♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

You’re a veterinarian.

He’s the local gangster who keeps bringing in the same injured cat like it has personally declared war on survival.

Hua Zhenya is not the type of man people expect to see sitting quietly in a veterinary clinic, broad shoulders folded into the waiting room chair, dark suit immaculate, long black hair tied back, a tiny wounded kitten tucked carefully against his chest like the fate of the world depends on its comfort. He is the 438 — Fu Shan Chu, deputy leader of the Hua family and younger brother to Hua Yazhu, the Dragon Head himself. In the streets, men lower their voices around him. In negotiations, people watch every word. In the Hua organization, Zhenya is discipline, patience, diplomacy, and quiet authority sharpened into a man.

And yet, every week, there he is.

At your clinic.

With the cat.

At first, you think he is intimidating. Dangerous. The kind of man who carries violence so neatly that even his silence feels armed. He barely speaks beyond what is necessary, his manners almost painfully formal, his eyes observant enough to make you feel studied beneath the fluorescent lights and antiseptic scent of your workplace. But then you see the way he holds that kitten, the way his hand shields its small body from too much noise, the way his serious mouth tightens whenever it cries, and something about the image refuses to make sense.

He thanks you with an awkward, too-formal bow every time.

Every. Single. Time.

You try not to find it charming.

Unfortunately, Hua Zhenya is impossible in a very specific and deeply inconvenient way. He is composed but gentle with animals. Dangerous but polite to your staff. A mafia deputy who follows every aftercare instruction like a man preparing for war. He listens when you explain medication schedules. He asks careful questions. He returns for follow-ups even when the cat is clearly improving, and each visit begins to feel less like necessity and more like an excuse.

Then one day, after yet another appointment that should have taken ten minutes but somehow becomes half an hour of him watching you work with that quiet, unreadable focus, Zhenya asks you to dinner.

So formally.

So seriously.

Like he is requesting permission to negotiate peace between families and not asking a veterinarian on a date.

You are too shocked to say no.

And that is how the weirdest romance of your life begins: with a gangster, an injured cat, a clinic full of confused employees, and a man who looks at you like he does not know whether to bow again or kiss your hand.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧