away and turned to walk out of the lab.

This guy really knows how to melt his heart.

Duan Yiluo was a little surprised; he had only asked on a whim. He watched Lu Xinghe’s tall retreating figure for a while, lowered his head, and subtly curled his lips.

He’s going to get ice cream.

At the convenience store.

The sound of [Welcome] rang out.

Lu Xinghe walked into the convenience store, went to the chiller, grabbed two bottles of mineral water, then walked to the refrigerator next to it. He opened it and picked up two tubs of Haagen-Dazs ice cream in different flavors, then went to the counter to pay.

The cashier was a middle-aged woman.

The woman looked at the tall, handsome boy in front of her. He was mixed-race with blue eyes and spoke fluent Chinese. She took an extra look: “Young man, your girlfriend likes strawberry-flavored ice cream?”

Lu Xinghe was about to say she was mistaken, but on an impulse, he didn’t explain and just gave a vague ‘Mm.’

“And you bought Haagen-Dazs. You’re someone who knows how to dote on a girl.”

Lu Xinghe thought to himself that it wasn’t primarily him doting; it was just that Duan Yiluo only ate this brand, and buying anything else would make him unhappy. “He just loves to eat this, so I have to buy what he likes.”

The woman put the items in a bag, smiled, and handed it to him: “Your girlfriend must like you very much, too.”

Lu Xinghe took the bag, then noticed the lollipops and grabbed a strawberry-flavored one: “Auntie, I’ll take one more lollipop.”

“Does she love this too?”

“Mm.”

The woman laughed: “Someone who loves sweets this much must be a very cute girl, right?”

Lu Xinghe finished paying, put the lollipop in his pocket, and said, “He’s a boy,” before saying goodbye to the woman and turning to leave.

Just as he was about to reach the Galaxy Research Institute, he stopped a short distance away when he saw that the entire building was dark. He instinctively looked up at the third floor, his eyes darkening suddenly. Clutching the bag, he sprinted inside.

He found that more than a dozen security guards were standing by the institute’s main entrance, some on the phone. The main door was tightly shut, and the electronic lock was automatically engaged, suggesting a tricky problem.

“What happened?!” Lu Xinghe immediately rushed to the guards, asking anxiously.

“Hey, Young Master Lu, what are you doing here?” One of the guards looked surprised to see him.

“Why is the whole building dark?! Can’t the door be opened?” Lu Xinghe went to the glass door and pushed it, noticing the red alarm light flashing on the password lock. He grabbed the handle and looked at the guards: “What’s going on?! Wasn’t everything fine just a minute ago?!”

“The institute’s electronic system was just attacked by a hacker, the password was cracked, and the signal inside was shielded. Now the entire building has been cut off from power, and all the doors are locked. The board members have been informed and are dealing with it urgently.”

Lu Xinghe’s face darkened: “So, we can’t go in now?”

“We can’t go in temporarily. Is something wrong?”

“Duan Yiluo is still inside!!” Lu Xinghe immediately pulled out his phone to call Duan Yiluo, but the call was met with the mechanical female voice saying, ‘The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.’

His heart sank. Damn it, Duan Yiluo won’t be able to see in the dark!

This declaration instantly panicked all the security guards. They hadn’t realized Duan Yiluo was still inside so late. Now that all the doors in the entire building were locked, they couldn’t go up either!

“Have you called for help?”

“We’ve already called!”

Lu Xinghe backed up a few steps. He looked up at the third-floor windows, mentally recalling where their lab was located. Because the equipment inside the lab couldn’t be exposed to light, they weren’t near the windows, but he vaguely remembered an empty space in the middle of the corridor used for staff breaks.

Perhaps it’s the window directly opposite the center.

He resolutely handed the bag of ice cream to a guard, saying, “Hold this for me, thank you,” then ran straight to the side of the building next to the main entrance. Following the climbable exterior wall, he began scaling the wall toward the third floor without any safety measures.

The guards were stunned: “Young Master Lu!!”

Lu Xinghe couldn’t care less. All the doors inside the institute were electronic. If they were all locked now, Duan Yiluo couldn’t get out. Since the rescue team hadn’t arrived yet, this was the only risky method left to him.

It’s only the third floor; I won’t fall to my death.

He was only afraid that Duan Yiluo wouldn’t be able to see and would bump into something.

The guards below watched as the tall young man, with astonishing arm strength, reached the third floor along the windowsill in just a few attempts, smoothly opened one of the windows, and jumped inside.

Meanwhile, Duan Yiluo, locked in the lab, was squatting on the floor, searching for his phone.

The power outage was too sudden. His phone and electronic devices were on a nearby table, and he couldn’t see anything at all, so he had to feel around cautiously.

But despite carefully feeling for nearby objects, he suddenly hit his forehead solidly on the corner of the table.

With a loud “Bang”, the impact was substantial.

He clutched his forehead and cried out in pain.

“Duan Yiluo!!”

Just then, he heard Lu Xinghe’s voice. He was surprised and tried to turn his head in delight, but in a repeat performance, he hit the table corner again, this time hitting his face. The pain made his nose sting, and he could only hold his head, shouting up to answer Lu Xinghe first:

“I’m here.”

Then, he pitifully rubbed his face.

Lu Xinghe, outside, was using his phone as a flashlight. Hearing Duan Yiluo’s response, he quickly found the lab they had been in. He pushed the door hard, but found it truly locked; the electronic door had engaged.

He could only stand outside the door and knock loudly: “Zai Zai, are you in here?”

Hearing Lu Xinghe’s voice outside the door, Duan Yiluo felt somewhat relieved. He wasn’t afraid of the dark, just unable to see in it, and he shouted back: “Yes, I’m here.”

Lu Xinghe frowned, noticing something slightly off about Duan Yiluo’s voice: “Did you hit yourself anywhere?”

He hadn’t noticed this condition when they were children. He discovered Duan Yiluo’s inability to see in the dark in middle school and later learned from Duan Yiluo’s father that he had a mild case of night blindness.

It was just difficult in dark places; if he couldn’t see, he could easily knock into things.

Now, he was afraid Duan Yiluo had hit something, especially with so much equipment inside.

Duan Yiluo hugged his head and calmly replied: “No! It’s just so dark!”

Lu Xinghe was half-convinced; the voice didn’t sound quite right, but he couldn’t see inside now. He pushed the door again, confirming it wouldn’t budge, then used his flashlight to check the window.

But the window was locked and the curtain was drawn. Even with the phone’s flashlight, no light could penetrate inside.

“Zai Zai, do you dare to come over and open the window?”

“I don’t dare!” Duan Yiluo felt the two spots he had just hit. Hitting things when unable to see was genuinely painful: “I’ll just stay squatting here for now. Do you know what happened? Why did the power suddenly go out?”

Lu Xinghe stood outside the door, restless. He explained the reason for the outage, which he had heard from the guards, to Duan Yiluo. Then he fumbled around, thinking of how to open the window, and finally came up with a bad idea.

“Zai Zai.”

“Huh?”

“Tell me, if I smash the window, will your great-grandfather scold me?”

Before Duan Yiluo could fully process that, he heard a piercing sound of shattering glass, a sudden breaking of the air, followed by the crash of glass shards hitting the floor. It was harsh and grating in the darkness. He instinctively covered his head.

In that instant, light flooded the room.

He felt his vision slowly gaining light and lifted his head, right toward the source of the light.

He saw Lu Xinghe standing outside the window, his phone resting on the windowsill, the light shining on him like a column. His shadow was tall and stretched long on the floor. Then, he clearly saw the office chair Lu Xinghe was wielding, and the window that had been violently smashed open.

“Well, am I handsome?”

Duan Yiluo, realizing he was squatting under the table, burst out laughing when he heard Lu Xinghe: “Handsome, yes. I only know that great-grandfather will definitely scold you.”

Lu Xinghe set down the chair. He first examined the broken glass, found a relatively safe spot, stepped onto the sill with his long legs, and then cautiously jumped into the room, stepping carefully to avoid the glass shards with his soles. Then he walked toward Duan Yiluo.

He picked up the phone from the windowsill and walked to Duan Yiluo, who was still squatting under the table, holding out his hand.

Duan Yiluo saw the hand reaching out, looked at Lu Xinghe, and then grasped it. As he held the hand, he felt the scorching temperature of the palm. Sensing something amiss, he lowered his head and held up Lu Xinghe’s hand to feel it.

He felt a deep indentation or texture on the palm and frowned.

“Don’t feel it; I climbed up to the third floor and pressed against the windowsill. It’ll be fine in a moment.” Lu Xinghe turned his hand over, gripping Duan Yiluo’s hand. He placed the phone, still functioning as a flashlight, into Duan Yiluo’s hand. It was then that he noticed a red mark on Duan Yiluo’s cheek.

“You climbed up to the third floor?!” Duan Yiluo’s eyes widened, as if he had heard something unbelievable: “Are you crazy for climbing up three floors? What if you fell?!”

“I was worried you’d bump into something in the dark. I didn’t think about it that much.” Lu Xinghe raised a hand to touch the red mark on his cheek. He looked helpless: “And you said you didn’t hit yourself? Your face is red. Did you hit the table corner?”

Duan Yiluo ignored his own injury; his heart was now filled with lingering fear. He angrily punched Lu Xinghe’s chest: “You really are insane! I was just squatting here. How bad could a bump be? You could have been killed if you fell!!”

Lu Xinghe gasped from the punch, then smiled, grasping his fist: “Don’t be so aggressive. I’m fine, aren’t I? Are you underestimating me? I’ve been training for triathlons since I was a kid—is that a joke?”

“Triathlons don’t include climbing buildings,” Duan Yiluo said, his face sinking. He was still angry: “You really are—Mmm—”

Before he could finish, his mouth was stuffed with a strawberry-flavored lollipop. He instantly froze.

“The lollipop I bought for you.” Lu Xinghe put the wrapper back in his pocket. He looked at Duan Yiluo’s adorable, stunned expression with the lollipop in his mouth, his smile growing brighter: “The ice cream probably melted. Thankfully, I still had a lollipop to coax you.”

“You…”

“Don’t be angry, okay?” Lu Xinghe took two steps closer to him. He lowered his gaze to the boy in front of him: “I know I was wrong. I was just too anxious because I was worried about you.”

In the dim environment, the closeness of their bodies radiated heat, and their pheromones surrounded each other in the relatively small space—all were magnified infinitely by this apologetic plea.

Duan Yiluo, with the lollipop in his mouth, felt his heart pound erratically as the Alpha pheromone approached. He involuntarily bit down and crushed the candy.

Just talk, why are you getting so close…

A ‘Crunch’ as the candy broke sounded, as if something couldn’t be concealed.

In the faint light, Lu Xinghe lowered his eyes. He gazed at the boy in front of him, whose eyelashes fluttered. His eyes traced the outline of the face so close to him. The cheeks, bulged out by the lollipop, and the sweet strawberry scent made his heart thump wildly. His mood seemed to swell with those subtle expressions.

So cute.

He wanted to take advantage of the darkness and do something.

“Zai Zai, don’t you have anything you want to say to me?”

Duan Yiluo felt something getting closer. He looked up slightly, meeting Lu Xinghe’s deep blue eyes. In the focused light of the phone, it was as if he had plunged into a deep, secluded sea. Using the cover of darkness, he wanted to drown in that gaze for a moment.

He took the lollipop stick out, slightly pursed his lips, his gaze falling on Lu Xinghe’s lips before raising his eyes to look at him.

“Xinghe Gege (Big Brother), thank you.”

Lu Xinghe felt a heating sensation in his chest, as if a wild deer were frantically ramming inside. He was so excited that his heart felt like it would leap out of his throat. Not doing anything would be a disservice to his youth and impulsiveness.

His heart was beating like crazy.

He raised his hand and gently held Duan Yiluo’s shoulder, taking a deep breath: “Zai Zai, I—”

But just at that moment, with a sharp ‘Snap,’ the lights blazed on. ‘Beep,’ the door unlocked.

“You guys are not—” His father, Duan Yizhou, rushed upstairs and pushed open the lab door, only to walk in and see this exact scene.

Duan Yiluo immediately turned sideways, popped the lollipop back into his mouth, and calmly looked at his father, who had rushed in: “We’re fine, we’re fine.”

They were fine.

But they were also almost not fine.

Thank goodness.

Lu Xinghe straightened up, casually shaking his hand: “Eh, yes, we’re fine.” Then he pointed to the glass shattered on the floor: “It’s just, Uncle, I accidentally broke the window. You’re not angry, are you?”

Angry?

He was the one who was angry!

It was so close!

He’d been dreaming of that kiss!