Chapter 2: A Scent That Attracts Cats

After autumn arrived, the weather grew increasingly cold, yet Ning Jiu wore only a thin white lab coat and a pair of knee-length shorts.

His long, slender legs looked almost empty beneath the oversized shorts, his knees exposed with bloody abrasions where the skin had been scraped open.

The obvious sprain around one ankle forced him to limp as he walked back into the factory.

Perhaps out of consideration for the distinguished guest Mu Jingyi, the guard did not tug at Ning Jiu’s arm as roughly as before, instead carefully supporting him as he walked.

The guard tried to take the large umbrella from Ning Jiu’s hands, but Ning Jiu reacted strongly and refused.

His fingers clenched tightly around the umbrella handle, the tips paling from lack of blood, as if he were protecting some precious treasure.

The assistant Jiang Keyan, perceptive as ever, opened his own umbrella beside Mu Jingyi.

“Go back to the car and turn on the heater.”

“Yes, President Mu.”

Jiang Keyan escorted him to the security booth at the factory entrance.

“Oh, right,” Mu Jingyi called after him, “check the emergency medical kit in the trunk and find medicine for abrasions and sprains.”

“Understood, President Mu. Don’t worry.”

Mu Jingyi stood beneath the security booth light, waiting for his little cat.

That trembling little cat was still afraid of the tall, aloof president, yet he was even more afraid that Mu Jingyi would leave, abandoning him at the factory as a discarded omega.

Mu Jingyi did not want the little cat to step out of the workshop and fail to find him right away.

After a long while, a white figure appeared at the factory entrance.

He had changed into clean casual clothes, though they clearly did not fit him.

The oversized hoodie swallowed his slender frame, and the loose pant legs nearly dragged on the ground.

The outfit looked like something hastily borrowed from someone else.

His swollen ankle was crammed into a pair of sneakers, and he limped with every step.

Those blue eyes swept across the empty factory and finally caught sight of the man standing beneath the dim yellow light.

The light stretched the man’s shadow long, making him appear even taller.

“Sir!”

Ning Jiu forgot the pain in his ankle and hurried into the rain, running toward the man who was waiting for him.

“Don’t run. Be careful of your injury.”

Mu Jingyi stepped forward to meet him, steadying his unbalanced body and supporting his arm.

He could easily grasp the little cat’s slender arm through the wide sleeve of the hoodie.

Ning Jiu was painfully thin, his face lacking any fullness, almost hollowed out by how little flesh there was.

Ning Jiu carried no luggage at all, only a battered little bell and the umbrella the gentleman had given him.

“Sir, sorry to keep you waiting. Your umbrella…”

The little omega raised the umbrella high, just enough to shelter the man’s head beneath the security booth roof.

Mu Jingyi did not take the umbrella back.

A cold gust swept over the little cat’s head, ruffling his half-dried silver hair until it flew messily and stuck to his face.

His fluffy cat tail had been dried as well, puffed up, and with the wind blowing, the soft fur scattered everywhere.

The little omega must have been fused with a white long-haired cat.

Mu Jingyi thought so.

“Can you still walk?”

Mu Jingyi remembered the shocking wounds on the little cat’s knees and could clearly see the swollen ankle stretching the cheap canvas sneakers out of shape.

Only then did Ning Jiu notice the throbbing pain in his ankle and knees.

His unsteady body swayed, so thin it looked as if the cold wind might blow him away.

The pain from his twisted ankle came in dull waves, forcing him to shift his weight onto his other leg.

He could barely walk, yet he stubbornly refused to complain.

“I… I can walk.”

Afraid that Mu Jingyi would leave him behind in this nightmare of a fusion factory, he forced himself to say it.

Mu Jingyi saw everything clearly and did not expose the obvious lie, simply opening his arms toward him.

“I’ll carry you.”

Because of his lack of alpha pheromone scent, the distinguished president had never stepped into intimate relationships with omegas.

Mu Jingyi held a rigid sense of responsibility toward omegas, born from the near-harsh aristocratic upbringing he had received since childhood.

He believed he should take care of the omega he was bringing home.

Ning Jiu, who had scarcely ever seen an alpha in his life, froze in place, pale lips trembling as he stammered out,

“Is… is that okay?”

Mu Jingyi curved his lips into a silent smile and said nothing more, stepping forward to wrap an arm around the little cat’s overly slender waist.

His arms could nearly circle it completely.

The thin omega fell into a strong embrace.

The man’s well-trained body, hidden beneath a perfectly tailored suit, now wrapped securely around Ning Jiu’s waist.

The moment he was lifted off the ground, the little cat tensed in fright, gripping the umbrella tightly.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t let you fall.”

To Mu Jingyi, the little cat was far too light, almost without substance.

He held him steadily in a bridal carry and patted his waist soothingly.

“I’m not afraid…”

On the contrary, the man’s solid arms felt incredibly safe.

Cradled in his embrace, Ning Jiu smelled that scent that attracted cats, mixed with the damp chill of rain, rushing into his nose.

The scent calmed him, easing his tension, his stiff body slowly relaxing until his strength was gradually drained away.

The little cat went completely limp in the gentleman’s arms, unconsciously resting his fluffy head against the man’s chest.

A warm, solid embrace.

Something the little cat had never even dared to dream of, now obtained so easily.

His drooping cat tail swayed softly with the motion of the embrace, often brushing against Mu Jingyi’s knee as he walked.

Ning Jiu did not notice this, or else he would surely have gathered his tail into his arms.

Right now, he was focused on quietly breathing in that pleasant alpha scent, his chest rising and falling faintly as the oversized clothing shifted with his breath.

They were very close, so close that Ning Jiu was nearly pressed against the slightly lifted edge of the alpha’s blocking patch.

His head felt a little dizzy, though his consciousness had not yet faded.

Like someone mildly drunk, the little cat’s gaze went unfocused, yet he could not resist that scent that attracted cats, instinctively inhaling the faint alpha pheromones again and again.

Fortunately, Mu Jingyi’s blocking patch at the back of his neck was only slightly lifted, releasing a trace of scent that only the little cat could smell, so faint it nearly dissipated in the cold wind.

But even that tiny hint was enough to stir emotions in an omega whose glands had already been injected with alpha-matched pheromones.

“Little cat, are you okay?”

The skin beneath Mu Jingyi’s palm grew hot.

The waist under his hand, separated only by a thin hoodie, transmitted an abnormal warmth.

Ning Jiu snapped awake from the intoxicating haze, shuddering as he turned his head aside.

The cold wind cleared his mind a little, but also made him shiver from the chill.

He dared not tell the gentleman he had just met that he was absorbing the alpha’s pheromones.

That would be rude, and unacceptable.

The factory staff had taught them that customers who bought them were masters, and one must never ask a master for pheromones.

“I think… I might be catching a cold.”

The little cat’s pale cheeks were flushed pink by the alpha pheromones, looking very much like the feverish redness of a high temperature.

Mu Jingyi could not smell his own pheromones and did not notice the corner of his blocking patch lifting at all.

He believed Ning Jiu’s words.

At the end of the path ahead, bright headlights flashed with emergency indicators.

“There’s cold medicine in the car. Take a couple later.”

The lying little cat guiltily avoided the gentleman’s gaze, eyes darting helplessly until the glare of the car’s high beams washed his vision white.

Or perhaps it was the alpha pheromones accumulating in his body, stirring restlessly and disrupting the little omega’s already fragile state of mind.

“Thank you… thank you, sir…”

Ning Jiu’s voice was hoarse, dragging an unnatural tail at the end.

Inside the car, the cold wind was blocked out.

The strong heater in the back seat blew the fine fur on the cat ears into disarray.

The warm air was much drier and more comfortable than the damp autumn wind outside, brushing gently against the skin.

Ning Jiu sat dazed on the soft back seat, leaving a small distance between himself and the alpha beside him.

He stayed quietly in the confined space, sharing it with two almost-strangers who were alphas.

The gentleman’s scent was much stronger, and at the same time, he could also smell another completely unfamiliar alpha pheromone.

A cat’s sense of smell was tens or even hundreds of thousands of times more sensitive than a human’s.

An omega’s instinctive rejection of unfamiliar alphas, combined with the rain that was etched deep into painful memories, made the little cat unbearably uneasy.

He hugged his fluffy white cat tail, shrinking almost all the way toward the car door.

“Does it feel very uncomfortable?”

The alpha’s gentle voice was soft and slow, his mild temperament as alluring to the little cat as his pheromone scent.

Ning Jiu shook his head, barely having the strength to speak.

“Assistant Jiang, drive to the emergency department.”

“No!”

Ning Jiu grabbed the gentleman’s wrist.

Those sapphire-blue eyes were filled with fear, swollen red rims shimmering with tears.

As if he had latched onto a word tied to terror, he shook his head frantically in a stress response.

He did not even realize that he was gripping the gentleman’s hand a little too tightly.

Ning Jiu was afraid of hospitals, afraid of emergency rooms.

“Sir, please… I’m really fine. I’ll be better after sleeping…”

After the reflexive shout escaped him, Ning Jiu realized how out of line he had been.

Flattening his cat ears in fear, his voice trembling, he pleaded softly.

Mu Jingyi patted the back of his hand soothingly and did not insist on going to the hospital anymore.

“Alright. We’ll go home.”

He sent a message to the Mu family’s private doctor and signaled Jiang Keyan to drive straight home.

A bottle of spray for bruises and sprains was placed into Ning Jiu’s arms.

He listened to the gentleman’s instructions and nodded obediently in response.

He did his best to look better than before, less frail than he had seemed moments ago.

Even though, in reality, he was not much better at all.

But pretending to be fine was something a little cat from an omega fusion factory was all too familiar with.

“Do you need help?”

Ning Jiu flusteredly refused the gentleman’s offer to apply the medicine for him.

The gentleman was a distinguished guest of the factory, the buyer who had purchased him, the master who had taken the little cat in.

He must not be served by the gentleman.

“Alright. Ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”

Mu Jingyi’s gaze lingered briefly on the little cat’s ankle, and in the end, he did not force the issue.

In the proper alpha education he had received, he understood and accepted that a newly brought-home little omega would instinctively resist a strange alpha like him.

He had once raised a little stray cat as a child.

A kitten always took time to warm up to a new owner who suddenly entered its life.

This was not something to rush, nor something to force.

He felt that earning the little cat’s trust would be a long road.

Mu Jingyi unwrapped the new packaging of each medicine bottle in Ning Jiu’s hands and placed them back one by one.

The brand-new aluminum casings reflected brightly under the car’s ceiling light.

Ning Jiu had never seen medicine that looked so expensive back at the factory.

Most of his injuries had healed simply with time.

“Thank you, sir…”

Ning Jiu released the cat tail he had been clutching tightly and held it at the middle instead.

The drooping tail formed a beautiful curve, the fluffy white fur swaying in all directions under the warm airflow inside the car.

Ning Jiu gripped his tail firmly, stretching his arms forward to extend it toward Mu Jingyi.

The little cat’s voice was soft and gentle:

“Sir, please take care of me from now on.”

For once, a small ripple stirred in Mu Jingyi’s usually calm heart.

A broad hand closed around the cat tail.

His fingers were wrapped in soft fur, the plush texture incredibly comfortable.

Beneath the fur, the real flesh of the tail carried warm body heat, connected directly to Ning Jiu himself.

Mu Jingyi gently rolled the warm tail between his fingers.

Visibly, the sensitive little cat gave a small jolt, the blush on his face deepening.

A gentle, low chuckle came from the gentleman’s throat.

“Welcome home with me, little cat.”