"Otherwise, I’ll just have to sleep in the hall."

Alex’s gaze shifted between Kloer, Seth, and Jite.

"Boss, we’re fine," Jite said. "We’ll just stand guard here. If we get tired, we can catch a little sleep."

"Sleep in the hallway?" Kloer glanced at the slightly ajar door and couldn’t help but say, "Boss, Gu Ning is so tiny. We won’t crowd him. He can sleep in the bedroom, and we can just sleep in the living room."

"The hallway isn’t cold," Seth said. "Kloer, you can crash on the floor with us."

Kloer said, frustrated, "...Fine."

It wasn’t that he had a problem with sleeping in the hallway; he just didn’t understand why Alex was so overly protective of Gu Ning.

He always felt that something about it was strange.

Alex was just too good to Gu Ning. Although he had always treated his subordinates well, his treatment of Gu Ning was completely different.

’Kloer couldn’t quite put his finger on what was so strange. He hadn’t even seen Gu Ning since he moved in with the Boss. The kid wasn’t physically present, yet his presence felt incredibly strong.’

’A couple of days ago, Alex had swiped all the snacks he’d brought back from Zone 5. Kloer didn’t even need to ask; he knew Alex had taken them for Gu Ning.’

’Now, Kloer didn’t need any confirmation. In his mind, he had automatically labeled Gu Ning as Alex’s Mixed Breed brother.’

’He ventured a bold guess: if Gu Ning wasn’t Alex’s brother from the Wolf Clan, then he had likely grown up in the Central Green Area and shared the same Beast Mother as Alex. That would explain why Alex was so protective of him.’

’But their ages don’t match, do they?’

’Alex had left the Central Green Area when he was ten. Even if Gu Ning wasn’t the same age as his "Cook" identity implied, he looked at least seven, eight, or even ten years younger than him.’

Just as Kloer’s imagination was running wild, he heard Alex say, "Go on in and sleep. Keep it down." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Kloer’s eyes lit up. He raised the pillow in his hand and grinned. "I promise I won’t disturb Little Gu Ning."

Alex said to Seth and Jite, "You two go sleep inside, too."

Seth and Jite glanced at each other in surprise.

For the past few days, they had been guarding Gu Ning. Whenever Alex returned, he would tell them to go back and rest for a bit.

Especially at times like these, Alex insisted they maintain peak condition to handle any sudden situations.

However, Seth and Jite had been resting in shifts, and they each had their own rooms.

Although the higher-ups in Zone 19 were deliberately mistreating their boss, their living and eating arrangements were on a construction site. In a place like Zone 19, excluding the even worse outer zones and the slightly better Central District, everyone’s living conditions were more or less the same. There was a limit to how badly those higher-ups could treat them.

The construction site wasn’t short on places to stay. When they were first assigned to Zone 19, there were even a lot of empty rooms left over.

It was only after Alex started hiring a large number of people that the rooms on site gradually filled up.

Now they had to vacate the rooms for the military. Even after evacuating most of the staff from the site, there still weren’t enough rooms. The Wolf Clan team Alex had brought from Zone 5 was mostly crammed into offices or sleeping in the hallways.

They had faced worse conditions than this—they’d even slept in the mud before. The current situation was nothing.

"Stay in the living room. For the bathroom, use someone else’s," Alex instructed Jite. "You keep an eye on them."

Jite nodded. "Understood, Boss."

’But in truth, he didn’t understand at all.’

’He had the same questions as Kloer, especially after catching that scent from the room last time. His confusion was at an all-time high.’

’That scent...’

’Is the Little Boss really a Mixed Breed?’

After giving them his instructions, Alex gently pushed open the door. Just as he stepped inside, he saw a faint light appear in the bedroom doorway.

Gu Ning had woken up at some point and was now standing in the bedroom doorway, watching them.

"..."

"Hey, Little Gu Ning." Kloer, standing behind Alex, waved at Gu Ning.

Jite grabbed his hand and pushed it down.

"What was that for?" Kloer gave him a baffled look.

Seth jabbed him with an elbow. "Keep it down. Don’t disturb the Little Boss."

Kloer said, "...He’s already awake, standing right there. Can’t you see him?"

’Those two have been acting weird lately, too.’

’I’m starting to seriously suspect they’re ostracizing me!’

’Young wolves love this kind of stuff. No, I have to find some time to talk to Alex about this. There’s no future for the Wolf Clan if it’s run like a dictatorship!’

"Did we wake you?" Alex quickly snapped back to his senses and turned on a rechargeable lantern that was in the living room.

The lantern wasn’t very bright, its light just enough for Gu Ning to see his surroundings.