Chapter 71 Farewell
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“Wrong. My insistence on participating in the finals had nothing to do with Xu Xingran. He’s a formidable opponent, but at that time, I just wanted to see you,” Gu Liyu replied.
An Lan was encircled in the other’s arms. Now, he truly felt like he was in a romantic relationship with Gu Liyu.
Gu Liyu turned his face, and his nose gently touched An Lan’s forehead, as if he might kiss him at any moment.
This suddenly made An Lan nervous. His other hand clenched into a fist, and there was a thin layer of sweat in his palm. He remembered everything that happened in the club’s bathroom.
His heart sank suddenly, and An Lan’s knees subconsciously bent. The laptop resting on them was about to slide off, and An Lan quickly steadied it.
The sound of “thump thump” in his chest was like a giant hammer pounding on the city gates, feeling as if the stubborn fortress was about to crack open.
An Lan sat up straight, not knowing whether to lie back down. He pretended not to see clearly, leaning forward as if watching the movie.
But in fact, he couldn’t focus on a single line of dialogue.
Gu Liyu’s hand reached over, and his fingertips played with An Lan’s hair, implying something with the touch on the back of his neck where he had been bitten.
He seemed to be confirming something, yet also hinting at something. Only An Lan, breathing cautiously, afraid of being discovered by the other, felt nervous.
The story in the movie continued.
Bruce tried to find out who the person was by looking for the department manager on that floor, wanting to know who the last person to leave was that night. But the department manager had no idea. Later, Bruce approached the security, watching the surveillance video to see the young man’s back. He was wearing an inconspicuous suit, bowing his head as if afraid of being noticed. Bruce even checked all the information of the employees, trying to find some clues.
Every figure appearing in front of Bruce was suspicious, but Bruce couldn’t confirm who he was.
However, the new collection “Shadow of the Muse” from Bruce’s group attracted attention in the fashion world.
The all-black outfits, retro yet mysteriously dynamic, revived Bruce’s group.
Everyone said Bruce was kissed by the muse in his dreams, and Bruce joked during interviews, “Please let the muse kiss him again.”
To celebrate the success of the new collection, the group held a masquerade ball, where both men and women wore masks.
Bruce finally saw the “muse” he had been longing for at the masquerade—a young man in a black tailcoat, wearing a black mask, tall and elegant, with a touch of restraint. Bruce walked through layers of people and approached him.
The young man’s eyes showed a hint of panic, but he quickly calmed down, probably thinking that Bruce wouldn’t recognize him.
—Because he was an inconspicuous beta without any scent.
Sure enough, Bruce smiled and said, “Sir, many people are wearing our latest-designed tailcoats today, but you are the most eye-catching one.”
The young man smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Bruce asked him many questions, all unrelated to that mysterious night, mostly about clothing coordination and the young man’s fashion preferences.
They walked to a corner of the banquet, and just as Bruce handed him a glass of champagne, suddenly the power went out.
The banquet hall plunged into darkness.
The young man instinctively reached out to take the champagne that Bruce handed over, but in turn, Bruce held onto the young man’s wrist.
The guests at the scene were in lively discussions, eagerly awaiting the light to return.
However, the young man found himself pressed against the wall by Bruce, whose voice now echoed in his ear.
“I recognized you the moment I first saw you,” Bruce’s voice was deep, filled with intense possessiveness.
“I recognized you the moment I first saw you,” suddenly, Gu Liyu’s voice echoed in An Lan’s ear.
A warm breath rushed into An Lan’s ear, and he abruptly turned his head, meeting Gu Liyu’s eyes.
Wasn’t Gu Liyu sitting by the bedside all this time? When did he come over?
An Lan was about to create some distance between them when the second line of dialogue from the movie overlapped with Gu Liyu’s voice.
“Whenever my mind is idle, I think of you to the point of going crazy.”
The movie screen plunged into complete darkness, with only Gu Liyu reciting Bruce’s lines… and the young man’s panicked and hurried breathing.
If Bruce was the madness pushed to the extreme, then Gu Liyu was cold, rational, and even scheming.
He was tempting himself… An Lan knew.
An Lan dared not breathe, just staring blankly into Gu Liyu’s eyes.
“Sir… Sir, you’ve mistaken the person…” came the young man’s voice from the computer, forced into a dead end.
An Lan leaned to the side, and the computer completely tilted on the bed. Gu Liyu’s hands supported him, softly asking, “Oh, did I make a mistake?”
How many times had he watched this movie? Why did he remember Bruce’s lines?
Bruce, as if pressed against the young man’s ear, asked ambiguous, husky questions filled with possessiveness.
While Gu Liyu’s voice was light, with his unique clarity, instantly occupying An Lan’s mind.
“No… Mr. Bruce, please don’t…”
The sound of something being torn, struggling, and breath mixed together, filled with endless imagination.
“Do you know what I do every time the movie reaches this point?” Gu Liyu turned his face, as if about to kiss, but deliberately left room for An Lan to escape.
“I… How would I know?” An Lan moved backward, the other hand propping outside the bed, and suddenly fell down.
When he came to his senses, Gu Liyu’s hands were already on both sides of his head, almost lying on him, looking at him with an extremely focused gaze.
“I’ll use your shooting suit to cover over the head, blocking out all the light, and then imagine what you look like,” Gu Liyu replied.
An Lan’s heart was instantly pierced. He widened his eyes, looking at Gu Liyu.
In the second half of the movie, recklessly, as the lights came on, Bruce dragged the young man into the lounge of the banquet, threw him on the sofa, and all his desires erupted in these days.
An Lan panicked. He reached out with the other hand to turn off the computer, but not knowing what he touched, the volume of the movie suddenly increased.
The completely exposed sound made An Lan blush from his neck to his face.
Gu Liyu just stood there watching An Lan, seeming more composed as An Lan became more frantic, until An Lan finally closed the laptop.
The bedroom quieted down.
But An Lan could hear his own frantic heartbeat.
“You… Let me go.” An Lan said.
“Do you think you can still get up?” Gu Liyu lowered even more, and his hands on An Lan tightened, looking down at him.
The air was filled with a fluctuating and refreshing scent, which was Gu Liyu’s pheromones.
Even though alpha pheromones were mutually conflicting, An Lan, relying on Gu Liyu’s pheromones, would not only not resist but even show addictive symptoms.
He really smelled good. An Lan felt a force pulling him, and in his mind, there was the dance of the sea under the moonlight, creating one glitter after another. An Lan lifted his head, and his lips fell on Gu Liyu’s neck.
Gu Liyu remained motionless, closing his eyes, and the hands supporting An Lan tightened.
An Lan closed his eyes, and his nose rubbed against Gu Liyu’s jawline, toward his lips. Suddenly, Gu Liyu pressed An Lan back. When An Lan opened his eyes again, he looked at Gu Liyu.
“If you can’t resist my pheromones’ temptation and end up becoming an omega from prolonged exposure to my aplus, don’t regret it,” he said.
His voice was husky and restrained.
This was the final warning.
“Then… if I really become an omega… mark me.” An Lan said.
Now, nothing could prevent him from becoming an alpha unless Gu Liyu used his pheromones to influence him day and night.
“Do you know… where aplus is most concentrated?” Gu Liyu asked.
“The neck?” An Lan asked, not very sure.
“No.” Gu Liyu was still leaning over An Lan, looking down at him.
“It won’t be the wrist either.”
These were the two important places where alpha emitted pheromones.
Gu Liyu lifted one of An Lan’s hands, and the tip of his index finger touched his own lips, slowly kissing it.
An Lan instantly understood his hint.
Although Gu Liyu didn’t get close to people often, his cold and distant demeanor carried a rigid alpha power.
But his lips were harmless and gentle.
An Lan really liked his lips.
But when he bit An Lan’s fingertip, the force of the kiss on his joints increased. Even though this kiss didn’t cross any boundaries, An Lan’s blood seemed to break through the body’s restraints, rushing towards Gu Liyu’s lips and teeth.
An Lan’s fingers trembled and hooked slightly. Gu Liyu, who was above An Lan, looked at him with an intimidating yet irresistible ambiguity. An Lan wanted to avoid his gaze. Just as he slightly turned his face, Gu Liyu forcefully kissed it, diverting An Lan’s attention back.
“Gu… Gu Liyu…”
An Lan tried to pull his hand back, but Gu Liyu chased after An Lan’s hand until he came to his face, then suddenly kissed his lips.
The scent of the shallow pheromones turned into a vortex, carrying away all of An Lan’s rationality. Half of An Lan’s head hung off the edge of the bed, Gu Liyu’s kiss pressed down, his chin lifted, and his hair gently swayed on the edge of the bed.
An Lan retreated little by little. Every time he was about to fall, Gu Liyu would pull him back.
The scent of the ocean overwhelmed An Lan. Every time he was about to suffocate, Gu Liyu would turn to kiss the corner of his mouth, giving him a chance to breathe.
“Do you know where aplus is most concentrated?” Gu Liyu leaned against his ear and asked softly.
His voice was like a death sentence for An Lan, hanging in mid-air, neither up nor down. Clearly terrified, there was a moment when he didn’t want to touch the ground.
“Hmm?”
Oxygen deprivation left An Lan confused.
Gu Liyu grabbed An Lan’s hand and said, “Here.”
An Lan only heard a “boom” in his ear, and the whole space was spinning.
Everything came aggressively, and An Lan was led by Gu Liyu. Gu Liyu was very close, his eyes closed, and his eyelashes trembled slightly. His Adam’s apple rolled as if something was surging wildly inside his body.
The scent of ambergris became stronger, and An Lan kissed Gu Liyu’s eyebrows and eyes, pressing his face against his. When that vast ocean rushed towards the sky, An Lan’s emotions reached their peak, and his blood seemed to be chasing Gu Liyu, wanting to overflow from his eyes, fingertips, and every place he could feel.
Gu Liyu bowed his head, buried in An Lan’s neck, and hugged An Lan tightly.
After a long time, An Lan looked at the ceiling that had finally stopped spinning and murmured, “You really are a genius…”
“What genius?” Gu Liyu leaned close, and as soon as he spoke, it seemed like he was about to kiss An Lan’s neck.
“An all-around genius…”
Gu Liyu turned his face to meet An Lan’s eyes. He smiled lightly, and An Lan’s heart trembled. Did he find this guy dangerously sexy?
“Get lost.”
An Lan pushed Gu Liyu’s face away, sat up, and looked at the closed laptop. He found that his rank was still far from Gu Liyu’s. He felt frustrated, hugged his head, and buried his face in his knees.
Gu Liyu laid quietly beside him. Now he was surprisingly obedient.
Maybe after two or three minutes, An Lan’s pajamas was gently pulled. He muttered, “What?”
“Are you still watching the movie?”
“Of course! Why wouldn’t I? I want to see what kind of nonsense you’ve learned!”
An Lan immediately brought the laptop over, propped it against the bedhead, and didn’t share it with Gu Liyu.
The next part was quite dramatic. In the lounge after the dinner party, because Bruce was too crazy, he almost took the young man’s life.
When he took off the mask on the young man’s face, he found that this young man turned out to be his assistant.
Bruce had three assistants on rotation. Their work was simple, handling trivial matters such as answering phones and recording visitor lists outside his office. This young man was the most ordinary, and Bruce didn’t even remember his name, something like Gene.
Bruce had once hired an omega as his assistant, but before an important meeting, the omega entered their estrus period due to admiration for Bruce. After that, all his assistants were replaced with betas.
They showed no response to the alpha’s pheromones, diligently encouraging each other and harboring no inappropriate thoughts.
Gene was one of them. He usually wore black-framed glasses. Every time Bruce walked out of the office, he could see this young man focusing on the computer screen. Over time, Bruce didn’t even remember what he looked like, only his side profile with glasses.
Gene woke up, and Bruce only then realized that he had a pair of clear and beautiful eyes, hidden behind those thick glasses. Or maybe it was because Bruce never thought about getting to know him.
Bruce hugged Gene and said a thousand times that he loved him.
But the next day, Gene submitted a resignation letter to the HR manager. When Bruce received this letter, his eyes were red, as if he wanted to devour Gene.
He rushed to Gene’s apartment, but the landlord told Bruce that he had already terminated the lease and left.
Bruce was on the verge of collapse. He suddenly understood that Gene didn’t like him. No matter how great an alpha’s charm was, it was only for omegas. But when he fell in love with a beta, he didn’t even know how to attract him.
However, his possessiveness and paranoia as an alpha prevented him from letting Gene go like that. He used his connections and finally found Gene.
Gene went to another city and became a clerk in a small company. One morning, when he came to work, he heard laughter coming from the boss’s office. He was called in, and to his surprise, Bruce was sitting inside. Gene almost ran away, but he held back.
Because he understood that as long as Bruce didn’t give up, no matter where he went, he would be found.
Bruce asked him, “Can’t I pursue you like an ordinary person?”
Gene rejected him straightforwardly, “Remember one time I changed my glasses, looking forward to meeting the person I wanted to confess to. After you passed by my desk, your secretary reminded me, ‘Gene, the boss doesn’t like your new glasses; those are the popular style for omegas.'”
“That’s just a small thing…I….”
Gene replied, “No, sir. That may be a small thing for you because everyone revolves around your preferences. But for me, being around you is too stifling. I have to make myself ordinary and inconspicuous, not even able to follow my own wishes, even for such a small thing as glasses.”
Bruce seemed to understand what Gene cared about, but at the same time, he seemed not to fully understand.
Gene returned to a normal life. He thought Bruce wouldn’t come again, after all, this city was two or three hours away from where Bruce worked. But he didn’t expect Bruce to be transferred directly to the branch in this city.
This incident caused a sensation in the fashion industry, and even the stock market was turbulent for two or three days before stabilizing.
Some speculated that Bruce had lost control of the group, and others guessed that there had been internal changes in the group, and Bruce was squeezed out of the core management.
But Bruce was content with the current situation. He accompanied Gene to work, had meals, and watched movies. He was just like an ordinary pursuer.
Gene was resistant at first, until one day, pouring rain, Bruce stood across from Gene’s workplace with an umbrella, waiting for him until after nine o’clock in the evening. Gene sighed and finally accepted Bruce’s invitation.
They drank a glass in a small bar, and Gene finally told him that he used to work for the president of a large corporation, an alpha with a powerful pheromone, and he was uncontrollably attracted to him.
Upon hearing this, Bruce was very surprised. Gene was clearly a beta.
“Before an important meeting, I lost control because of my infatuation with him and messed everything up. My boss is a well-connected and influential person in the industry. Because of this incident, I was ostracized by the entire industry. So, I removed my glands, making myself an ordinary beta without any pheromone scent. Coincidentally, my cousin looks very similar to me, and he works on the family farm, so I used his identity to return to the big city to continue working. Guess what?” Gene rested his chin on his hand and smiled at Bruce.
Ice-cold water poured down on Bruce’s head, and he looked at Gene in disbelief.
“I returned to my former boss. I found that when I was no longer an omega, he was just a walking sculpture for me. I could look at him without any admiration, handle all work matters calmly, and most importantly… the salary he paid to betas was three times that of omegas. Why else would I go back?” Gene’s smile was cold and ruthless.
If the former Bruce used alpha’s arrogance and self-importance to hurt Gene, then the current Gene was repaying it a million times over with indifference.
He would never be attracted to Bruce.
The rain outside did not stop. Gene picked up the umbrella beside him and walked out. He turned around, looked at Bruce through the glass window, lowered his eyes, and smiled.
Farewell, the mysterious night.
When the closing credits appeared, An Lan exhaled. He turned his face and found that Gu Liyu was leaning against him.
Not disturbing him, but seemingly waiting for An Lan to return to his embrace.
“This movie… I didn’t expect such an ending,” An Lan said with a bit of confusion. “If it were me, with such a heavy second half, I probably wouldn’t watch it many times.”
But Gu Liyu said he really liked this movie and was definitely going to watch it more than once, familiarizing himself with the lines.
“Because I initially liked seeing you when you were still a beta,” Gu Liyu said.
An Lan was stunned and looked at the other person.
Gu Liyu thought he was like Bruce in the movie, fascinated by a beta without pheromones.
“After watching this movie, when Bruce became infatuated with Gene dancing under the night sky, I realized that I liked you,” Gu Liyu said. “I looked for you in every shooting competition.”
“When… when was that?” An Lan knew that Gu Liyu had noticed him early on, but he never asked when it was.
“In the preliminaries of my sophomore year, I was in the twelfth group, and you were in the third group,” Gu Liyu answered.
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