Chapter 2: Suspected Pregnancy
Huo Xingye pushed open the front door of the villa, his brow furrowing the second he saw who was standing inside.
Before he could even speak, the visitor beat him to it, complaining, “What’s with that look? You look like I’m the last person on earth you wanted to see!”
Huo Xingye ignored him completely. Setting down what he was carrying onto the floor, he cast a glance upstairs.
“What are you looking at? Did you get burgled?”
“Speaking of which, on my way over, I saw a pretty good-looking Omega wearing your clothes walking out of your house. I thought you were already home.”
“He left?” Huo Xingye’s gaze sharpened, his eyes snapping toward him.
The stare was piercing, dripping with raw aggression.
Even though they had worked together for five years as artist and manager—and were both Alphas—Luo Nan was still visibly startled by the intensity of that glare.
Without a word, Huo Xingye took the stairs in long strides, disappearing around the corner.
“Huh? You really got robbed?” Luo Nan scratched his head and plopped back onto the sofa. “Whatever. It’s not like he doesn’t have more money than he knows what to do with. Consider it robbing the rich to feed the poor.”
“Still… that guy looked awfully familiar. Like I’ve seen him somewhere before.”
Muttering to himself, Luo Nan pulled out his phone and opened Weibo.
A few minutes later, Huo Xingye walked back downstairs. His expression was calm enough to hide any obvious emotion, but his dark, heavy gaze made his foul mood unmistakably clear.
“Help me find someone,” he ordered Luo Nan.
“Who, the little thief?” Luo Nan waved his phone in the air. “By the way, how come I never knew you were acquainted with Nan Zhou?”
After years of working together, Luo Nan knew Huo Xingye’s habits and temperament inside out.
Unless someone was a close friend or family member, he would never let them set foot inside his home.
Except… Nan Zhou?
No matter how you looked at it, that guy didn’t seem like someone who belonged in Huo Xingye’s circle.
Luo Nan stared at the image on Weibo: a boy with his head lowered, pursing his lips with an air so delicate and fragile he looked ready to faint at any second.
“Wait, don’t tell me you’re into this type?”
Huo Xingye didn’t answer. He didn’t even spare him a glance. Standing tall on the carpet, his long legs planted firmly, he looked down at his phone, pulling up the security footage.
The rapid taps on the screen betrayed the underlying urgency in his mind.
“Hey, my grand Film Emperor, give me a word here. As your manager, I need to know your relationship status.”
“Find him for me.” Huo Xingye turned his phone around, showing Luo Nan the surveillance clip of Nan Zhou grabbing the coat off the rack right before leaving the villa. “At all costs.”
Luo Nan glanced at the screen. “…Bro, that is Nan Zhou!”
“Look, the guy’s practically living on Weibo’s trending page right now.”
Remembering that his top-tier Film Emperor had zero interest in browsing social media, Luo Nan took the opportunity to catch him up on the juicy gossip exploding on the hot search over the past couple of days.
The popular limited idol group W-ixe had officially disbanded, and its top star, Lu Zhou, had abruptly announced a relationship.
Because his partner was Wen Yu—a rising, sought-after young actor in the industry—rather than his teammate Nan Zhou, with whom he had always maintained an ambiguous dynamic, the reveal instantly sent shockwaves through the fandom.
In his post-reveal interview, Lu Zhou hadn’t just washed his hands clean of Nan Zhou; he had gone so far as to expose that Nan Zhou wasn’t an Omega at all, instantly pushing him straight into the eye of the storm.
“I have never once smelled his pheromones.”
“Perhaps he has his own reasons. As his former teammate, I don’t wish to comment further. You can ask him yourselves.”
“In short, our relationship was purely professional.”
On camera, Lu Zhou bowed with practiced decency while reiterating: “Going forward, Wen Yu and I will both be participating in ‘Heart-Fluttering You.’ Please show us lots of support.”
Luo Nan continued, “And here’s the kicker: Nan Zhou is also slated to join this dating show. Everyone used to think he and Lu Zhou were a pair, so now the whole internet is dogpiling on him. They’re flaming him for pretending to be an Omega when he’s just a Beta, and calling him a shameless clouthound who clung to Lu Zhou just to milk their couple-pairing.”
Seeing Huo Xingye stare at Lu Zhou’s interview clip in chilling silence, Luo Nan added fuel to the fire.
“Nan Zhou hit the hot search again just a few minutes ago.”
“Someone snapped photos of him visiting a hospital, registered specifically at the Omega specialty clinic.”
“The whole internet’s clowning on him right now, saying he’s addicted to playing an Omega.”
Huo Xingye still didn’t say a word.
If looks could kill, the Lu Zhou on the screen would have been ripped to shreds by now.
Luo Nan’s curiosity flared. He understood his artist’s character better than anyone. Huo Xingye usually wore a genial, polite smile, but when he truly lost his temper, he gave off the aura of a man who could murder someone with a snap of his fingers.
Right now, he was genuinely pissed.
Holy shit, does Huo Xingye actually have a thing for someone like Nan Zhou?
Luo Nan vividly remembered similar types throwing themselves at Huo Xingye in the past, only to be rejected with cold, ruthless indifference. Because of that, he found it impossible to connect the dots between Huo Xingye and Nan Zhou.
“So, is Nan Zhou really not an Omega?” Luo Nan probed.
Huo Xingye cut him off: “Contact the production team of ‘Heart-Fluttering.'”
“For what?”
“I’m joining.”
Luo Nan’s hand shook so hard he nearly dropped his phone. “What?! You want to shoot ‘Heart-Fluttering You’?!”
A decorated Film Emperor, one of the most bankable top-tier stars in the entire entertainment industry, stooping down to be a guest on a dating reality show?! Was he out of his mind?!
“You’re scheduled to join Director Zhou’s film set next month!”
“Coordinate the schedule with the production crew.”
“…”
Luo Nan was convinced Huo Xingye had completely lost his marbles. His itinerary was already packed to the brim; compressing it any further would break even a man made of steel. Just as he opened his mouth to talk some sense into him, his phone pinged with a notification from Weibo, refreshing with a brand-new post.
He glanced at it, and his eyes went wide.
…Was this Nan Zhou guy out of his mind too?!
Back in the car after leaving the hospital, Hao Jia let out a massive sigh of relief. “Thank god that wild man didn’t take advantage of you to form a permanent mark, and at least he used protection. He had some decency. Otherwise, I would’ve called the cops on him for sexual assault and chased him to the ends of the earth to put him behind bars.”
Nan Zhou didn’t say a word, sitting in the back seat and flipping through the physiology handbook the doctor had tossed at him.
Earlier at the hospital, after listening to his situation and finishing the exam, the specialist had looked at him like he was an absolute delinquent who had flunked basic biology.
“A permanent mark forms inside the reproductive cavity during the knotting phase. He used protection. You can’t possibly be pregnant, let alone permanently marked.”
“How do you not have even an ounce of common sense?”
“Take this home and study it properly. If an Omega doesn’t even know this much, how are you going to protect yourself?!”
After flipping through a few pages, Nan Zhou tossed the booklet aside.
He was exhausted. His waist ached, and his backside was sore.
Up front, Hao Jia was still grumbling and cursing, making a racket.
Nan Zhou let out a lazy yawn, opened Weibo on his phone, and casually began scrolling through the feed.
Ten minutes later, Weibo exploded.
“……Did I open this app wrong, or did Nan Zhou actually post this?!”
“He must have gotten hacked!”
“LMAOOOO as a messy bystander, I am LIVING for this, post more! Fight! Fight!”
Entertainment Eight-Pigeon: #NanZhouVisitsOmegaClinic# Today, former W-ixe member @NanZhouV was spotted at the hospital. Wearing an oversized trench coat concealing his lower abdomen, he looked unsteady on his feet and pale in the face—suspected of being pregnant.
Attached were photos of Nan Zhou wearing a mask and an oversized black trench coat, stepping out of the Omega clinic.
The scoop was being retweeted and reposted by countless netizens and tabloid accounts, but one specific reply caught everyone’s eye, instantly surging to the top of the comments section:
@NanZhouV: Stop spreading rumors for me. I’ll spread them myself. I don’t trust other people to do it right.
“Dead, the man himself came down to clear the air?!”
“That damn white lotus is milking publicity again! Can he just get the hell out of the entertainment industry already?!”
“Then go ahead and post one yourself! I wanna see it! Something like ‘Slept with Huo Xingye, punched little Lu Zhou,’ let’s go!”
“What’s the person above on? Don’t drag our Film Emperor Huo into this! Stop letting low-tier flops latch onto him for clout! We’re not claiming this!”
“Hahahahaha sisters, hurry and go look at Nan Zhou’s newest Weibo update!”
On Nan Zhou’s Weibo profile:
Aside from his repost and reply to Entertainment Eight-Pigeon a few minutes ago, his latest post was a quote-retweet of the post-workout selfie Lu Zhou had posted the night before.
@NanZhouV: You there? Eaten yet? If not, how about eating a couple of my fists.
The Washed-Up Star Went Unfiltered and Became a Sensation on a Dating Reality Show
