Has The Live-in Alpha Stepped Up - Chapter 18
18: M or S
The events that followed seemed to have been put on fast-forward.
The police station, the civil affairs bureau—everything was done in one go.
By the time they got back into the car, An Yizhu and Yu Guqiu were already legally married wives, holding their marriage certificates.
But just as An Yizhu was lost in thought, she realized the road the car was taking wasn’t the way home. She didn’t recognize this road at all.
She had never walked it or drawn it.
An Yizhu turned to look at Yu Guqiu.
Yu Guqiu was busy handling work documents, her glasses reflecting light, making it impossible to discern her intentions.
Could this restrained female CEO have already turned dark?
Is she planning to take me to some remote backwater and start a confinement scenario?
Making me her personal suppressant while ensuring her identity remains secret?
Ah~
So thrilling.
An Yizhu didn’t feel the slightest bit of fear. In fact, the thought of this wild fantasy becoming reality excited her a little!
Yu Guqiu’s fingers paused over the keyboard.
Though An Yizhu hadn’t said a word, her faint pheromones lingered in the cramped car space, going nowhere. Like vines, they coiled around Yu Guqiu’s body.
The compatibility between An Yizhu and Yu Guqiu was high enough that this Alpha’s mating pheromones didn’t discomfort Yu Guqiu at all. On the contrary, they relaxed her.
But Yu Guqiu still reached out and flicked An Yizhu’s forehead.
“?!”
Yu Guqiu’s fingers were cool, and the flick hurt—but it was a pleasant kind of pain.
[Wait a minute, why do I seem to have a bit of an M tendency?]
An Yizhu quickly reeled in her thoughts, clutching her reddened forehead as she glared at Yu Guqiu. “What was that for? Attacking me?”
Xie Fang couldn’t help glancing at them through the rearview mirror. She swore this was one of the rare times in her career that she’d gotten distracted while driving.
Hearing An Yizhu’s false accusation, Yu Guqiu laughed in exasperation. “You rein in your pheromones first.”
Only then did An Yizhu realize that her faint licorice-scented pheromones had been filling the backseat—or rather, enveloping Yu Guqiu—for who knew how long.
Though pheromones were colorless and odorless, as intangible as air, focusing on them made the image gradually clear.
Her licorice scent swirled around, as if composing Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Except the canvas they’d chosen was Yu Guqiu.
This was weird!
If pheromones had physical form, Yu Guqiu would’ve been tied up long ago.
Perhaps Yu Guqiu, who could easily sense her pheromones, had already realized she was being bound.
Wow, even more thrilling!
[Huh, wait—could I actually be an S?]
An Yizhu’s mind wandered wildly, pondering whether she was an M or an S, but her hands obediently pulled out a suppressant from her bag and decisively injected herself.
She was already well aware of how much an Alpha’s estrus pheromones affected her.
Yu Guqiu hadn’t expected An Yizhu to act so decisively.
No excuses, no explanations—she didn’t even try to control it herself. Just a straight shot of suppressant, as if it were free.
With that one injection, the car returned to silence.
Not that there had been any noise to begin with.
But now Xie Fang could focus on driving, Yu Guqiu could focus on her documents, and An Yizhu could focus on worrying about being abducted to some mountain village…
Not!
An Yizhu had already realized their destination was the orphanage where her original self had grown up—the Mercy Orphanage.
Though An Yizhu knew she was inexperienced in the ways of the world, even she could guess that suddenly bringing her back to the orphanage was Yu Guqiu’s way of testing her.
She quickly searched for information about the orphanage on her phone.
Originally, there had been a private hospital called “Mercy Hospital” in this area, which had led to the orphanage’s founding. But after the hospital went bankrupt, the director had struggled to keep the orphanage running on the original site.
Now, the orphanage’s land lease had expired, and both the land and the buildings were set to be demolished.
The search results even showed many posts from the director pleading for donations.
“We’re here, but we’ll have to go in through that narrow path up ahead.” Xie Fang said as she smoothly parked the car by a wall.
Only someone as skilled as Xie Fang could have left enough space to open the right-side door.
An Yizhu opened the door and saw the muddy ground outside.
But she paid it no mind, stepping straight onto the drier patch ahead.
Just as she was about to close the door, she saw Yu Guqiu set aside her laptop and move to get out.
An Yizhu took in Yu Guqiu’s pristine appearance, which clashed starkly with the muddy path.
She leaned back into the car, bracing her hand on the seat to block Yu Guqiu momentarily. “Wait—Auntie Fang, can you back up a bit more? The ground here is too dirty.”
But Yu Guqiu pushed An Yizhu’s shoulder aside, unconcerned about her leather shoes getting muddy.
An Yizhu stumbled out of the way as Yu Guqiu stepped out.
Yu Guqiu walked across the muddy path and said to An Yizhu, “There are some gifts in the trunk to bring along.”
Yu Guqiu had never been an aloof, untouchable heiress.
Going to the grassroots level was Old Yu’s first requirement for the company’s successor.
The difference between her and An Yizhu wasn’t in their understanding of hardship—it was in their perspectives.
An Yizhu knew the concept of “spending money like dirt” but had never experienced the life of the truly wealthy.
Meanwhile, Yu Guqiu, who had grown up with a silver spoon, understood the meaning of “human suffering” and had seen the lives of the poor—she just hadn’t lived it herself.
But in front of the Mercy Orphanage, both An Yizhu and Yu Guqiu froze.
Neither had expected such a place to exist in the heart of bustling Jiang City.
The drive from the civil affairs bureau hadn’t even taken forty minutes—how had they gone from skyscrapers to what looked like the last century?
The further they walked down the narrow path, the more desolate it became, rivaling even the slums.
But the slums were abandoned, whereas people still lived here.
Even the orphanage’s photos online hadn’t been updated in years.
The once-warm orphanage had become this dilapidated.
In the middle of a weed-filled empty lot stood a crumbling low-rise building, surrounded by a few shaky walls.
But the walls were painted with bright, childlike drawings.
This place might lack material comforts, but it certainly didn’t lack love.
“Eh? It’s Big Sister An!! Old Mama An, come quick—Big Sister An is back!!!”
A child playing in the grass outside the walls suddenly jumped up and ran inside.
At the child’s voice, a black figure darted out of the building.
On closer look, it was a middle-aged woman with short, grayish-white hair. She wore faded black clothes, her face lined with wrinkles, her entire body bearing the marks of toil and poverty.
But her spirit was strong. She ran out holding a clothes hanger, raising it high as she charged straight for An Yizhu.