Lop-Eared Guard

At four or five o’clock in the morning, Lu Shangjin got up and sobered up for a while. He forgot the time while he was working last night. After glancing at his watch hazily, he suddenly woke up. 

The study was permeated with a faint sweet scent of milk-candy. Surprised, Lu Shangjin settled his heart down to identify it, and the corners of his lips bent in excitement. He stumbled onto the second floor, not bothering to care about his slowly numbing legs from his sleep. 

Yan Yi had fallen asleep, half lying down in the soft quilt and curled into a ball.

Lu Shangjin sat by the bedside and looked at him through the twilight of the curtains. He half knelt down on the bed, stealthily pulling away the eiderdown quilt held tightly in Yan Yi’s hand bit by bit and covering him back up. Holding the rabbit’s soft face, he let him lie on his side so as to not press onto the baby.

The waist of his sleep-crumpled pyjama pants was tightened around half of his rabbit tail, while half of his snow-white waist was exposed outside. Lu Shangjin smiled silently and stuffed the small tail back into his pyjamas and lifted it up.

Yan Yi moved slightly, his rabbit ears flung up and covered his face again.

Startled, Lu Shangjin, immediately held his breath and retreated quietly. He only sat back down with ease when there was no movement on the bed for a long time. 

Leaning down, he lifted the small ears plastered on Yan Yi’s face and tucked them back. He then gazed at his peaceful sleeping face, gently touching the tip of his slightly twitching nose. His whole heart was filled to the brim with a stream of water, incomparably soft and peaceful. 

He must still have me in his heart. 

Lu Shangjin was secretly happy for a while, but his brow wrinkled with distress, gently touching his faintly rounded belly.

Would Yan Yan like this child who came regardless of his own will? Would Yan Yi, because of his resentment towards Lu Shangjin, then resent this child who made him tie himself to Lu Shangjin’s side? 

He was pregnant with this nameless little guy every day. Was it very laborious for Yan Yan, was he having a very hard time? 

“I did something wrong again.” Lu Shangjin sat beside him, vexed.

Yan Yi kept moving around in his sleep, his right hand scratched the root of his tail and he was reaching the edge of the bed.

His hand was held in Lu Shangjin’s palm, his rough fingertips rubbing the tiny tattoo on his ring finger.

Lu Shangjin kissed the string of tiny flowery English words then secretly took out the ring from his pocket. He carefully put it on Yan Yi’s ring finger and held it in the palm of his hand to study it carefully.

Yan Yi had put on a little weight so his bony knuckles had rounded a little, but still looked slightly slender even after wearing the ring.

Lu Shangjin fished out his phone, and with a beam of light through the curtains, he spent five minutes finding an angle to take a picture of the two people wearing rings with their fingers intertwined. 

He looked at it in concentration for a while, then set the picture as his screensaver before putting the phone in his pocket. He laid quietly behind Yan Yi and held the rabbit in his arms from behind, his warm palms holding Yan Yi’s hand with the ring on, protecting his slightly curved belly together. 

The little rabbit was like milk jelly in his arms. Lu Shangjin wantonly stuck to him a little closer, lightly rubbing his sweat gland with the tip of its nose.

“I want to mark you.”

Lu Shangjin puckered his lips and kissed his glands, releasing soothing pheromones for him.

When tiredness struck him, half awake and half asleep, Lu Shangjin dreamed of Yan Yi again, standing in a place he couldn’t touch and coldly asking him “Will it work, when our compatibility is so low?”

Lu Shangjin woke up with a jolt. His own glands had been releasing too much soothing pheromones in his sleep and had become dry and hot.

The little rabbit was still sleeping well in his arms.

Lu Shangjin breathed gently to ease his palpitating heartbeat and glanced at the time. It was nearly six o’clock.

He put on his slippers and headed out, then scrambled back to quietly take off the ring he put on for Yan Yi and put it back into his pocket in a cherishing manner before exiting Yan Yi’s bedroom.

The little rabbit ears suddenly cocked up and listened to the surroundings.

Yan Yi heard the sound of water in the bathroom. Rubbing his eyes and sitting up, he scratched the root of his tail through his pyjama pants.

The bedroom was filled with the mild smell of narcissus pheromones. Yan Yi felt behind him; half of the bed behind him still had the residual temperature of the alpha lying there.

He came today as well. Yan Yi frowned, lifted the thin quilt and got out of bed.

On the stairs, he saw Lu Shangjin bustling about in the bathroom, holding a syringe and injecting it into his forearm; it looked like he was injecting a rut inhibitor. 

After injecting, Lu Shangjin walked out holding the wall and went back to his bedroom.

When Lu Shangjin’s bedroom was closed, Yan Yi went downstairs to look around in the bathroom and picked up a syringe with its needle and package removed from the garbage can. 

He then rummaged through the medical kit again. There were only a few inhibitors left inside. 

Yan Yi rummaged halfway when he suddenly froze and slowly pushed the medical kit back to its original position. He threw the syringe back into the trash, before washing his hands while staring at himself in the mirror with dissatisfaction at Lu Shangjin not living up to expectations and not making progress. 

He didn’t allow himself to think about anything else related to Lu Shangjin. He went upstairs and locked himself in his bedroom, sending a message to the group to all members in his circle. 

Yan Yi: Wanna go out to play for a couple days?

Tan Meng: Yes. 

Cang Xiaoer: Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes I wanna go to Yun Nan what about you guys?

Bi Ruijing: ??? No. 

Bi Ruijing was removed from the group chat.

The next afternoon, Lu Shangjin rushed to the airport after receiving a message saying that Yan Yi and the rest were passing the security check.

He turned around and saw Lu Shangjin looking anxiously at his side, so he pretended not to see him and went into the waiting hall holding his bag, an arm around Cang Xiaoer’s neck.

In the waiting hall, Yan Yi stared at the countless messages flashing on his phone and kept silent.

Later, Lu Shangjin sent him 300,000 yuan: Hope you have fun, baobei. I miss you so much, hope you’ll send me some photos. 

Cang Xiaoer came over and wagged his little tail as he squeezed next to Yan Yi, “He’s so good to you, no one ever calls me baobei.”

Stunned, Yan Yi turned off the screen and raised his eyebrow with a smile, “Baobei.”

The three stayed together for ten days in Yun Nan.

Lu Shangjin wanted to see the photos from Yan Yi, but Yan Yi didn’t send him any.

Finally, he found a group photo of the three omegas from Bi Ruijing’s wife’s travel photos. 

Lu Shangjin zoomed in to look carefully at Yan Yi’s smiling face, unconsciously smiling too. He then printed out the photos and hung them on the photo wall in the study.

After taking a few more calls from doctors, he opened his computer and started working.

The night of Yan Yi’s pickup, Lu Shangjin waited an hour in advance for Yan Yi to land.

When Yan Yi saw Lu Shangjin, he froze for a moment and casually asked, “How did you know I was coming back today?”

There was the smell of disinfectant on him. He probably just came out of the hospital not long ago.

“How could I feel at ease when I don’t keep an eye on you, running around with a little baby.” Lu Shangjin helped him put his suitcase into the car and pretended to unintentionally stop in front of him, looking forward to receiving a hug of reunion after being apart for a long time. 

After standing awkwardly for a while, Yan Yi felt that Lu Shangjin was a little disappointed, but habitually disguised it as a smile.

When Yan Yi put his hand on the door, Lu Shangjin felt that his brain was buzzing all of a sudden, losing all his consciousness. 

The tattoo on his right ring finger had been washed off.

Maybe this was like the feeling of being struck by lightning. There was a light flashing in front of his eyes, and then it became dark.

On the way back, Lu Shangjin never spoke again.

After arriving home, he made a bowl of pumpkin porridge for Yan Yi as a midnight snack and went back to his bedroom without a word.

Across the bedroom door, Yan Yi heard a flurry of noise smashing random things from inside. 

He sat at the table, stirring the soft, porridge rice in the bowl and examining the scar on his ring finger where the tattoo had been removed.

It hurt so much when he washed away his love; even leaving a scar that couldn’t be removed. 

When removing the tattoo, Yan Yi thought about Lu Shangjin’s expression after seeing it, guessing whether he would be furious or would have a big fight with him; either way it would give him the satisfaction of revenge.

Looking at the hot porridge on the table, he felt less happy again. Stroking the increasingly obvious belly under his shirt, he asked in a daze:

“Baby, are you happy like this?”

In order to welcome Yan Yi back, the house was specially cleaned. Yan Yi cleaned up the dishes and went to turn off the lights in the study conveniently.

But as soon as he walked into the study, Yan Yi’s steps were a little stuck. His line of sight scanned over the photos on the wall again and again.

He found a new picture frame on the wall. It was the group photo from their outing. Remembering that he didn’t send it, he wondered where Lu Shangjin found it from. 

His heart felt a little unpleasant. 

There were also several sets of small clothes on the bookshelf, almost piled up a layer. The folding method was too clumsy and ugly that Yan Yi couldn’t look past it, so he took down the small clothes, shook them one by one, and folded them neatly.

When he shook open one of the clothes, a hidden note fell out of it.

The paper was crumpled and covered with tapes, piecing the scattered pieces of paper together into its original state. 

“I will love you even at twenty-seven.” The bottom right corner was signed with Yan Yi’s name.

Yan Yi bit his nails and tried to endure the spreading and tightening of the roots and vines in his heart. He didn’t know which seed received a drop of water but the tender bud was desperately pressing against the tape on his heart that was used to patch up the hidden cracks. 

The little one in his belly was woken up by his father’s violent mood swings, angrily kicking around in Yan Yi’s body. Without the comfort from his alpha father for ten days in a row, it was almost making a fuss. 

Yan Yi was hurt by it. He covered his stomach and knelt down, stroking and soothing the baby in his belly.

It was really hard for a pregnant omega to go through a long period of time without getting alpha pheromones, but Yan Yi just stubbornly wanted to stay away from him, desperately trying to prove to himself that he didn’t need anyone.

Yan Yi laid on the floor weakly, curled up as he comforted, “Baby be good, daddy hurts.”

“Good baby, daddy really hurts… don’t fuss, daddy will take you back to bed…”

He braced himself on the edge of the table and stood up, but he missed and broke the ashtray.

A minute later, the study door was hurriedly pushed open. Lu Shangjin’s eyes were slightly red. When he found Yan Yi lying on the floor, his eyes widened before rushing over to take him in his arms and carried him up to the second floor.

He was releasing soothing pheromones the whole way, murmuring soothing words that Yan Yi couldn’t hear clearly.

His stomach quieted down and Yan Yi relaxed a bit, leaning weakly into the crook of the alpha’s shoulder.

Lu Shangjin didn’t let go of him, but held him tightly and sat on the bed, kissing his forehead and slowly increasing the concentration of the soothing pheromones. 

The alpha’s warm large hands placed carefully on the omega’s small belly, but Yan Yi impatiently pushed his hands away.

Lu Shangjin suddenly refused to comply with him, like a child feeling aggrieved and stubbornly continued to put his hand back on his stomach.

“He’s also my child, I want to touch him.”

I want to touch…