Finally, I was handed over to him.

According to the law, if a permanently marked Omega becomes pregnant, the marked Alpha must be alive before giving birth to ensure the Omega's safety.

Now, even if Yu Zou has violated the heavenly law, his execution will be suspended.

"You!" Yu Zou's pupils suddenly focused on Du Pianjian. The next second, the blood rushing to his head outpaced his reason, and the restraints tightened around him back in his seat faster than the guard's reprimand.

This reaction greatly pleased Du Pianjian. He leaned back in his chair leisurely, crossed one leg over the other, and used the wall as leverage to back up. The sharp sound of the chair scraping against the floor was a prelude to his speech.

"I don't want to remove the markings, and I don't want an abortion."

Yu Zou's eyes shifted from Du Pianjian's abdomen, which revealed nothing at all, to his face. He longed to see something in that beautiful yet fickle face, but then, as if stung, he lowered his head, his hands tucked into his hair, his fingers gripping his scalp tightly, trying to suppress the turmoil within his mind.

Why?

This adds another actor to the already predetermined tragedy, one who cannot leave the stage.

He didn't understand; he never understood. Du Pianjian was a vast enigma he couldn't touch or comprehend. He stumbled into this labyrinthine world, failing to find a path to its core, and finding himself increasingly entangled in its threads as he tried to leave. The more he thought about it, the more painful it became, and the less he understood what remained between them.

Because there is nothing left, we must create something indivisible.

Yu Zou paused, feeling his breath, and heard the uneasy whispers flowing in his blood, clinging tightly to his pheromones, ignored because they were being rejected.

Only by constantly adding pain to this relationship can its existence be proven.

“…Stop doing this.” Yu Zou’s lips moved.

Twisted or not, perhaps the more twisted the better, so that they will entwine more tightly.

"how?"

Du Pianjian raised her chin, but the smile that had been tugging at the corners of her mouth vanished before it could fully form. An unbearable nausea triggered abdominal spasms, making her eyes sting.

"Stop doing this." Yu Zou slowly raised his head. "I did it voluntarily. I volunteered to kill Chi Hengxun and Luo Zangrui. I only blame myself for not doing it for you sooner. I apologize for my delay."

The deliberately controlled, steady breathing paused almost imperceptibly, as if something had gently bumped into the chest.

“I will not thank you for this,” Du Pianjian said.

"I know."

This time, he really knew.

In the past, his guesses about those questions were more wrong than right. The link will convey Du Pianjian's true meaning in the future—that he was willing to have this child, not out of gratitude or forgiveness.

"Remember what you said."

"good."

The situation took an even faster turn than expected; during the probation period, the evidence related to Yu Zou's case continued to be updated.

Months are increasing, days are decreasing.

Just then, the police raided a major criminal den. One of the Betas confessed to the crime of harming Chi Hengxun and revealed that the mastermind behind it was Luo Zangrui.

Public opinion was already sympathetic to Yu Zouduo. Protecting Omega from other Alphas is an instinct ingrained in the genes of every marker, and cannot be controlled or prevented by law or morality.

If Yu Zou is guilty, then everyone who shares the same Alpha gender with him is guilty.

When the real mastermind was revealed, this fascinating true story spread like wildfire, igniting everyone's passions without any direct contact. People became extremely suspicious, interpreting the overly simplistic conclusions with utmost skepticism, and eagerly awaiting a retrial.

Yu Zou remained silent, his eyes lowered, awaiting his fate. His prison uniform hung loosely on his broad shoulders, and high-resolution photos of the trial, despite repeated bans, continued to circulate wildly.

Fifteen years became three years.

It was snowing heavily when we went in, and it was the Cold Dew season when we came out.

Returning to Fox Corridor Prison felt like a perpetual winter, the cold seeping into your bones, and it would emerge from its depths whenever you weren't careful.

The prison gates closed behind him. Yu Zou stood still, carrying a little luggage. A black car was parked about ten meters away from him, and a person was standing next to Chen Mo's inkstone.

In the crook of her navy blue coat lay a bunch of pomelo leaves; her regular knuckles held a white porcelain bottle filled with water; her black hair occasionally brushed against the small mole on her lip; and the tassels under the blue flower hairpin in her updo were as restless as her heart.

Yu Zou walked up to Du Pianjian and stood there. Du Pianjian stuffed the pomelo leaves into the porcelain bottle, pulled them out, and shook off the excess water on the ground, leaving only a small droplet of water that splashed onto Yu Zou's body, leaving discontinuous water stains on his clothes.

After silently completing all of this, Du Pianjian opened the car door and got into the driver's seat. Yu Zou walked around the front of the car and saw through the windshield that Du Pianjian was still unsmiling.

Yu Zou sat in the passenger seat, and in less than a second, the wheels spun and turned around, the taillights of the fishtailing like eyeshadow, leaving a trail of red as they disappeared into the pine forest.

The car was heading in an uncertain direction. Yu Zou focused intently on sensing the direction, but Du Pianjian remained silent. Surrounded by familiar surroundings and listening to the soft sounds of gear shifting, he began to feel drowsy and drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

I woke up at dusk.

The unusual, warm pressure on his chest closely matched Yu Zou's heartbeat, and his shallow, rhythmic breathing, along with his pheromones, wrapped around his neck.

Yu Zou's Adam's apple bobbed unconsciously.

Du Pianjian had fallen asleep leaning against him, her coat draped over both of them. Looking down, the pale blue floral tassels resembled tiny smiling faces watching Yu Zou from sleep to wakefulness. He wanted to hug Du Pianjian, but his hands were handcuffed behind his back on the chair, the touch all too familiar—it was handcuffs.

Yu Zou struggled slightly; the handcuffs seemed loose. He jerked violently, and the handcuffs fell off with a clatter. A moment of silence filled the carriage. Du Pianjian slept soundly, showing no sign of waking.

The unfamiliar, deserted scenery outside the car window was completely blocked by the swivel glass. Yu Zou put one arm around Du Pianjian's waist and cupped Du Pianjian's face with the other, lifting it up.

The coat brushed against the side of her neck, wrinkling the fabric as she slept. The sleeping person was completely unprepared and offered no resistance. Her lips, parched by the warmth of the heater, gradually became moist again, her mouth forced to secrete even more moisture to keep from being constantly drained. The coat fell to Yu Zou's parted knees, piling up like a misty mountain.

Yu Zou reached out to adjust the rearview mirror. The white shirt featured openwork lace in the center, with his spine resembling a flower stem. His reflection in the mirror showed him pulling the hem of the shirt out of his waistband—a crude and simplistic action far too crude for the grand presentation to come.

In two directions, the top part appears and disappears behind the pattern, while the bottom part slides into the piled fabric, like a sea stack eroded by the wind on a blue ocean.

Yu Zou turned down the air conditioner, slowly circling it; it seemed sluggish from not using it for so long. The hot air made people sweat profusely, and the air smelled sweet, as if it had been baked, with a fruity aroma. In the cramped space, oxygen was inhaled as soon as it was brought in by the filter.

The blue flower swayed, and a few strands of black hair were shaken out.

Everything suddenly froze. Yu Zou slowly distanced himself from Du Pianjian. A pair of sweaty hands gripped his neck, gradually tightening their grip. Du Pianjian looked at Yu Zou with sleepy, red eyes, still grumpy from being disturbed in the morning.

"I'm sorry." Yu Zou looked up and squeezed out a few words with difficulty, "I thought you agreed."

The satisfied smile was like a provocation, and Du Pianjian increased the force in his hands. However, there was a place where more force was needed, and all the blood in his body rushed to that place, leaving little room for his hands.

Moreover, the pheromones' survival instinct also resists the commands given by the brain.

With the last bit of strength in his fingers, Du Pianjian pushed Yu Zou's neck forward. The moment he released his grip, it was as if a bolt of lightning struck him, causing him to lose his strength and fall onto Yu Zou.

Du Pianjian closed his eyes, annoyed by his own powerlessness at this moment.

"I've never really understood. Since when did it stop being yours?" Yu Zou reached for the corner of his coat, lifted it up, and covered Du Pianjian with it.

"Before the gland surgery, I exchanged pheromones with him and left my pheromones behind."

“You deliberately sent me there.”

"You did it voluntarily."

Yu Zou marveled at Du Pianjian's meticulousness and audacity. The longer the permanent mark remained, the deeper the bond between them grew, until their lives were bound together. Using pheromones to lure him to the church, the pheromones compelled him to transfer his own to save Xiao Fu's life, concealing Du Pianjian's evidence and providing him with his best alibi. This also sealed his fate, making him unable to save Xiao Fu and ultimately driving him to a breakdown, leading him to kill Luo Zangrui.

"Is he also from the sanatorium? Is he the King of Hearts?"

“No, he did it voluntarily.” Du Pianjian’s ear was close to Yu Zou’s heartbeat, as if she were telling herself her innermost thoughts. “He said he wanted to see Luo Zangrui one more time, which would save me the trouble.”

“This is really…” Yu Zou sighed at the complexity of human nature, and Du Pianjian chimed in, “It’s insane.”

Yu Zou chuckled softly, but it sounded bitter. Du Pianjian, who was being pulled, frowned, propped himself up on his arms, and pulled himself up so that his face was directly facing Yu Zou, almost nose to nose. His breath hit Yu Zou's face, making him blink uncontrollably.

That's not what you meant.

Yu Zou slowly sat up, holding the person in his arms. As the chair shifted softly, he said, "I just feel a little sorry for him. I also fell in love with a terrible guy, even though he treated me terribly. He neither loved me nor respected me. I also want to rush to see him one last time... uh!"

Du Pianjian clenched his fist and stabbed Yu Zou in the waist as if holding a knife, making him groan in dissatisfaction: "Say it again, aren't you still alive?"

Thank you.

Yu Zou laughed, and as he laughed, his gaze gradually locked onto Du Pianjian's lips, and he gradually closed the distance until he got her.

When he opened his eyes, he found that Du Pianjian also had his eyes open, his tongue moving in unison while his eyes observed. After staring at each other for a while, Yu Zou was the first to give in, covering Du Pianjian's eyes, his head lowered and resting on his shoulder, feeling a hint of shame for being an elder, and muttering softly, "Nobody opens their eyes like that."

“You seem to be enjoying this.” Du Pianjian removed the hand from in front of her and lifted her heavy shoulders. “If you don’t want to see it, don’t stop me.”

Du Pianjian tilted his head back, his eyelids slightly closed, the curve of his neck undulating with each deep breath. He grabbed the flower hairpin and tossed it onto the back seat, then loosened his already disheveled hair. The ends of his hair brushed against Yu Zou's shoulder, sending a tingling sensation through him. He glanced at the storage box before burying his face in his snow-blind-like skin, groping around inside.

Du Pianjian put her hand on his shoulder and casually replied, "No."

"Then I'll be careful."

Du Pianjian's eyes flickered, and her tone, unusually pleading, said, "Let's have another one."

"I can't bear to part with it."

I'm serious.

Noticing Du Pianjian's serious expression, Yu Zou looked up, once again puzzled by the meaning. Du Pianjian was experiencing severe morning sickness, and Yu Zou was also suffering during this time. Moreover, the child was only two years old, and the interval between pregnancies seemed far too short.

"What happened?"

"That's not something you should be thinking about."

Du Pianjian raised his chin almost imperceptibly by half a point, his gaze lowered, his tone leaving no room for doubt. His long eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyelids, and although the curve of his lips remained unchanged, the small mole on his face seemed to be covered with frost.

This is a law that has been read aloud; thought is immediately stripped away.

In those slow few seconds, pheromones surged in like a tidal wave, engulfing the body. There was no resistance, no surrender, leaving only an empty and parched body, unconsciously probing forward.

Only a touch of helplessness lingers in my sorrow.

This is my wife: beautiful, intelligent, and strong. Anyone who gets her will feel lucky, but anyone who knows even a little bit about her will know that she is an absolute villain. The only reason anyone can survive under her is because of sheer luck.

Perhaps tomorrow there will be different poisons offered to his lips, and new restraints that will leave marks, but right now, what is offered to him is soft lips, and what is being gripped until they bleed is his hand.

"Fine," Yu Zou said to himself, "So be it."

—The End—