The Scent of Possession and the Hidden Observer

Li Chen’s gaze was practically nailed to Shi Ji. His lips were pressed white, and the ambient noise of the hospital seemed to fade into a dull hum, leaving only the clarity of their synchronized breathing.

“Patient number sixteen, please enter the examination room.”

“Patient number sixteen, please enter the examination room.”

“Please…”

The broadcast above the hall blared the next announcement. The excessive volume startled Shi Ji awake. He blinked, shifting his focus away from the youth’s misty-blue eyes, his heart fluttering uncontrollably.

He lifted his gaze, intentionally changing the subject: “Your report should be out by now.”

As he spoke, Shi Ji attempted to stand up, but in the next second, his forearm was instantly seized by Li Chen.

“Answer my question first.”

The youth stared at him intently, using a slight force to pull Shi Ji back down into the plastic chair. He nudged closer to the man, pressing his shoulder firmly against Shi Ji’s, adopting a stance that suggested he wouldn’t let him go until he got the answer he wanted.

He wanted to pry open Shi Ji’s stubborn mouth and tear through all the lies and evasions. He wanted to hear the truth buried deep within Shi Ji’s heart.

Li Chen’s head leaned in inch by inch, the blue in his pupils deepening. The fluorescent light spilled over his pale skin, reflecting the image of his flustered “brother” in his eyes.

Shi Ji instinctively thought the boy was up to no good again. He quickly raised a hand to push Li Chen’s head away, leaning back to force some distance between them.

“Yes, yes, yes!” he was forced to admit, his voice strained. “There are so many people here!”

“Yes to what?” Li Chen blinked his large eyes, putting on an act of pure innocence.

Shi Ji’s ears turned crimson: “To what you just said.”

“What did I just say?” Li Chen pursued relentlessly. His brother was exactly as awkward as he expected; a few simple words were enough to make him turn red from head to toe.

Shi Ji bit his lower lip, the flush from his ears spreading down to the nape of his neck: “I… at that moment… the person in my heart… was you.”

His voice grew weaker with every word, until the final syllable fell as nothing more than a light, airy breath.

Li Chen tilted his head, his lips brushing against Shi Ji’s palm. He lowered his lashes, nuzzling affectionately against the skin. A tingling sensation erupted in Shi Ji’s palm, causing him to recoil reflexively, but Li Chen only looked up and let out a soft chuckle.

“Brother, you’re covered in my scent.”

As he spoke, he pressed the tip of his nose against Shi Ji’s palm again.

“On your hands, your lips, your neck, your chest, and… mmmph.” Shi Ji suddenly covered Li Chen’s mouth with force, stuffing the unfinished words back down.

The man’s face was now completely flushed. He knit his brows, his expression filled with a shame he couldn’t hide. It felt as though if someone lightly scratched his chin, he would immediately blow up like a startled cat.

Li Chen took in the sight, feeling as though his heart was being cradled by warm hands. The streak of malice in his soul was instantly smoothed over.

So cute. Brother is so cute.

The gland at the back of his neck began to heat up. Even with a suppressor patch, the rampaging pheromones within his body spilled out uncontrollably. A faint, cloying sweetness spread through the air. Among the surrounding patients were Alphas and Omegas who sensitively caught the sudden scent; they turned their heads, tracing the source.

Even though the iris pheromones were incredibly seductive, the Alphas present swallowed hard but didn’t dare approach. Their secondary gender allowed them to communicate through scent, and in this fragrance, they detected a clear warning and a fierce sense of possessiveness.

And a deliberate seduction.

He was intentionally releasing pheromones to entice the man in front of him.

But Shi Ji felt none of this.

“You did that on purpose!” Shi Ji glared, his brows furrowed even tighter. He pushed Li Chen’s cheek away and withdrew his hand, though the warmth of the youth’s lips still lingered in his palm.

Shi Ji’s face went cold. He gave Li Chen a sharp look before standing up and walking away, his very silhouette radiating anger.

Li Chen could no longer suppress the smile tugging at his lips. He pulled his legs up, burying his face in his arms, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

By the time Shi Ji and Li Chen were discharged, several days had passed.

During this time, Shi Ji declared a unilateral cold war. Whenever the “puppy” tried to stick to him, Shi Ji would jump away as if he’d been electrocuted. Instead of getting angry, Li Chen treated it as a game, constantly sneaking up on him and then watching with a grin as the man glared back in exasperated fury.

It was too much. Shi Ji ground his back teeth, telling himself for the nth time that he’d eventually give him a swift kick.

He glanced sideways at Li Chen, who was standing slightly behind him. The youth had his head bowed, lost in thought.

As the lunch break approached, the elevator was crowded with family members bringing food. In the small, enclosed space, people were pressed tightly together, and even time seemed to slow down.

Shi Ji looked up at the changing numbers on the display. In the next second, he felt a light brush against the side of his waist.

A sensitive area. Shi Ji initially thought someone had just bumped into him accidentally, but then, a hand settled firmly on his waist.

The fingers intentionally traced the lines of his muscles, and the calloused fingertips even began to knead his skin with deliberate malice.

This was clearly intentional.

The strange sensation made Shi Ji extremely uncomfortable. He frowned instantly, but with so many people surrounding him, he couldn’t immediately tell who was touching him.

Just as Shi Ji was about to turn around, the hand on his waist suddenly vanished. Almost simultaneously, he heard the sound of the System coming back online.

[Host! Are you finally willing to let me help you with your revenge?!]

It was 0373. The cheerful electronic voice skipped around Shi Ji’s ear like a frantic sprite.

Li Chen, standing behind him, said nothing. Half a second later, Shi Ji heard a sharp, sickening crack.

It sounded like something being snapped in half.

In an instant, a man in black standing closest to Shi Ji collapsed to the floor. He clutched his left hand, wailing in agony as he rolled on the ground. The surrounding people were terrified by the sight and scrambled to the edges of the elevator. Even Shi Ji had to move back to avoid being hit by the man’s thrashing.

His back hit a warm chest. In the next second, arms reached out from behind to encircle Shi Ji, and a head lowered, resting its forehead on his shoulder.

In this narrow space, he was completely trapped.

The two doctors in the elevator were the first to react. They calmed the crowd before kneeling to check on the man. One doctor patiently convinced the man in black to release his left hand; as he felt the injury, the expression behind his surgical mask grew grim.

He turned to the other doctor: “His left hand is broken.”

Broken? How could it just break like that?

The doctor’s words made everyone uneasy. Someone spoke up: “He was fine when he got on. No one even touched him. Can a hand just break on its own?”

The doctors were equally baffled. Once the elevator reached the floor, they helped the man—now fainting from pain—straight to the emergency room.

The sudden incident sent everyone else scurrying away. Once the elevator was nearly empty, Shi Ji whispered, “Was it you?”

The youth behind him neither admitted nor denied it, only muttering: “He asked for it.”

Shi Ji swallowed hard. He pushed against Li Chen’s arms, wanting to turn and face him, but the boy held him even tighter. Unable to break free, Shi Ji sighed helplessly: “Why would you do that?”

Li Chen finally lifted his head, glancing at Shi Ji’s trembling lashes.

“He touched you.”

“So he deserves it.”

Shi Ji thought of the hand that had just been on his waist.

“But you can’t just break his hand.” His heart was a mess of conflicting emotions. The elevator doors had closed again, leaving only the two of them in the small space. “Make him normal again.”

Shi Ji let out a soft huff, his brows knit tight. He reached behind him to grab the youth’s pants, tugging lightly.

Li Chen pulled him closer into his embrace, his nose brushing against Shi Ji’s neck before he leaned in without hesitation.

He could tell Shi Ji was pleading with him.

Li Chen took a deep breath. His breath tickled the nape of Shi Ji’s neck, causing Shi Ji’s heart to race. Li Chen’s embrace felt like a wildfire about to consume him.

“You have too many scents on you,” Li Chen murmured in a low, husky voice, shamelessly releasing his pheromones.

A Beta’s body couldn’t store pheromones, yet Li Chen was still jealous of any scent that dared to linger on Shi Ji.

The rich, intense fragrance of iris filled the elevator instantly. He practically drowned Shi Ji in his scent, washing away every other trace until the man smelled only of him.

Shi Ji couldn’t smell the pheromones, but he felt the air pressure drop. A dizzying sensation seemed to seep into his body. Only after a minute, when the youth was satisfied that Shi Ji was saturated with the smell of iris, did he finally let go.

He pressed the button to open the doors and led Shi Ji out. As the doors opened, the concentrated scent billowed out, causing the waiting crowd to burst into fits of coughing.

Someone in the crowd shouted: “Having s*x in the elevator? Do you have any public decency?!”

Shi Ji turned pale with shock and bolted.

Before they left, the patients in the hospital were already gossiping about a new “medical miracle”—how a man’s shattered hand had miraculously healed in the emergency room. The doctors were so shocked they called in several senior researchers overnight.

Shi Ji listened secretly, breaking into a cold sweat while instructing his secretary to quietly pay for the man’s medical bills. Given Li Chen’s personality, he certainly wasn’t going to apologize.

But because of the overpowering pheromones, Shi Ji was stared at by nearly everyone they passed. In a fit of pique, he returned to the Shi residence, stripped off all his clothes, and threw them at a servant.

“Wash these!”

Shi Ji’s eyes were rimmed with red as he squeezed the words through his teeth.

“Every trace of that smell must be gone!”

The servants and the butler were all Betas, so they couldn’t detect the pheromones. Shi Ji’s request seemed unusually harsh to them, but they didn’t dare disobey and began working through the night.

Shi Ji stormed into his room and threw himself onto the bed, pulling the covers over his head.

He wasn’t sure how long he slept before he woke. He stared blankly into the dark room. In the next second, he felt a burning gaze from beside him.

Shi Ji frowned and turned his head…

There sat Li Chen, clutching a pillow and crouching by the bedside, staring at him intently.