Lop-Eared Guard - CH 9
A black BMW drove into the suburbs of Chang Hui city on a gravel road, before entering an aristocratic residence that was developed a few years ago. The snow-white fence enclosed a garden of tulips, surrounding the Lu family mansion in the center.
The passive style of the establishment had ultra-low energy consumption, assembled with an integral high-performance exterior wall to maintain a pleasant indoor temperature.
Yan Yi hugged his knees anxiously as he nestled in the passenger seat, his weak body crowded into a corner. As the pine forest appeared before his eyes, he could only see a layer of dust covering the pine cones, and thin, tiny spider webs decorated the European style white fence. A falling pine needle accidentally dropped on the opposite windshield as the car passed by.
In this serene world, all disharmony was infinitely magnified in Yan Yi’s eyes. He breathed anxiously as he remained holding onto his left hand, feeling a dull pain. The closer they approached the residence, the more intense his chest felt the sense of choking suppression.
Lu Shangjin didn’t notice Yan Yi’s abnormal reactions, nor did he often pay attention to Yan Yi.
Yan Yi carefully took out a small handful of Timothy hay from his pocket, eating them little by little. There was only one pocket left, he had to save it.
The light scent contaminated on the hay barely allowed him to stay calm.
Lu Shangjin just glanced to the right, “What are you eating?”
Yan Yi was taken aback and answered truthfully, “Timothy hay. A kind of rabbit… snack.” He thought in fear about how he would answer Lu Shangjin’s question.
Lu Shangjin raised his eyebrows, “You like eating this?”
Yan Yi nodded, “It’s okay.”
The car stopped outside the house, and a large, golden-brown thing rushed towards them; the golden long-haired Tibetan Mastiff tied up in the small garden pounced out, it’s barks shaking the ground. Yan Yi’s entire body froze in fear and he subconsciously grabbed Lu Shangjin’s hand.
He was feeling anxious, and even easily frightened. Yan Yi’s third-grade differentiated glands that could protect himself were already completely dormant. At the moment, he could barely be compared to an ordinary little lop-eared rabbit omega.
Lu Shangjin shook Yan Yi’s hand and frowned, “It won’t bite you.”
Lu Shangjin led him to the door and laughed without a care, “Did you learn how to pretend to be pitiful from Yuan Mi? When you were my bodyguard in the past, you weren’t so timid.”
“…” Yan Yi bit his lips and unexpectedly retorted, “In the past, my glands weren’t dormant. If you don’t like that I’m weak, you shouldn’t change it.”
After blurting out his refute, Yan Yi instantly repented and he looked away in remorse. He was unable to hold his tongue from being in an uncontrollable state of anxiety and irritability. He had never forgotten his manners like this before, as though an egg paste was filled and baked in a tin foil tray, the air expanding so much that he felt pain all over.
Lu Shangjin looked at him in slight surprise. He took Yan Yi’s hand in front of him and placed it to his lips, saying patiently, “Be good. Once we have a 97% fit, we’ll never be separated in the future. I will take care of you and protect you. Don’t mention this to my father, understand?”
Lu Shangjin loosened his grip, not wanting to appear too clingy in front of his family.
Yan Yi still wanted to hold his hand, but Lu Shangjin pushed him away, walking into the house alone. Yan Yi’s hand paused mid-air, and his fingertips tightened with a sense of loss, not knowing where to put them.
Watching that wide and slender hand leaving his line of sight, Yan Yi retracted his hand into his sleeve and went up the stairs silently.
A middle-aged alpha wearing a pair of gold-rimmed reading glasses sat on a rattan chair in front of the French windows, drinking tea. When he heard the sound of footsteps approaching on the porch, he took the initiative to stand up without caring about his position as the head of the family, and let Yan Yi sit in with a smile.
He was a first-grade differentiated alpha with the gland type of a J1 peregrine falcon. Although the natural compressive force exuding from him wasn’t strong, Yan Yi’s legs trembled in the face of the two bird-of-prey alphas without the support and protection of his third-grade glands.
Whether it was gender or species food chain, lop-eared rabbits were of the lowest minority race. Alphas did not even exist within this race, only omegas and betas.
This made Yan Yi feel a great sense of impending crisis.
While he was distracted, Lu Shangjin went into the cloakroom to change into casual clothes. Yan Yi was startled and chased after him, wanting to grasp onto a corner of Lu Shangjin’s clothes, but he was stopped by Lu Lin and could only sit back down stiffly.
Lu Lin held a cup of tea in his hands as he sat across Yan Yi and pushed a tray of fruits towards him, “Yan Yan, have some fruits. You don’t have to be polite in your own home.”
Yan Yi’s fingertips trembled. He took an apple and held it in his hand, his eyelids lowered as he dared not look at Lu Lin.
Lu Lin released some soothing pheromones and touched Yan Yi’s hair, “It’s been so many years, how are you still so afraid?”
The soothing pheromones from the source of fear could not produce a calming effect at all. Yan Yi hid his left hand behind his back and whispered, “I… I…”
Lu Lin smiled faintly, “Is it because uncle has been too severe with your training? No pain, no gain. Having third-grade differentiated glands is the reward for your efforts.”
Yan Yi nodded forcibly.
When Lu Lin saw that the wedding ring on Yan Yi’s right finger was still there, he nodded in satisfaction and leaned back against his chair, “You’re not young anymore, you should start planning your wedding with Shangjin, or have a child first.”
Yan Yi lowered his head modestly, “Forget the wedding.”
Lu Lin paid particular attention to this and instantly rejected Yan Yi’s opinion. He must let all the fellows who covet the A3 lop-eared rabbit glands clearly know that this little rabbit had been marked by the Lu family. Don’t even think about recklessly taking him.
In actual fact, Yan Yi wanted to have a child more than anyone else. That way, whenever he had to wait for Lu Shangjin to come home on lonely nights, he would at least have a warm and lovely little one by his side.
The two had nothing to say, each in their own thoughts.
The busy servant in the dining room put some sliced watermelons and purified water into the automatic juicer and turned on the switch.
When the hum of the juicer transmitted into Yan Yi’s sensitive rabbit ears, his face turned pale in an instant. He let out an uncontrollable sob and hurriedly fled to the bedroom upstairs.
Lu Lin sighed and peeled an apple himself. After all, rabbits were rabbits, an extremely fragile creature. No matter how high the differentiated grade of their glands were, it was beyond treatment.
The training was nothing more than to advance his grade differentiation. Since he had this innate talent, it was only for his own good to be strict and harsh.
There were several spacious and brightly lit bedrooms upstairs, but Yan Yi followed his childhood memory and broke into the small storage room in the deepest part. In the storage room, there were washed bed sheets and pillows. It was narrow and dim, but it was the little nest that accompanied the young lop-eared rabbit for the longest time.
In the quilt cabinet filled with moth balls, there was also a little nest Yan Yi built for himself when he was a child. This massive house was like a prison, and only this soft and warm little nest belonged to himself.
Yan Yi squeezed into it in panic, curling up in a small ball and closed the door of the quilt cabinet. Shivering in the dark, he put his left hand to his lips and licked it to reassure himself that he was safe and sound, only then could he quietly shrink back and calm down.
He subconsciously protected his belly.
He didn’t know when it started, but the smooth and flat belly bulged out in an indistinguishable arc. Yan Yi became more irritable as he could just instinctively protect his soft belly. He lifted a feather-filled quilt from the cabinet and wrapped himself into a rabbit-eared glutinous rice dumpling.
——
Lu Shangjin made a special call to his assistant after changing into casual clothes.
“Buy a type of snack called Timothy hay, it looks like tea leaves, a German brand.”
The assistant was filled with questions.
Lu Lin waited for him in the parlor. When Lu Shangjin sat across from him, he pushed a cup of Gong Fu tea towards him.
“Where is he?” Lu Shangjin stretched his long legs on the carpet, resting his hand on a pillow as he glanced through the afternoon schedule sent by his assistant.
Lu Lin said slowly, “Upstairs, he’s probably tired. Let him stay here tonight, I specifically ordered to clean up a room for him.”
Lu Shangjin said perfunctorily, “I have something to attend to in the afternoon, I’ll pick him up after.”
Lu Lin refused seriously, “No. It’s regarding the future heir of the Lu family, it can’t be ignored.”
Lu Shangjin put away his phone, staring down at Lu Lin with a slightly sharp look in his eyes, “I’ve said before, he is more likely to bear a litter of rabbits than an alpha.”
Lu Lin said lightly, “Then keep giving birth until an alpha with the potential to differentiate into the third-grade appears.”
“Not possible.” Lu Shangjin took a sip of his tea, “Stop speaking nonsense.”
“Do you feel bad?” Lu Lin’s face turned gloomy, “Other big families will also catch omegas with mutant glands to carry on the family line, breeding them in captivity. By comparison, Yan Yi is more fortunate.”
“No need.” Lu Shangjn looked down at his documents.
——
Yan Yi shrank inside the quilt cabinet, holding his slightly arched belly. His instincts drove him to pull down soft items to build a nest for himself, sinking into them as he fell into a restless sleep.
His phone screen suddenly lit up, the light extremely harsh in the darkness where he couldn’t see his fingers. Yan Yi answered before it rang.
“Little white rabbit, are you feeling better?” It’s the alpha who called the wrong number, “Have you gotten used to eating the gift I sent you?”
“Thank you… you don’t have to send any more next time. I’ll transfer the money to you, don’t call again in the future.” Yan Yi declined with an expressionless face.
He should have hung up.
He didn’t have a mark, any alpha could regard him as prey, or a mate.
But his instincts forbade him to refuse an alpha who tried to contact him while he was pregnant.