Chapter 120: As Lance, He Must Lower His Head

He suddenly burst into laughter. “Should call on Lai—cough…” The latter half of the sentence was swallowed back under Zhai Yifei’s gaze.

Lei Po thought, they should call on Lai Lai, and maybe even his sister-in-law, Shen Yu, to join in on the beating. After all, they were a small squad now.

He wondered how those two were doing.

Especially Shen Yu.

Lei Po mused that, while they might not outshine others in some areas, when it came to the competition between seniors and freshmen this time, they would surely come out ahead.

When Shen Yu had said that yesterday, Lei Po had indeed been shocked, admiring how thoroughly Alpha he was.

If Ji Laili heard that, he’d probably want to take it back at lightning speed. I was wrong, bro. I never should have mentioned the word ‘Alpha scent’ that day—it’s stuck in your mind ever since.

Staying with Laurie was much better than being assigned toilet duty like the other three members of the security team, essentially acting as bathroom guardians.

And it also meant he was the first to learn about Shen Yu’s situation.

Both Shen Yu and Zhai Yifei had undercover identities, but those identities came with different ranks.

The fact that Garna still remembered Lance’s face—so unremarkable that it would be lost in a crowd—proved that Shen Yu held some level of status as an Imperial Alpha here.

It was likely that Instructor Aiger didn’t fully trust a freshman to handle this alone, so Zhai-ge had the misfortune of being sent to the security team as well.

“You want to participate in the experiment?”

Following Laurie to meet Garna, Ji Laili had barely stepped through the door when he caught sight of Shen Yu’s back, as well as Garna’s disdainful expression.

At the sound of movement by the door, Garna’s sharp gaze swept over, skipping past Laurie to land on Ji Laili.

Ji Laili smiled, his eyes curving. “Lord Garna.”

“What is this about?”

Laurie stammered, “L-Lord Garna, he’s my assistant. I—I—I was preparing—”

“Laurie-ge decided to keep me by his side for training. After all, the workload here is immense. It’d be tough on just one person, right?”

“Right, Laurie-ge?” Ji Laili smoothly picked up the conversation.

“Y-yes! Exactly, Lord Garna!” Laurie shot Ji Laili a grateful look.

Garna’s forehead twitched, and he shut his eyes in frustration before finally snapping, “Idiot! It’s only the first day, and you’re already keeping a newly arrived Alpha by your side!”

“You’d better not have brought in an undercover agent.”

Garna’s glare was murderous.

Laurie shuddered. “N-no way…” This curly-haired kid didn’t look like an undercover agent at all.

Laurie empathized deeply. “What kind of undercover agent wouldn’t hate us? Even if they tried to fake it, there’s no way they’d be smiling like this. If I were undercover, I wouldn’t just stop smiling—I’d be walking around with a permanent deadpan expression.”

Working here was a twelve-hour grind. Undercover work? That would be at least fifteen hours a day—no weekends, no holidays, no benefits, just the promise of some eventual success.

What kind of undercover agent would willingly smile under these conditions?

You’d have to be a complete maniac.

And this curly-haired kid seemed perfectly normal.

He even cared about me—he has me in his heart!

Laurie made up his mind. For the sake of his dark circles—no, for the sake of slacking off—no, for the sake of Curly, he had to fight for this.

“Lord Garna, he’s definitely not an undercover agent!”

Garna cast another glance at Ji Laili. The curly-haired Alpha flashed a wide grin, showing eight teeth, and responded cheerfully, “That’s right, that’s right!”

“……”

The lie detector helmet from yesterday hadn’t reacted, and with an idiot like Laurie vouching for him—an idiot who looked very stupid but was actually just slightly less stupid than he appeared—Garna dropped the topic.

Whether or not he was undercover, time would eventually reveal the truth. What concerned Garna more at the moment was something else entirely.

He turned his gaze toward Lance, wanting to see what tricks this guy had up his sleeve—he actually wanted to participate in the experiment.

What he saw instead was a dark, icy glare fixed on Laurie. The inky black eyes were like overturned ink, cold and oppressive.

Garna knew that look well.

Whenever he was about to kill someone, he looked at them the same way.

After going undercover in the Federation, Lance had only grown more ruthless.

Shen Yu had no idea what Garna was misunderstanding. Worse, Garna seemed to be approving of him because of the killing intent he exuded. But Senior Shen was simply… irritated.

From the moment he entered, Lai Lai hadn’t looked at him once.

Why won’t he look at me?

Is he still mad?

Even though he knew Ji Laili still liked him, even if it was just a little bit of anger that would probably fade soon, Shen Yu still wanted to steal his attention back.

But that damn Alpha beside him just kept talking and talking.

Did his mouth have no other function than speaking?

Lai Lai’s focus was entirely on him. Was he doing this on purpose?

Shen Yu, deprived of attention, glowered coldly.

Unfortunately for him, Laurie had already built up an immunity to death stares, having survived Garna’s countless times.

He didn’t even notice Shen Yu’s resentment and kept chattering away with Ji Laili.

Slacking off at work—now, that’s the good life!

“Laurie is cheap and useful, Lance. You’d better not lay a hand on him.”

Garna’s warning pulled Shen Yu back. He reluctantly reined in his killing intent and, staying in character as Lance, let out a cold snort.

“Only you would keep such a useless Alpha around.”

“Who I use is none of your business.” Garna was displeased. The territorial instinct of a top Alpha saw this as a challenge, and a sharp, smoky scent spread through the air.

A powerful suppression wave surged toward Shen Yu, trying to force him to bow.

Once a top Alpha’s pheromones carried a suppression command, resisting was immensely difficult—especially since Garna had no reservations about utterly humiliating him.

This was far beyond simply leaking pheromones to embarrass an Omega.

Laurie was already buckling, collapsing onto the floor with wobbly legs.

His head spun, as if he was suffocating from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Drenched in the thick scent of tobacco, Shen Yu’s eyes flickered with disgust and bloodlust.

Unlike Laurie, he wasn’t physically affected—just purely repulsed by the scent.

Perhaps, before his secondary differentiation, his Omega genes might have stirred some reaction. But after being marked, that influence was entirely gone.

As a fellow top Alpha, this kind of pheromone only provoked his killing instinct.

But with the mission pressing down on him, Shen Yu knew he had to submit and show weakness.

The reason he hadn’t reacted yet, letting the pheromones spread unchecked, was simply because…

He had never bowed his head to anyone before.

“Achoo! Achoo!”

A strained voice rang out. Ji Laili, irritated by the smoke, wrinkled his nose, his reddened nostrils flaring as he sniffled and waved a hand in front of his face, a look of utter disdain.

His gaze landed on the Alpha, whose nose had also turned red from discomfort.

Another sneeze snapped him back to reality.

Shen Yu hesitated no longer. He slightly bent his once-straight spine, lowering his head, his gaze cold and detached.

As Lance, what he needed to do was submit.

Not uphold the pride that Shen Yu should have had.

He should have done this sooner—then Lai Lai wouldn’t have had to suffer.

The once-straight back slowly arched, his head hung low. Though his expression was hidden, the way his rigid spine curved, uneven and trembling, said everything.

Garna watched the scene with something close to delight, almost reaching for another cigarette.

Forcing a powerful Alpha into submission—it was indeed a satisfying sight.

Suddenly, his expression shifted.

Another overwhelming pheromone burst into the air, the rich scent of Baileys liqueur surging in, instantly suppressing the acrid tobacco.

It swept past, lifting the slightly bowed spine, brushing against it with a gentle touch—almost as if soothing his Alpha.