In the week since he’d become human, Bai Ruonian had been wiping himself down with damp towels to get clean.
Even so, at the sound of the shower turning on, he couldn’t help his fur bristling all over.
Feeling the person in his arms trembling, Lu Mingjin raised an eyebrow.
This act was too much.
“Why?” he asked.
Bai Ruonian opened his mouth, then faltered. How could he explain?
He couldn’t just say that he used to be a cat, and that his owner was always the one who bathed him. So he simply played dead, pointing at his own ear to signal he couldn’t hear.
Lu Mingjin sneered. Playing dumb. He stated coldly, “In my house, little cats and little dogs who don’t take baths get thrown out.”
The little creature, who just moments ago was trying to nuzzle against him, suddenly froze stiff.
Lu Mingjin’s eyes narrowed, not letting him off the hook. “So, what’s it gonna be? Thrown out, or go take a shower?”
“Take a shower…”
The voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, tinged with grievance and grinding teeth.
“Seems you heard me that time.” Lu Mingjin set the person back on the sofa. “Do you know where the bathroom is?”
Bai Ruonian was currently filled with a belly full of grievances. He huddled on the sofa, refusing to move.
Before, his owner would never have disliked him.
Before, his owner would never, ever throw him out. Quite the contrary—his owner was the one who’d picked him up in the first place.
However, right now, his owner was looking down at him, a tone in his voice that brooked no argument. “The bathroom is in your room, the ground-floor guest room.”
Bai Ruonian bit his lip. He truly felt now that his owner would throw him out.
He couldn’t be thrown out. He’d finally, after so much difficulty, found him…
Thinking this, Bai Ruonian rubbed his eyes and, feeling deeply wronged, crawled off the sofa and headed toward the bathroom.
The boy’s thin silhouette looked forlornly pitiful. He turned, went up the stairs, rounded a corner, and disappeared from sight.
Lu Mingjin crossed his arms, frowning. Had he just headed toward his, Lu Mingjin’s, room?
And with an air of easy familiarity, at that.
The suspicion in his heart deepened.
Inside the gray-toned room, the bathroom alone was brightly lit.
Bai Ruonian was dragging his feet inside, taking his clothes off.
The more he undressed, the more wronged he felt.
Removing the pants was easy enough, but the buttons on the shirt were impossible.
The bathroom mirror reflected the boy’s small, pale face. Bai Ruonian reached out as if to touch the glass, but pulled his hand back as though shocked.
He was human now. He had to live by human rules.
The boy in the mirror bit his lip and, with trembling hands, started undressing.
After barely undoing two buttons, he felt tired and a little breathless. He looked around, hoping to find a tool—scissors maybe—to cut the buttons off. Instead, his eyes landed on several medicine bottles on the washstand.
The text written on them wasn’t Chinese. By all rights, he shouldn’t be able to read it. But suddenly, the relevant knowledge surfaced in his mind—it must be from the original host’s memories.
It seemed different from the rumors of an uneducated good-for-nothing.
Bai Ruonian carefully read the medication name on the bottle. Entropy-Stabilizing Serum Capsules. For inhibiting excessive blood activity.
He froze. His owner was… what was wrong with him?
The sound of ill-timed footsteps came from outside. Lu Mingjin’s voice rang out.
“Bai Ruonian? Are you in there?”
Bai Ruonian finally snapped back to reality, made an acknowledging sound, and at last remembered he was supposed to be showering.
Step one: first, turn on the water.
There was a bathtub in the bathroom, but he still wasn’t used to submerging his whole body. It felt far too unsafe. So, trembling, he had no choice but to attempt using the showerhead.
He gently stood on tiptoes and took the showerhead down.
Yes, first he should test the water temperature.
Carefully, he twisted the knob, turning it all the way to the right. The moment the knob turned, water sprayed out. The showerhead in Bai Ruonian’s hand was aimed directly at himself. A loud whoosh of water, ice-cold, hit him square in the face. In that split second, his nerves almost stood on end across his entire body. If he were still a cat, his tail would have probably puffed up into a bottlebrush by now.
And at this very moment, he reacted precisely as a cat would.
He fled.
He practically shot out of the bathroom. Lu Mingjin was just about to leave when Bai Ruonian crashed headlong into him.
The omega’s hair and face were completely soaked. His eyes, startled and wet, were red-rimmed, his lashes quivering. He was wearing only a thin, single-layered top, his lower half bare. Two buttons had been torn loose, revealing delicate collarbones. What lay further down was a pale, inviting sight that would make anyone’s mind wander. He was drenched, his clothes practically transparent.
When he lifted his face to look up, there was an unaware, completely natural allure about him.
Lu Mingjin’s Adam’s apple bobbed, an imperceptible movement.
He was beginning to suspect this omega wasn’t here to soothe his emotional issues.
“Bai Ruonian, did the shower bite you?”
With one hand, he lifted the clinging omega off him. Initially intending to toss him on the bed, he saw the little thing was soaking wet, so he had to carry him into the bathroom and grab a large towel to wrap him in.
The omega was trembling. “It sprayed water. Cold.”
The shower attacked him.
“Let go first.”
“No—” Bai Ruonian’s voice was sticky and drawn out, a bit like a cat’s meow. His tone was soft, but his actions were resolute. He would not. Let. Go.
His owner’s embrace was very warm. If he let go, he was a dog.
“Really not letting go?” Lu Mingjin shot him a look.
Bai Ruonian shook his head. Lu Mingjin didn’t say anything more. Just as Bai Ruonian thought he’d won this battle, his perspective shifted. Only then did he realize Lu Mingjin had carried him right under the showerhead.
He stared at the showerhead in terror, a bad feeling washing over him.
As expected, Lu Mingjin turned the knob with an expressionless face, and the shower turned on.
Whoooosh.
The water poured down without mercy. In an instant, both of them were completely drenched. At such close range, even over the sound of the water, they could clearly hear each other breathing.
Lu Mingjin’s black hair was now plastered down. His ash-silver irises and black pupils, reflected in the rising steam, took on an inorganic color, making him look devastatingly beautiful and utterly cold. He looked down at Bai Ruonian. “Next time you pull this nonsense, this is how I’ll wash you. I train all my new recruits this way anyway.”
Bai Ruonian trembled, looking at him innocently. He unexpectedly discovered that the water was really quite warm.
Not cold at all—
Warm, not scalding, actually rather comfortable…
He nodded in a daze, then immediately seized the opening. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”
Lu Mingjin’s eyelid twitched.
Though he said that, he couldn’t really treat this omega like a raw recruit, especially since the young master didn’t look to be in the best of health. He’d specially adjusted the temperature when turning on the shower. Who’d have thought Bai Ruonian would get so into it?
The omega’s thigh flesh under his palm was soft and smooth. Lu Mingjin’s voice was a little hoarse. “Fine, you handle it yourself.”
He shifted to place the person on the washstand. Just as he was about to step away, he was tangled up again. The omega grabbed the hem of his clothes. “Where are you going…”
“I’m going to change clothes.”
Lu Mingjin was rarely this disheveled. He had absolutely no idea what to do with this omega.
With the sound of the door closing, Lu Mingjin left. Bai Ruonian looked down at his own soaked clothes, slowly unbuttoned the rest, took a deep breath, and stood under the water.
The water temperature Lu Mingjin had set was just right. He closed his eyes in comfort.
This was… okay?
But soon, it wasn’t okay.
He realized he didn’t seem to have any clothes to wear. He looked at the sodden clothes tossed aside.
He’d been carried home by Lu Mingjin just like that—nothing but his own person had come along.
It was obvious his owner wasn’t planning to take much care of him either.
So much for treating him like a little cat or dog… when his owner had a kitten, he’d known to arrange for a cat tree. Here he was, a great big human, and he didn’t even have a change of clothes.
Well, luckily, he wasn’t really in the habit of wearing clothes anyway.
Buttons were just too hard.
His gaze fell upon the bath towel Lu Mingjin had wrapped him in earlier.
That’ll do.
=
When Lu Mingjin finished changing and returned to the room, his eyelid twitched violently.
He stared at his neatly folded comforter, now a chaotic heap. Only the very middle was bulging.
“Bai Ruonian?”
Expressionless, Lu Mingjin spoke: “Get the hell off my bed.”
The comforter rustled, and a head poked out. Bai Ruonian stared at him with those sky-blue eyes, filled with a naive and natural innocence.
“Get off.”
Lu Mingjin’s aura was oppressively low; the words were squeezed from between clenched teeth. The sheets were going straight in the trash.
Bai Ruonian detected the displeasure in the other’s tone and, for once, somewhat obeyed. Reluctantly, he squirmed his way out of the blankets, only to see his owner’s expression become rigid.
“You have nothing on underneath?”
“Mm…” Bai Ruonian’s voice was aggrieved. “There aren’t any clothes for me.”
An omega, unabashedly displayed before an alpha—the snowy body paired with that uncomprehending gaze was as seductive as a lamb awaiting slaughter.
Bai Ruonian watched, baffled, as Lu Mingjin’s expression turned strange and he turned and walked away.
What was even more baffling was what followed.
A shirt, almost two sizes too big, was tossed in front of him. Lu Mingjin’s voice was hoarse. “Put it on.”
Bai Ruonian looked at the shirt. He crawled out from the blankets, obediently put it on, but found the buttons simply wouldn’t cooperate. He could only look for help.
Lu Mingjin’s gaze traveled from Bai Ruonian’s slender neck downward, finally returning to his innocently bewildered face.
The other’s cerulean eyes watched him, a blink, a flutter. Lu Mingjin yanked the nearby comforter back over him, his voice rough. “Don’t bother. Get back under the covers.”
Without waiting for Bai Ruonian to make a sound, he turned and strode out.
Just then, a gust from the closing door whooshed by. Bang! The door slammed shut. A slight chill swept through, and Bai Ruonian, nestled under the covers, shivered.
What was up with his owner?
Was he mad?
First telling him to come out, then telling him to get back in…
Having an omega at home was more troublesome than he’d imagined.
Lu Mingjin looked down at his own clothes, now damp from the wet Bai Ruonian rolling on them, and called his adjutant.
“Send me a few sets of clothes.”
“Do you want standard duty wear, sir?”
“They’re not for me. They’re for…” he began.
At this moment, the previous scene surfaced in his mind unbidden. Lu Mingjin pinched the bridge of his nose. “For an omega.”
