Early Saturday morning, not long after Sui Yuesheng started working, he suddenly received a call from Jiang Jingyun.

As soon as the call connected, Jiang Jingyun got straight to the point, “I encountered an issue while recruiting an assistant these past few days.”

Upon hearing this, Sui Yuesheng put down the financial report he was holding and assumed a listening posture.

If anyone else had said such a thing to him, he might have suspected they were looking for a recommendation for a good assistant. But since the call was from Jiang Jingyun, he knew it wasn’t a trivial matter.

As expected, Jiang Jingyun continued.

“I required that the assistant be a male alpha during the recruitment, but still received numerous resumes. Yu Hebai filtered them and asked a few questions online. Yesterday afternoon, he informed the candidates who made it to the final round to come to the office for an interview.”

“That’s not a big deal; I left it entirely to him. However, I happened to pass by the meeting room yesterday and stopped to watch for a while,” Jiang Jingyun said slowly, “A beta had slipped in.”

Sui Yuesheng frowned, “Didn’t Yu Hebai notice?”

This didn’t seem like Assistant Yu’s usual work ethic. Not being able to distinguish between an alpha and a beta was almost grounds for retirement.

“He didn’t notice,” Jiang Jingyun paused to find the right words, “because this beta was emitting the scent of alpha pheromones. If we hadn’t talked about this a long time ago, I wouldn’t have noticed either.”

Sui Yuesheng’s eyes widened in shock, causing him to accidentally knock over a stack of documents beside him. He was usually very organized, but at this moment, he had no intention of picking them up, leaving the papers scattered on the floor.

He knew what Jiang Jingyun was implying.

That beta who applied had injected artificial pheromones, a very expensive and somewhat side-effect-laden drug, with a formula known only to the Tao family research institute globally.

Even though the Tao family dealt mostly in illegal drugs, nothing compared to artificial pheromones. It was the forbidden drug of forbidden drugs, not available on the market and sold at a high price only in the Tao family’s black-market stores. Over the years, the Tao family made a fortune from it.

However, Tao Zhixing had always been against it.

Two years ago, Tao Zhixing had banned the production of this drug, dismantled the entire production line, and destroyed all existing stock. The loss was immeasurable, but as a result, artificial pheromones almost disappeared. Even if a few remnants existed, they were useless—the drug contained a biological active substance that required stringent storage conditions and had a shelf life of only sixty days, with monthly injections necessary for effectiveness.

For this reason, Sui Yuesheng wanted to dismiss the notion outright but held his tongue upon further thought.

The Tao family was no longer the united entity it once was. Even before Tao Zhixing’s death, there were signs of division. Otherwise, Tao Zhixing would not have groomed him, an outsider omega, as a contingency for Tao Fengche.

With Tao Zhixing gone, the factions began to stir. Nothing was surprising anymore.

But hadn’t he and Jing Ning thoroughly inspected the research institute upon their return? They even recovered the stolen data from the traitors. Where did the problem arise?

Sui Yuesheng thanked Jiang Jingyun, took out his notebook, and jotted down a few notes, his thoughts racing. “Wait, did Yu Hebai check his ID?”

“He did,” Jiang Jingyun replied seriously, “The gender on the ID is listed as ‘male alpha,’ and it even passed the system’s verification—a perfect false identity.”

“Perhaps it’s not false.”

“I see,” Sui Yuesheng put down his pen and rubbed his temples. “It’s them again. If you don’t mind, I think we should… hold off on taking action for now.”

Jiang Jingyun asked, “You mean act as if we know nothing and keep this fake alpha around?”

“Yes,” Sui Yuesheng nodded, “Artificial pheromones are top secret within the Tao family. If it weren’t for our conversations during our overseas studies, you wouldn’t have noticed the flaw.”

“But that’s where the problem lies. You’ve never seen the actual drug, yet from my description of its effects and side effects, you could tell that it was a fake alpha. This means what they’ve made is only a semi-finished product. The finished product from the Tao family was so effective that even a spouse wouldn’t notice the difference with regular injections.”

“And the fact that they’re in such a hurry to send someone to you indicates they’re targeting me,” Sui Yuesheng said with a playful smile, twirling his pen, “After all, everyone in Jingpu knows how close the new head of the Tao family is with the prominent congressman Jiang.”

“Yes, there’s even talk of a political and business alliance between us, with such detailed fabrications that I almost believe it myself,” Jiang Jingyun quipped, sighing softly. “In fact, you’d make a suitable marriage partner. Several of my elders have asked about it, but alas, their wishes won’t be fulfilled.”

Jiang Jingyun’s voice lowered, almost inaudible, as Sui Yuesheng listened quietly without interrupting.

Soon, Jiang Jingyun returned to the original topic, “Then it’s settled. I’ll inform Yu Hebai to hire this person and keep a close watch.”

“You intend to keep this from him?” With matters arranged, Sui Yuesheng felt like teasing, “Ge, as friends, I shouldn’t pry into your personal matters, but Yu Hebai has been with you since college. Now, instead of taking over his family business, he insists on being your assistance, and yet—”

He dragged out his words, voice dripping with mischief.

“This matter is too deeply entangled with the Red Gang; I don’t want him involved. It’s too dangerous,” Jiang Jingyun sighed silently, turning the tables, “But don’t worry about me for now. What about you?”

“How are things going with that young master of the Tao family? I’ve heard rumors that you two aren’t getting along lately.”

Jiang Jingyun wasn’t one for gossip, but if Tao Fengche was indeed at odds with Sui Yuesheng as rumored, it would complicate matters further.

Thinking back to Sui Yuesheng rushing off in the middle of a meal to pick up a child from the police station… the rumor seemed quite credible.

Just thinking about it gave Jiang Jingyun a headache. Most of his friends were alphas, and among them, Yu Hebai was one of the most rebellious. But even he had never caused trouble that required a guardian to fetch him from the police station!

Sui Yuesheng licked his palate, recalling the rich milky taste.

The milk Tao Fengche brought him Wednesday night had already started to spoil. Omegas were usually pampered, and anyone else might have gotten sick from it.

But Sui Yuesheng was different. While other omegas were like hothouse flowers, he had grown up like wild grass.

When he first came to Kyushu, he had eaten all kinds of things. A slightly spoiled glass of milk was nothing. Back then, it would have been considered a delicacy.

So, without blinking, he drank the sour milk and felt fine the next day. But someone must have told Tao Fengche that milk could spoil if reheated for too long, causing the kid to watch him with eyes full of apology for several days.

Recently, Tao Fengche had been sneaking into the kitchen at night to heat the milk, knowing to add rock sugar. The taste was gradually getting closer to what Sui Yuesheng remembered—a marked improvement.

Last night’s milk was a bit strong; tonight, it should be just right.

After savoring the memory for a while, Sui Yuesheng raised an eyebrow in good spirits, “It’s going well, not bad at all.”

“Then why didn’t you…”

Sui Yuecheng pressed his lips together, closed his eyes, and after a long pause, finally spoke slowly, “He might… be resentful towards me.”

“Resentful that I left without saying goodbye, and also resentful that I didn’t spend time with him immediately after returning to the country.”

“Since you knew, why didn’t you go at that time?” Jiang Jingyun was a bit puzzled. He advised, “That’s not how you raise a child.”

Unlike the Tao family, which had a single heir for three generations, the Jiang family had many offspring. As the eldest son of his generation, Jiang Jingyun had grown up with his cousins, accumulating a wealth of experience in childcare over the years.

Sui Yuecheng’s gaze lingered on the ring for a moment, then he switched the call mode to speakerphone, tapped a few times on his phone, and opened his virtual identity ID.

Under his name, there was a line of clear guardian information.

“It happened so suddenly,” Sui Yuecheng spoke very slowly. “Although I had been preparing for this for many years, when it actually happened, I was still caught off guard.”

“Moreover, the word ‘father’ is extremely important to him. At that time, I thought he might need some time to accept the change in guardianship.”

What Sui Yuecheng didn’t say was that the Tao family was in complete chaos at that time, with internal and external troubles piling up haphazardly, like a storm-tossed house showing signs of sinking due to years of neglect.

He hadn’t seen Tao Fengche in person for a long time. Despite having mentally prepared for it for a long time, when they finally met, he didn’t even know how to greet him.

So he thought it would be better to wait until the Tao family was somewhat stabilized before seeing him, to avoid Tao Fengche realizing that the household was in complete disarray when he recovered from the grief of losing his father.

At the very least, he had to keep the family business that Tao Zhixing left behind for Tao Fengche, which was precisely his duty.

“But he just lost his father…” Jiang Jingyun was helpless.

He could understand Sui Yuecheng’s thoughts, but for a teenage alpha, Sui Yuecheng’s “indifference” was definitely another blow after losing his father.

Sui Yuecheng sighed, “I have also always felt guilty about this afterwards.”

That’s why he could tolerate Tao Fengche’s many outbursts and continuously try to make amends. He had no experience in dealing with adolescent alphas, but he was doing his best. Recently, on Assistant Zhou’s suggestion, he even bought parenting books to start learning.

Otherwise, given his temper… Tao Fengche would have been beaten to a pulp the first time he talked nonsense.

Sui Yuecheng thought to himself.