Stepping out of the fragrance shop, Gu Yan felt as though his entire world had been turned upside down.
He had asked the shop assistant to check the order records and production batches, but they couldn’t find the batch Gu Chengjing had purchased.
That meant Gu Chengjing must have someone on the inside who could obtain products directly from the manufacturer.
It was a clever approach, leaving no trace of a retail purchase.
As long as they couldn’t identify the person who had supplied Gu Chengjing, there would be no evidence proving that he had secretly added something to the diffuser oil.
But how had Gu Chengjing become involved with someone from the Yi Group?
Outside, the winter wind was bitterly cold.
Gu Yan exhaled a cloud of white mist and pulled his scarf a little higher.
He naturally recalled how, when Gu Chengjing’s company had suffered a financial crisis, someone powerful had stepped in to help him cover the shortfall.
Gu Yan didn’t know whether the two incidents were connected.
However, he was almost certain that the person backing Gu Chengjing was someone within the Yi Group.
His head began to ache.
He had only just eliminated the ticking time bomb known as Du Ting, and now another parasite had appeared, one hiding even deeper within the company.
Under that person’s guidance, Gu Chengjing had become increasingly cautious, making it extremely difficult to uncover any mistakes.
However, in the matter of the diffuser oil, Gu Chengjing seemed to have acted rather hastily, attracting more attention than he should have.
It didn’t resemble an instruction from his mysterious backer.
Instead, it seemed more like Gu Chengjing’s own idea.
After returning home, Gu Yan told Yi Heng everything he’d discovered, leaving out none of the details.
Yi Heng immediately ordered his staff to compile and retrieve information on all the company’s projects.
Sure enough, he discovered that the Yi Group did own a small, relatively obscure fragrance brand.
“Most of the projects are handled by my youngest uncle. He has quite a heavy workload.”
“If I remember correctly, this fragrance brand used to be managed by Du Ting. It was only transferred to my uncle’s department recently.”
Gu Yan fell into thoughtful silence.
If the person behind Gu Chengjing was Yi Heng’s youngest uncle, the timeline didn’t make sense.
The diffuser oil had been delivered to his grandparents’ house long ago, whereas Yi Cen had only taken over the small project a few days earlier.
Besides, compared with the Yi Group’s other major businesses, the fragrance brand was insignificant.
Yi Cen had simply assigned a manager under him to oversee it.
Whenever Gu Yan was deep in thought, he habitually pressed his lips together and gently bit the tip of his tongue.
Seeing his expression grow increasingly serious, Yi Heng reached out and straightened the collar Gu Yan had disturbed while touching his neck.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have someone investigate immediately.”
“For now, we shouldn’t alert anyone. The person responsible for each stage of the process is clearly documented, so it shouldn’t take long to find out what happened.”
“Once we have that information, we can follow the trail and uncover whoever is manipulating everything behind the scenes.”
There was no better solution at the moment.
Gu Yan answered softly,
“Mm.”
As Yi Heng smoothed down his collar, his fingers accidentally brushed against the fading marks on Gu Yan’s neck.
He wrapped his arms around Gu Yan from behind, lowered his head, and gently rubbed the tip of his prominent nose against the marks.
He repeated the affectionate gesture two or three times.
Yi Heng’s hair tickled Gu Yan’s neck.
Gu Yan reached up to push his head away, suddenly feeling an inexplicable urge to laugh.
“Do your employees know you’re like this in private?”
Where had that cold, untouchable CEO gone?
Yi Heng lowered his gaze and kissed the fading marks again.
As though unwilling to let them disappear, he deliberately deepened the marks in the same places.
His warm breath spilled across Gu Yan’s collarbone.
“They don’t need to know.”
“It’s enough that you know.”
The bond between an Alpha and an Omega wasn’t merely about the Omega depending on the Alpha.
An Alpha also regarded his Omega as his most precious treasure.
He would willingly devote himself to his Omega forever, protecting his rose unconditionally.
The two spent a little while being affectionate in the study.
But Gu Yan had genuinely become intimidated by Yi Heng’s intensity during their previous intimate encounters.
Sensing that the atmosphere was beginning to shift, he hurriedly caught the large hand resting in front of him.
“Um… why don’t we go outside?”
Yi Heng said nothing.
With every second of silence, Gu Yan grew more nervous.
He could feel the heat radiating from the body behind him, and he had already experienced just how fierce and powerful an Alpha could be.
Embarrassed, he whispered,
“We can’t… Th-That place is still swollen.”
Although he’d applied medication promptly afterward, his body still hadn’t recovered from three days of excessive strain.
But Yi Heng gently lifted Gu Yan’s hand.
Lowering his head, he placed slow kisses along his fingers, from their tips to their bases, leaving no space between them untouched.
The delicate kisses fell like dragonflies skimming across water, leaving a tingling sensation wherever Yi Heng’s lips brushed.
As he kissed Gu Yan’s hand, Yi Heng lifted his light brown eyes and gazed steadily at his face.
The natural coolness and detachment of those pale irises contrasted sharply with the intimacy of his actions, making the scene all the more seductive.
Within seconds, Gu Yan couldn’t take it anymore.
His ears turned bright red, and he muttered a muffled curse.
“Fuck…”
He had a strong feeling that Yi Heng was doing this deliberately.
After all, he seemed completely incapable of refusing anything Yi Heng asked of him.
“Just once.”
Gu Yan spoke so quickly that he didn’t even care whether Yi Heng heard him.
Unfortunately, Yi Heng heard every word.
Perfectly clearly, in fact.
“Once what?”
Gu Yan: “…”
How am I supposed to say something like that out loud?
He struggled for words for quite some time.
Only when Gu Yan’s face had turned completely red did Yi Heng finally let out a deep, quiet laugh.
Gu Yan had never heard him laugh like that before.
Yi Heng lowered his head and buried his face against Gu Yan’s neck.
There was no audible laughter, but his chest trembled gently against him.
He certainly wanted to be intimate with Gu Yan.
But he also genuinely couldn’t bear to keep demanding more from him without giving him time to recover.
Realizing that Yi Heng had been teasing him, Gu Yan was so embarrassed that he wanted to disappear on the spot.
He turned to leave, only for Yi Heng to effortlessly pull him back.
“All right.”
Yi Heng was clearly in a good mood.
He led Gu Yan to the bed in their bedroom and wrapped him in a possessive embrace.
“It’s time to sleep.”
“You…”
Both of Gu Yan’s hands were firmly held.
He couldn’t win an argument, and he couldn’t struggle free either.
After a bout of pointless squirming that accomplished absolutely nothing, he could only stare indignantly at the ceiling and wait for sleep to overtake him.
After the New Year, time began moving swiftly once again.
After Shen Yan was taken away by the police, she realized that her plan had completely failed.
She confessed to being the mastermind behind the drugging and provided the authorities with information about her accomplices, hoping to receive a lighter sentence.
However, she never mentioned Gu Xingxing.
And because Gu Xingxing hadn’t caused any actual harm, he narrowly escaped being held accountable in the case.
Ironically, the incident in which Yi Heng had been drugged ended up accelerating his and Gu Yan’s plans to register their marriage.
With Mrs. Yi constantly urging them along, the two eventually selected an auspicious date and went to the marriage registration office together.
“Move a little closer. Smile for me… Yes, that’s it!”
The photographer raised his camera and enthusiastically snapped picture after picture of the two men, whose appearances were so flawless that their photographs hardly needed editing.
Yet when he examined the images on his camera screen, he still felt something was missing.
It wasn’t that the two men weren’t handsome enough.
Nor was there anything wrong with their posture.
The problem was Gu Yan’s rather unusual expression.
“Come on, give me a smile. You can show your teeth if you like.”
The photographer raised his camera again.
Gu Yan’s palms were sweating.
This was one of the most important moments of his life, and he’d been nervous from the instant he stepped through the door.
Only a few months earlier, he’d been racking his brains trying to escape the romantic entanglements left behind by the original Gu Yan.
And now, just a few months later, he was sitting in front of a camera, preparing to receive his little red marriage certificate.
“One moment.”
Yi Heng noticed Gu Yan’s nervousness and asked the photographer to pause.
He led Gu Yan to a quiet corner where no one else was around, then slipped his fingers into Gu Yan’s damp palm.
Gu Yan tried to pull his hand away and whispered,
“My hand’s all sweaty…”
But Yi Heng only tightened his grip.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“No…”
Gu Yan touched his bright red earlobe and stammered,
“It’s… it’s my first time getting married, so I’m a little nervous.”
Yi Heng froze for a moment before laughing softly.
“How many times are you planning to get married?”
Gu Yan was rendered speechless.
He’d been so nervous that his tongue had gotten tangled, and he’d said the wrong thing.
Yi Heng lowered his head and leaned a little closer.
Seeing that Yi Heng seemed about to become affectionate with him right there, Gu Yan immediately panicked and raised his hand to cover his lips.
“Wait! Not here…”
This was a public place, after all.
What if someone saw them?
But instead, Yi Heng pressed a kiss directly onto the palm Gu Yan had placed over his mouth, gently caressing it.
His warm lips rested against the lines of Gu Yan’s palm.
Then his deep, slightly muffled voice reached him.
“Yanyan, I love you.”
Gu Yan’s ears instantly grew hot.
He blurted out a foolish little sound.
“Huh?”
Why was he suddenly being so direct?
And he even called me Yanyan!
Gu Yan’s cheeks turned scarlet in an instant, and he felt so embarrassed that steam might as well have been rising from his head.
Before Gu Yan could respond, the photographer came running over to find them.
“Gentlemen, are you ready to start taking your pictures? There are other couples waiting in line!”
Yi Heng raised his eyes and cast him a glance.
The photographer’s voice gradually faded as he finished speaking.
He swallowed nervously.
The look in this gentleman’s eyes was rather intimidating. Had he accidentally witnessed something he wasn’t supposed to see?
“Uh… We’re coming right now!”
Gu Yan hurriedly answered.
Pressing his lips together, his face still flushed, he pushed Yi Heng away and walked out with such stiff, awkward movements that his arms and legs barely seemed coordinated.
However, thanks to Yi Heng’s unexpected interruption, all the nervousness he’d felt earlier had completely disappeared.
When Gu Yan sat down in front of the camera again, the blush on his cheeks had yet to fade.
This time, his smile looked much more natural in the photographs, with a faint touch of shyness that made it even more charming.
The photographer praised them repeatedly, declaring that they were truly a match made in heaven.
At last, the two little red booklets were placed in their hands.
The three golden characters for “Marriage Certificate” gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight.
But before Gu Yan had even had a chance to warm the booklets in his hands, they were confiscated by Mrs. Yi, who had rushed over at top speed.
Outside the marriage registration office, Mrs. Yi stepped out of a car that had just come to an abrupt stop.
Wearing a pair of modest heels, she marched toward them with such a fierce expression that anyone unfamiliar with the situation might have mistaken her for a wicked mother-in-law from a wealthy family, arriving to tear two lovers apart.
“How could you two keep something this important from me?”
“Thank goodness Xiao Feng tipped me off! Otherwise, I’d still be sitting at home with a face mask on right now!”
Yi Heng held Gu Yan’s hand, momentarily at a loss for words.
“Wouldn’t it have been better for you to rest at home?”
Mrs. Yi answered firmly,
“No, it wouldn’t!”
Her beautiful, expressive eyes caught sight of the marriage certificates in Gu Yan’s hand.
She immediately extended her own hand and raised an eyebrow.
“Hand them over. I’ll keep them safe for you.”
Yi Heng: “…”
Gu Yan: “…”
They hadn’t even had a chance to properly admire their marriage photographs before Mrs. Yi decisively took both certificates away.
Behind her, the family butler was holding a square box in both hands.
Mrs. Yi carefully placed the marriage certificates inside, then fastened a large lock onto the box.
Yi Heng recognized that lock immediately.
It was an antique made of pure silver that Mrs. Yi had impulsively purchased at an auction more than a decade earlier for tens of millions.
The lock had no key and had spent all those years gathering dust in the family’s display room.
Who would have imagined that the first time it would ever be put to use would be to lock away her son’s marriage certificates?
“Mom…”
Yi Heng sighed helplessly.
Mrs. Yi interrupted him without the slightest hesitation.
“Don’t say another word. I’m leaving now. You two can get on with whatever you were doing.”
She had arrived in a hurry, and she left just as quickly.
With that, she climbed back into the car and drove away with their marriage certificates, leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.
When Mr. Yi heard about the incident, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Later, when Yi Heng returned to the Yi family residence to retrieve the certificates, his father actually stopped him at the door.
“Just let your mother have her way. That personality of yours probably comes straight from her anyway.”
After all the twists and turns, the person who ultimately suffered was Yi Feng, the one who had leaked the secret.
This time, Yi Heng didn’t freeze all of Yi Feng’s bank cards.
Instead, he left one account accessible, with enough money for him to cover his meals.
Unexpectedly, rather than panicking as he had in the past, Yi Feng became even more fearless and self-assured.
He had already reconciled with Gu Yan.
The new semester was about to begin.
From then on, he could simply follow Gu Yan around every day and enjoy free food and drinks.
After all, the money would ultimately come from his older brother anyway.
As the saying went, why let the family’s wealth flow into someone else’s hands?
Thanks to Yi Heng’s relentless investigation, the truth behind the fragrance shop gradually began to emerge.
And along the way, they uncovered several unexpected discoveries.
They found that someone had been secretly transferring assets out of the Yi Group.
Some of the money even came from questionable sources.
These illicit funds were being laundered through businesses under the Yi Group before being transferred into Gu Chengjing’s company.
Gu Yan immediately remembered the mysterious phone conversation he’d overheard between Gu Chengjing and an unidentified person at the Xu family patriarch’s memorial service.
Suddenly, all the pieces fell into place.
No wonder Gu Chengjing had purchased so many plots of land during that period.
No wonder he’d been dressing like a successful businessman every day, putting on such an impressive show.
It turned out that the mysterious figure within the Yi Group had been using him to secretly move assets out of the company.
Unfortunately, despite all that person’s careful planning, one crucial move had gone wrong.
Gu Chengjing might have been foolish and easy to manipulate, but his greed was deeply ingrained.
He was always trying to be clever, secretly making little moves of his own in the hope of securing even greater benefits.
His appetite was truly insatiable.
Gu Chengjing had even set his sights on his own parents-in-law, Gu Yan’s maternal grandparents.
He planned to stage an accident that would cause their deaths, then seize the opportunity to take control of the Zhao family’s assets.
Little did they know that Gu Chengjing’s greed this time would be like a single rat dropping ruining an entire vat of fine sauce, threatening to bring their carefully laid plans crashing down.
After discussing the situation, Yi Heng and Gu Yan decided to remain still for the time being.
They would wait for Gu Chengjing to walk straight into their trap, then follow the trail to expose the big fish hiding behind him.
On the first day of the new semester, Yi Heng personally drove Gu Yan to university.
Inside the car, Yi Heng carefully applied a pheromone-blocking patch to the back of Gu Yan’s neck.
“I can do it myself. I’m not a child anymore.”
Yi Heng’s fingertips were a little cold, making Gu Yan instinctively shrink his neck.
Yi Heng used his fingertips to smooth down every edge of the patch.
Only after making absolutely certain that not even the faintest trace of rose fragrance could escape did he finally release Gu Yan.
At this point, he almost wished Gu Yan really were a Beta.
That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about other Alphas catching the sweet, alluring scent of his pheromones.
“All right, hurry up and go to work. The university isn’t even on your way, so don’t let me make you late for your meeting.”
Gu Yan had no idea what Yi Heng was thinking.
He opened the car door and prepared to get out.
But just as he extended one leg outside, he suddenly pulled it back.
They were a couple now.
More than that, they were legally married, with their relationship officially recognized and protected by law.
With that thought, Gu Yan quickly leaned over and brushed his lips against the corner of Yi Heng’s mouth.
It was hardly even a proper kiss.
It was more like a hurried little collision.
Yet that clumsy touch was enough to sweep away every trace of gloom from Yi Heng’s eyes.
“I won’t be coming home for lunch. See you tonight!”
Gu Yan hurriedly tossed out those words before shutting the car door as though fleeing the scene.
All he left Yi Heng with was the stubborn back of his head.
Wang Zhiliang was away on vacation and wouldn’t be back for several days.
He kept pestering Gu Yan through his phone, begging him to collect all his textbooks on his behalf.
That guy never skipped a single class, yet never listened to a single word.
He insisted on having every textbook, but never wrote down even one line of notes.
His entire approach to university life seemed to revolve around simply showing up.
Gu Yan replied helplessly:
“All right, all right. Got it.”
After glancing at the ridiculously cheesy sticker Wang Zhiliang had sent, Gu Yan slipped his phone into his pocket and headed toward the restroom.
The fourth floor, where Gu Yan had classes that day, was relatively deserted.
As he passed a storage room, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and clamped tightly over his mouth.
“?!”
Gu Yan’s heart gave a violent jolt.
He immediately drove his elbow into the person behind him, preparing to break free.
But just then…
A knife appeared.
Its sharp tip pierced through the fabric of his down jacket, pressing the material inward until the blade was firmly against his waist.
“Don’t make a sound. Come with me.”
Gu Xingxing’s voice was hoarse and slightly slurred.
His eyes were dark, filled with malice and cruelty.
His fingers gripped a ten-centimeter fruit knife tightly as he forced Gu Yan into the storage room.
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