ACBAM 5: Shocked

Anshi Animal Hospital has a relatively flexible lunch break. As long as there are no surgeries scheduled, everyone can arrange their own time freely.

After finishing his morning shift, Su Shijin drove to the dessert shop following the GPS.

It wasn’t too far from his workplace, but since the shop was near the commercial street, it took him for a while to find a parking spot.

While he was parking, his phone started ringing with a series of chimes, and once he unlocked the screen, a flood of messages popped up one after another.

[Shijin, Shijin, where are you~]

[I’m already here, hehe. I’m not late today!]

[I’m sitting outside—you’ll see me right away~]

…

Su Shijin skimmed through the messages at a glance, and after following the GPS to the dessert shop, sure enough, he spotted him immediately.

The omega with pink-dyed hair was dressed impeccably, striking poses and taking selfies with his phone.

A few betas or alphas came over to flirt, but he turned them all down with a sweet, smiling refusal.

Su Shijin walked lightly and silently up behind the omega, leaning forward slightly so that half of his body appeared in the selfie camera.

Jian Lexin, who had just struck the perfect pose, instinctively puffed out his cheeks, holding still and hoping that the person behind him would get the hint and move away.

But after waiting a while, the person still didn’t budge.

Jian Lexin’s temper flared. He slammed his phone down on the table and turned his head with irritation. “Why are you standing behind me? Can’t you see I’m taking selfies? If you’re looking for my contact info, I don’t have any! I didn’t bring my phone!”

Then he met Su Shijin’s half-smiling expression.

Jian Lexin: …

He blinked, turned back around, then turned to face him again.

His expression lit up in an instant. “Ah—Shijin, it’s you! Why didn’t you say anything when you came over? I thought it was just someone else trying to flirt again, I was already thinking about what excuse to use to turn them down!”

“The excuse for rejecting people is that you didn’t bring your phone?” Su Shijin asked.

Jian Lexin cupped his face and said sweetly, “What matters is that I turned them down, not the excuse I used.”

“Then may I ask, dear and adorable omega, would I be lucky enough to have lunch with you?” Su Shijin, affected by his playful energy, actually joked along for once.

Jian Lexin’s soft pink hair bounced slightly in the air. He lifted his chin with flair, giving Su Shijin a scrutinizing look from head to toe and said, “Hmm… since you’re good-looking, I’ll give you a chance.”

Su Shijin chuckled, the corners of his eyes crinkling with amusement. He reached out to ruffle Jian Lexin’s hair before sitting down across from him.

His carefully styled pink hair was instantly tousled, and Jian Lexin nearly lost it. “No ruffling! No ruffling! I spent ages styling it!”

“You look good even without styling,” Su Shijin said casually while flipping through the dessert menu in front of him.

The pink-haired omega instantly softened. “Ah, really? If you throw out compliments so casually, I just might take them seriously, you know.”

“For real,” Su Shijin casually marked a few desserts and handed the menu to him. “Go ahead and order. We’ve got work this afternoon—let’s eat first, then talk.”

Jian Lexin immediately let out a string of exaggerated hums, “Hmm hmm hmm, look at you, acting just like a scummy O who uses me and tosses me aside.”

The so-called scummy O just looked at him silently.

Jian Lexin blinked and instantly straightened up.

It had always been like this back in college. Jian Lexin loved hanging out with Su Shijin, but sometimes he was a little intimidated by him. Joking around was fine, but the moment Su Shijin gave him a look, Jian Lexin would go quiet like a kitten grabbed by the scruff of its neck—instantly obedient.

“Alright, alright, don’t look at me like that. I’m scared,” Jian Lexin waved his little hand to get him to look away, then quickly lowered his head and marked several desserts he had already picked out beforehand.

After handing the menu off to the server, Jian Lexin crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in his chair like a little lord, eyeing Su Shijin. “Alright, there’s no need to wait until after we eat—where’s the agreement? Didn’t you say you would show me? Let me see it now.”

Su Shijin took a sip of his lemon water and suggested, “It’s better to read it after you’ve eaten.”

He was worried that if Jian Lexin saw it first, he wouldn’t be able to eat anything.

Jian Lexin’s curiosity was instantly piqued. “What is it that has to wait until after eating? Don’t tell me you finally came to your senses and decided to go home to inherit your family’s multi-million-dollar business, and now your family’s drawn up some agreement for you?”

Su Shijin tapped lightly on the rim of his cup with his fingertip, then said thoughtfully, “It’s bigger than a multi-million-dollar business.”

Jian Lexin was stunned. “A billion? Ten billion? Is the Su family’s company making that much now?”

“It’s not the Su family,” Su Shijin told him not to rush. “Eat first. Be good.”

Jian Lexin had no choice but to suppress his curiosity. It wasn’t until he had eaten two small cakes, a pudding, and finished a cup of milk tea that Su Shijin—judging he was probably full—finally took the agreement out of his tote bag and placed it in front of him.

Jian Lexin let out a delighted “eating melon” sound.

Let him take a look at this oh-so-mysterious agreement!

He opened the document envelope and looked down.

Marriage agreement.

Jian Lexin: ?

He looked up and blinked, thinking his eyes must be playing tricks on him.

He looked down again—

Marriage agreement.

Jian Lexin: !!!????

Huh?????

Jian Lexin stared at those four words in disbelief. He flipped the document back and forth and read them over and over. There’s no mistake—it really said “marriage agreement.”

He looked up blankly. “Shijin, are you asking me to review this for someone else? If it’s for someone else, I’m charging. Market rate.”

“It’s mine,” Su Shijin, pleased to see the thunderstruck look on Jian Lexin’s face, said cheerfully, “Even if you didn’t ask, I’d still pay you market rate. There’s no need to save me money.”

Jian Lexin looked at the words “marriage agreement,” then at Su Shijin, and finally managed to squeeze out a hoarse, “…Huh?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to believe it. It was just that he couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Su Shijin, a man who had never been in a relationship, got through heats with suppressants, and treated alphas with a simple hello and goodbye, being associated with the word marriage!

“Wait—when did you start dating an alpha? How come I didn’t know anything about it?” Jian Lexin felt a sharp sting of being left out. “You really went from zero to a hundred, huh? Twenty-three years without a single relationship, and now you’re jumping straight to marriage??”

“You’ve really thought this through??” Jian Lexin said, clearly torn. “You didn’t get tricked by that alpha, did you? It is an alpha, right? When did you start seeing them? Why didn’t you tell me earlier—I could’ve helped you check them out.”

“You’re way too naïve, you’re a complete blank slate when it comes to relationships. What if you get fooled?”

“I just saw you still had a suppressant patch on your neck—your heat hasn’t even started yet, has it? Don’t tell me that alpha already marked you!!?”

Jian Lexin suddenly lowered his voice and asked in a whisper, “Don’t tell me it was a one-night stand that ended in a permanent mark and now you have no choice but to get married?”

“Even if that’s the case, you don’t have to get married! You’re still so young—you can’t just walk into the grave of marriage without knowing what’s going on!”

“And anyway, what’s so great about alphas? Just now an alpha asked me for my contact info, and the moment I said no, he turned around and hit on someone else like casting a wide net.”

“You didn’t get caught in someone’s wide net and now you can’t get out, did you?”

The more Jian Lexin thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. “But even if that’s the case, it’s not a big deal. If you’ve been wronged, just tell me—I’ll sue them for you!”

“If I can’t win, I’ll get my boss to take the case for you! My boss is seriously amazing! Just the day before yesterday, they won a case that everyone thought was a guaranteed loss—practically my role model in the industry…”

Su Shijin quietly listened as he rambled on and gradually went off-track, ending in a passionate speech about his boss. Finally, Su Shijin helplessly reached out and interrupted, “How about… you take a look at the agreement first?”

Jian Lexin reluctantly stopped his stream of praise for his boss, then glanced down at the marriage agreement in his hands. His cheerful expression instantly fell.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Su Shijin was actually getting married.

Just who was the lucky alpha?

Then he flipped the agreement open and read a couple of pages.

Jian Lexin: …?

The agreement was still a draft, with no names filled in. He could only tell the two parties apart by “Party A” and “Party B,” but the more he read, the more off it seemed.

A one-year contract marriage?

No need to fulfill any marital duties?

Jian Lexin hesitated, then looked up and asked, “Shijin, are you Party A or…”

“Party B,” Su Shijin replied as he tasted the pudding in front of him. It was pretty good—he figured he might pack a few to take back to the hospital and share.

Jian Lexin choked a little, glanced down at the agreement, then back at Su Shijin. There were words on the tip of his tongue but were unable to come out.

To be honest, when he got to the part about the assets, he already suspected Su Shijin was Party B. There was a hillside villa in a certain city in Country M listed, and Jian Lexin had seen news about that area before—at the very least, it was worth eight figures. That kind of property was way beyond what the Su family could afford.

But that clause about not having to fulfill any marital obligations…

What kind of alpha-omega marriage had a condition like that?

This wasn’t just about self-control—wasn’t there something wrong with that alpha physically?

How else could he possibly resist an omega’s pheromones drifting through the air?

And even with all those terms, he’d still have to hand over half his assets if they got divorced…

Jian Lexin did a rough estimate in his head—leaving out things like company stocks and just counting the fixed assets like the houses…

Wow, 15 million RMB.

The kind of overnight fortune everyone on Earth dreams of.

Jian Lexin smacked his lips and quietly took back everything he had said about Su Shijin getting tricked by an alpha.

Just based on this agreement, it felt more like the alpha was the one under a spell.

With mixed feelings, Jian Lexin finished reading the entire marriage agreement and came to a conclusion that it was a deal that offered Su Shijin nothing but benefits. It was like someone was practically shoving money into his hands. It was a contract full of advantages and not a single downside.

By the time he flipped to the last page, Su Shijin had also finished his last bite of pudding.

He took out a napkin to wipe his mouth and asked, “Any questions?”

“A big one,” Jian Lexin said, staring at him with complicated emotions, genuinely curious. “Where did you find this kind of alpha? Teach me. I want one too.”

Su Shijin curled his lips, half smiling. “Even if I gave him to you, you probably wouldn’t want him.”

Jian Lexin had question marks floating over his head: ???

“What? Why wouldn’t  I? Do I look like I’m crazy? Who in their right mind would turn down a deal like this—it’s basically free money! I’d never say no to money!”

Su Shijin thought for a moment and said, “Maybe because you’re not the kind of omega who’s easily tempted.”

Jian Lexin: ?

Why did that sound so familiar?

His brain whirred into gear, and as the memory came back to him, his eyes slowly widened.

A breath of disbelief escaped his throat. “…Huh?”

Su Shijin took great pleasure in watching his expression, like the sky was falling and he was trying desperately to hold it up, and nodded cheerfully. “Yes, that’s right.”

“I’m that omega who’s easily tempted.”