The company’s leadership spared no expense and booked Jiang City’s top Chinese restaurant.

You should know, the company is usually quite stingy. According to colleagues, there aren’t even gifts during holidays; last Spring Festival, they just handed out a box of zongzi, which was too embarrassing even to bring home.

An Xun fiddled with the restaurant’s green plants and looked around at the interior décor. It was simple and elegant, without too many expensive embellishments, creating a unique atmosphere.

The company is small, and most employees are married, with little free time to themselves. Subtracting those who had overtime or other plans and those not on the invite list, very few were able to make time for the dinner, enough to fill only a large private room.

An Xun, being less senior, was seated in the most inconspicuous spot.

Next to him were colleagues from the tech department, recognizable by their sparse hair and slightly outdated clothes—these were their most notable traits.

The big boss sat in the main seat and started coughing to clear his throat as soon as he sat down, launching into a speech about the company’s plans with an authoritative demeanor.

…This was not the kind of dinner An Xun had imagined.

His previous employer was poor and couldn’t afford fancy dinners, leading him to a misunderstanding about what such events were supposed to be like—he thought they were just for fun and getting to know each other better.

The boss, with a beer belly, got hot and took off his jacket. His shirt didn’t fit well, and when he sat down, it wrinkled up with a small gap opening between two buttons. But the boss seemed oblivious, speaking loudly in his heavily accented Mandarin, which was quite a strain on the ears.

[Husband]: Baby, how’s the food?

[Gulu Gulu]: Not so great.

After getting used to being called “Baby,” he changed his username back.

[Husband]: I heard the dishes from Yun Shang Ke are pretty good. Did the company order something you don’t like?

The dishes on the large round table didn’t have much of a homey feel; one of the few steaming hot dishes was a winter melon pork rib soup, followed by minced meat with eggplant.

An Xun was thoroughly impressed—truly, leaders know how to save every penny. How did he manage to pick the least appetizing options from so many delicious ones?

As the boss raised his glass and looked proudly around, An Xun guiltily bowed his head, knowing that making eye contact would result in a lecture from the boss on how to be a good employee.

[Gulu Gulu]: The boss is speaking, I dare not take a photo for you. I’ll just report the dishes, still not as appetizing as instant noodles.

An Xun looked up and down several times, eventually getting caught by the big boss.

He stood up, their eyes met, and the image of Bo Xiangzhou in a suit came to mind—tall and courteous, a stark contrast to the present company.

Would Bo Xiangzhou also end up like this when he’s older?

He couldn’t help but smile at the thought. The boss’s face soured instantly. An Xun, thinking quickly, poured a full glass of wine and continued with a laugh, “President Liu, you truly are the pillar of our company. Although I haven’t been here long, I am deeply impressed by your talents. I used to think President Liu was just good at his job, but tonight I see that I was shortsighted. It’s not just your work abilities that can lead the company to glory; your literary grace should not be overlooked. I’ve learned a lot from your speech tonight.”

“Visionary and thoughtful, with depth and warmth, unmatched strength and brilliant literary flair. I think even Bo Xiangzhou can’t compare to you. You are truly a role model we all should learn from. I dream of becoming an outstanding person like you,” An Xun recycled common phrases, “President Liu, this drink is to you!”

President Liu couldn’t hide his smile, “See, this is the kind of awareness and intelligence! If you all were half as smart as him and could grasp the meaning of my words, our company’s profits could double this year. Little An, right? I appreciate you.”

An Xun held back a laugh, suffering inwardly while updating Bo Xiangzhou on the latest developments.

[Gulu Gulu]: I had a drink, just a small one, shouldn’t get drunk.

[Gulu Gulu]: Husband, I just bad-mouthed you a bit while flattering the boss, you won’t be mad, right? Just so you know, I’ve already gotten over this morning’s anger.

Bo Xiangzhou, at a business meeting, took a moment to respond.

[Husband]: I won’t be mad. The most important thing is for Baby to be happy. It’s going to snow tonight, it will be very cold, don’t drink too much.

[Gulu Gulu]: Alright, JPG.

He saw colleagues with experience only nibble a few bites before stopping, though he didn’t understand why, he followed suit, tasting each dish just twice, not eating more. The soup bowl was barely palm-sized, and when the winter melon pork rib soup got to him, it contained only three small pieces of winter melon and a tiny bit of pork rib meat.

Truly pitiful—he usually gnaws on whole rib racks at home.

The three leaders bragged excessively, and his remark “even Bo Xiangzhou can’t compare to you” took Liu by storm. After drinking too much, Liu praised him endlessly, calling him promising and impressive.

An Xun secretly recorded Liu praising him and sent the audio to Bo Xiangzhou.

With many people around, Bo Xiangzhou chose to convert the voice message to text. The background noise was loud, and the converted text was a bit jumbled and full of typos. Bo Xiangzhou took some effort to understand the message, then replied:

Your company’s leadership does have insight. Our Baby indeed is a rare talent among men.

[Gulu Gulu]: You’re even more exaggerated than they are.

[Husband]: Not exaggerated, Baby really is excellent.

An Xun knew it was false praise, even if it was heartfelt, it was through a filter. Jiang City has many talents, and he couldn’t even make it into their ranks, but Bo Xiangzhou saying this truly made him happy.

The space at the table was tight, he did his best to shrink in, not wanting to touch anyone next to him. Bo Xiangzhou was perfect in every way, except he disliked it if An Xun carried another’s scent.

He understood it as a common issue among partners, high possessiveness among alphas. His possessiveness wasn’t low either; he also felt uncomfortable smelling omega on him, knowing it was illogical since they both encountered different people daily. But he still felt uncomfortable thinking an alpha didn’t belong exclusively to him.

He demanded Bo Xiangzhou not to bring home unfamiliar omega scents, and held himself to the same standard.

He kept his arms close, afraid to make any large movements. His left-hand neighbor, reaching for a distant piece of lotus root slices, knocked over a wine glass. An Xun, busy sweet-talking with his husband, was slow to react and turned to see his colleague’s apologetic smile.

So be it.

An Xun resigned himself to not being full tonight, his clothes dirty too—just his fate.

Today was indeed tough; he should drag Bo Xiangzhou to a famous temple another day to dispel the bad luck clinging to him.

An Xun didn’t need an excuse; the big boss would let him leave with understanding.

The stain on his clothes was hard to clean with just water, making An Xun wish he could tear them off.

On the other end, after finishing his meeting, Bo Xiangzhou called him from his car, “Baby, if it can’t be cleaned, just don’t bother. It’s only a few thousand yuan, just throw it out.”

“It’s my first time wearing it! Do you understand?! The first time! I quite like this design, it’d be a pity to throw it away.” An Xun spoke softly in the restroom, not wanting to raise his voice, so he whispered, “Let’s try sending it to a dry cleaner when we get back.”

The stain from the baijiu was light, and water had spread a small fabric area, making it even harder for An Xun to tell if it was clean.

Bo Xiangzhou switched to a video call, the first thing he noticed was An Xun’s red hands, “Baby, the water’s cold, don’t fuss over these things, buy another if you like, it’s cold outside, go back to the room.”

“Alright.” The stain hidden under water marks, An Xun couldn’t tell and gave up.

After mushy exchanges in the restroom corridor, An Xun ended the video call and headed towards the private room.

He worried about his clothes, sticking close to the wall, occasionally looking down to wipe water marks with a dry tissue.

“Hey? An Xun?”

Suddenly hearing his name, An Xun turned around. It was Meng Xiao and a deadbeat, wrapped together looking extremely sweet—an experience An Xun could see through as mostly Meng Xiao’s wishful thinking.

Could they really end up together? Meng Xiao was really skilled at brown-nosing.

The two seemed ill-intentioned, their eyes filled with schadenfreude, apparently enjoying his disheveled state.

As expected, the deadbeat still had that arrogant, disdainful attitude, “Less than half a year and you’re already this down and out? Splashed all over and not fighting back, I remember you used to hit quite painfully, huh? Can’t afford to offend that person?”

An Xun admired the man’s imagination, “Down and out your dad, your two outfits combined aren’t worth one of my scarves.”

The other sneered, “I can brag too.”

“Then brag away, you don’t even dare to brag like a dog muttering something, happy to see your master? I understand you’re eager to recognize a master, but I don’t swing that way, find someone else, I think the one next to you isn’t bad.” His clothes were from a niche luxury brand, not widely recognized, so it was normal they didn’t know.

Deadbeat had no comeback, and Meng Xiao was extremely sympathetic, “You asking for a beating?”

“You asking for a beating?” An Xun raised his pitch, and passing waitstaff glanced over.

Making a scene not only embarrassed him but now that he was someone’s husband, he needed to be cautious about his public persona, “Meng Xiao, kissing others then kissing you, don’t you find that disgusting? With such beautiful eyes, can’t even distinguish right from wrong, can you see he has you in his eyes?”

Meng Xiao didn’t hesitate, “Yes!”

An Xun instantly felt he was pitiable, pathetic. Switching attacks, “What was your surname again? I forgot, say it again—oh, never mind, I remember now, you’re a Zhao.”

“I’m a Zhao!” The man loudly expressed his extremely bad mood, teetering on the edge.

He’d done the first half intentionally, the second half not really—he genuinely forgot the deadbeat’s surname, “You’re a Zhao, huh, sorry about that. I meet so many people, forgot which one you are, haven’t seen you in months, did you find a job yet? Can you share where you work?”

Deadbeat was wary, “You still want to play dirty? I’m telling you, I won’t let you succeed, you haven’t paid for getting me fired yet.”

An Xun couldn’t care less, “People who settle accounts with me are big shots, which toilet did you pop out from? It’s fine if you don’t tell me, I’ll have someone check tonight.”

Meng Xiao and he stood united, “What ability do you have to check? Able to come to this restaurant, yet still bullied, I guess some high-up in Yi Hai must have dumped you, huh?”

“Bringing up old stuff?” An Xun’s butt still ached at the thought, the first time he hit him didn’t hurt, but it was with force during their life discussion, “That Yi Hai thing was just messing with you, my husband is someone else, young and promising, way better than those bald old men at Yi Hai, let me tell you, the whistleblower thing, he secretly helped with that, even if the whistleblower letter didn’t work, you couldn’t escape being fired anyway.”

“You serve quite a few people, what face do you have to talk about my husband?”

Meng Xiao’s mention of “husband” completely baffled him, he really was addicted to brown-nosing.

An Xun: “Find someone better, this kind of alpha, who knows if he’s carrying diseases, you really have the nerve to call him husband, let’s not talk anymore, a colleague messaged saying the boss is urging me to come back.”

An Xun replied to his colleague’s message, glancing at them indifferently, then turned to leave.

Deadbeat couldn’t swallow his anger, blacklisted by An Xun, unable to find revenge, not one former or current colleague knew An Xun’s whereabouts, and now seeing him right before him, he wanted to crush his pride, make him cry and beg for mercy.

His eyes tinted with a shade of scarlet, filled with hatred.

An Xun was a bit dazed when they ambushed him near the restroom.

He was in a bad mood, didn’t want to fight, no tools in hand, beating two people was not in his favor, especially with one alpha.

He hated that he hadn’t absorbed more of Bo Xiangzhou’s pheromones before leaving.

The restroom seemed empty, even if there were people, they wouldn’t dare come out with the noise outside.

Deadbeat was a bit taller than him, probably not over 183 cm, he was still confident he could handle him. Meng Xiao was a peacemaker, couldn’t insult well, couldn’t fight, if he could control deadbeat, he could control him too.

Actually, he didn’t understand, they were working adults, why still fight? Not little kids anymore, made him feel a bit stupid.

Realizing this, An Xun let go of the arm he was twisting backward, this should be handled by the police, he was 23 and still fighting, what would people say?

He immediately called 110, reporting someone was about to beat him.

But he hadn’t expected the police to make such a scene. The two firmly insisted they were the victims, An Xun was taken away for investigation along with them, passing the lobby, he covered his face with a scarf.

This posture was silly, better than losing face.

Returning, he’d discard this outfit, change into a different style, who would recognize him as the person taken away for investigation tonight.

The police interrogation was simple, they tended to believe him, his innocent large eyes blinked, not looking like someone who would hit, but he had no injuries, deadbeat, an alpha, however, had a bleeding mouth from being hit by this omega.

They provoked, they started it, but he won the fight, so the police decided he was also at fault, suggesting a settlement.

Deadbeat demanded ten thousand, money he could afford, but not worth giving, a beating for ten thousand, less work for two months, he’d be letting them off cheap.

Settlement not reached, An Xun against two, nearly started cursing in the police station.

A policewoman calmed both sides with a few words, An Xun crossed his arms, clearly unwilling to talk to them.

His phone rang, An Xun saw the caller ID, “Husband.”

“Baby, did you get drunk?”

“No.”

“Then why no messages? Is the dinner over? I’m waiting outside the clothing store across from the restaurant.”

“Uh…” An Xun hesitated, steeling himself, “Husband, I’m at the police station.”

When the police were entering his identity information, they knew his other half was Bo Xiangzhou, shocked at first, then marveled no wonder Bo Xiangzhou kept his wife hidden, looking at An Xun with a barely noticeable schadenfreude. But they never expected Bo Xiangzhou to actually come in person!

And his actions were beyond their expectations!

Bo Xiangzhou, in a black coat, with snowflakes falling on the wind-lifted hem, came wrapped in the cold, his gaze softening when he saw An Xun’s pitiful look.

An Xun ran into his arms, “Husband!”

Bo Xiangzhou wrapped his waist, touching his cool hands, “Baby, did you win the fight?”

“Came here because I won.”

Bo Xiangzhou didn’t see any problem with saying this in a police station, “You won and still called the police, Baby, are you silly?”

“Thought fighting wasn’t good, so I stopped and called the police.”

“Indeed not good, be careful next time,” Bo Xiangzhou said, “Didn’t hurt anywhere, did you?”

“No.”

Back and forth, they turned the police station into a chat room.