RBNR Ch73: Not even a minute less

Feng Chengyu almost thought he misheard, “What did you say?”

Qin Bao broke free from him, took a step back, and didn’t look at Feng Chengyu’s face, “I said let’s get a divorce.”

“Divorce?”

It was like a bucket of cold water was poured over him, followed by a throbbing headache from clenching his jaw too hard. Knowing the complex situation Qin Bao was facing, Feng Chengyu calmed himself for a few seconds.

Then he approached Qin Bao, placing a hand on the back of his neck, forcing him to look at him.

“Why?” Feng Chengyu looked into his clear eyes, “Is it because of the comments online? Xiao Bao, our life is our own.”

Qin Bao was forced to look at Feng Chengyu, but his gaze didn’t waver, “It’s not because of that.”

Feng Chengyu asked, “Then why?”

Too close.

Qin Bao could smell the faint scent of daffodils on Feng Chengyu, still cold and aloof, but mixed with his own pheromones, carrying a fresh sweetness.

The glands at the back of his neck throbbed, yearning for his Alpha after the permanent marking.

Qin Bao spoke, “We agreed on five years, didn’t we? This year… it’s the fourth year.”

“Yes, four years, six months, and eleven days,” Feng Chengyu said. “Counting from the day we got our marriage certificate.”

Qin Bao’s eyelashes trembled, and the corners of his eyes turned red. He didn’t know Feng Chengyu remembered so clearly. Was it because the five-year term was nearing its end, and he was counting the days?

He said, “You remember…”

Feng Chengyu replied, “Of course I remember.”

After a pause, Qin Bao spoke again, “We agreed on five years and not to go public. Now there’s less than a year left, and this happened. It’s like wetting the bed at dawn. Can’t I just quietly get a divorce?”

He spoke off the cuff, seemingly complaining, each word striking a nerve with the Alpha.

“Since things are like this anyway. Feng Chengyu… let’s just take this opportunity to end it early.”

Feng Chengyu frowned deeply, his grip on the Omega’s fragile neck leaving red marks.

It hurt a little.

But Qin Bao remained calm. “Look, we’re going to divorce sooner or later. Why not take advantage of this exposure to announce that we’ve already divorced? It would reduce bias and misunderstandings, and you might still have a chance to go back.”

“Go back?” Feng Chengyu asked. “So, it’s because of this? Xiao Bao, do you think I would divorce you for this reason?”

Qin Bao didn’t believe that.

So he made up a reason with real impact. “Divorce would be beneficial for both of us. You might have a chance to return, and if I meet someone I like in the future, it would be easier to date. I don’t want to be caught in a scandal later. You know how important reputation is. If someone accused me of cheating, it would be bad. Announcing the divorce now would save us from having to explain later.”

The words hung in the air.

For ten seconds, neither of them spoke.

Feng Chengyu spoke first. “You want to meet someone you like?”

Qin Bao averted his gaze. “Yes.”

Feng Chengyu asked again. “You want to date?”

Qin Bao mumbled, “Of course, I’m already twenty-two. Arranged marriages are unacceptable. I’ve never even dated.”

The atmosphere around Feng Chengyu changed suddenly, his pheromones pressing down on Qin Bao, making it hard to breathe.

He moved closer to Qin Bao, almost touching his forehead. “You carry my permanent mark. How are you going to date someone else? What have the past few years meant to us?”

His heart twisted painfully. Qin Bao immediately broke free from the large hand, stepping back again.

“These years… these years have been good.” He said, “Our compatibility is so high that it’s hard not to be okay under the influence of the pheromones, right?”

Feng Chengyu remained silent.

Qin Bao continued, “I asked you to mark me back then out of necessity. I have pheromone rejection syndrome. Without your mark, I can’t function properly. Thank you for your help over the years, but I also said back then that after the divorce, I won’t hold you back. I can either wash it off or remove the glands.”

Qin Bao turned away, looking out the window, afraid to speak the truth, not daring to look at Feng Chengyu’s face.

Saying he wouldn’t wash it off was a lie.

He wanted to cut off the in-law relationship, not lose Feng Chengyu.

Was Feng Chengyu easy to pursue?

In a few years, if Feng Chengyu went back, would someone else appear by his side? Suddenly, he felt reluctant.

Then Feng Chengyu’s voice broke the silence. “But I wasn’t forced by necessity.”

Qin Bao’s nose tingled, nearly losing his composure.

Feng Chengyu continued, “Xiao Bao, you know very well why I gave you a permanent mark.”

“Because of the contract? Because of a promise?” Qin Bao, in a heat of the moment, went all out, “Could it be that you fell in love with me? Then that’s unfortunate, because I didn’t marry you willingly, nor did I want your mark out of love.”

There was a long silence.

Qin Bao couldn’t help but look back, seeing the veins on Feng Chengyu’s forehead standing out, his eyes tinged with red. The always elegant and composed Alpha was showing such an expression for the first time.

It hurt.

The pain in his heart grew more pronounced, making it hard to breathe.

In an instant, emotions overwhelmed all reason. Qin Bao broke down, tears uncontrollably falling and disappearing into the floor. “Feng Chengyu, do you not want to divorce?”

As soon as the words fell, his arm was grabbed, and he was swiftly lifted, thrown heavily onto the bed.

Realizing the situation was not good, he instinctively pleaded, “What are you doing?! Let’s talk this out! If you don’t want to divorce, beg me. If you beg me, maybe I’ll agree!”

Feng Chengyu said nothing, pinning him to the bed.

Then Qin Bao felt a sudden chill, a sharp “smack” sound, and pain that nearly made him jump up. He was stunned.

“Smack! Smack!”

Two more slaps followed.

The crisp sound echoed in the room. This was different from their past playful moments. His clothes weren’t even off!

“Bastard!” He cursed, “You hit me?!”

“Smack!”

Another sharp sound, a clear red mark appearing on his fair skin.

“Yes, I hit you.” Feng Chengyu’s voice was cold, deliberately provoking, “I couldn’t swallow this anger without hitting you.”

Qin Bao couldn’t tolerate this humiliation. Unable to distinguish between real and fake hits, he was furious. “Asshole! I’ll sue you for domestic violence!”

Feng Chengyu just pinned his struggling hands and feet, ambiguously saying, “Oh, really? Then add it to the other charges later.”

“What are you doing?! Let go of me!”

The pheromone scent in the room was overwhelming, the windows tightly shut to prevent it from leaking out.

Beyond domestic violence, the situation escalated.

The surroundings were dim, only a faint light filtering through the blinds revealing the messy bed sheets. After cursing, struggling, and crying, the room was left with only ambiguous sounds and the noise of the air purifier.

Qin Bao’s throat was hoarse, his fingers finally reaching something. He grabbed a pillar tightly, but his intention was noticed, and he was ruthlessly pulled back by Feng Chengyu.

“Get lost—”

But after a brief pause, a new wave of chaos began.

Qin Bao thrashed like a fish just pulled from the river. Finally turning over, he was pinned to the headboard, grabbing an object from the cabinet and trying to throw it at Feng Chengyu.

“Clang!”

The object fell to the ground, missing its target, resulting in a harsh retaliation that made his scalp tingle. He bit Feng Chengyu’s shoulder hard.

Feng Chengyu held him up, ordering, “Let go.”

Determined, Qin Bao was pressed against the wall, tear-streaked face refusing to let go, both fighting desperately, neither yielding.

Until Feng Chengyu grabbed his chin, prying open his teeth, finger by finger, and Qin Bao completely surrendered.

“I was wrong… I was wrong.”

Qin Bao sounded like he was crying.

“No divorce…”

Despite saying it multiple times, Feng Chengyu remained silent, his anger seemingly undiminished by the repeated pleas for mercy. Even his kisses were fierce, unlike anything in the past few years.

On the verge of collapse, Feng Chengyu finally spoke: “…No divorce? How will you date if we don’t divorce?”

Qin Bao’s mind was a blur, unable to be articulate anymore, only instinctively repeating his assurance to the Alpha: “I won’t date anymore… I won’t date!”

The Alpha seemed unmoved.

Qin Bao’s neck was bitten again, the canines piercing his skin anew, making him tremble all over. He gradually lost control, his back shaking like a sieve, reacting far more intensely than ever before.

Eventually, the sky turned completely dark, and nothing could be seen.

The weight on the mattress disappeared, and it bounced lightly.

Feng Chengyu withdrew, seemingly picking up something from the floor, probably clothes.

“A divorce is a divorce. I won’t cling to you,” his voice was cold. “But we agreed on five years, not a minute less.”

Qin Bao slept until dawn, waking up with a sore throat. It felt like it was on fire, and speaking was excruciatingly painful.

He wanted to call out for Feng Chengyu, but after a long time, he realized he wasn’t there.

The room was silent, everything still in disarray from the intense encounter.

He got up, barely able to stand, and managed to make his way to the living room to turn on the light. The living room was also empty; he was alone in the house.

Feng Chengyu had left.

Their home address had been exposed; Feng Chengyu couldn’t return, so where could he go at a time like this? Qin Bao wanted to call him, but tears started falling as soon as he took out his phone.

Feng Chengyu had agreed to the divorce.

Though there were still a few months left, they were really going to divorce.

He never made the call.

He drank some water from the tap, and while wiping his mouth, he noticed a faint red color on his hand. Checking his mouth, he found no wounds, so it must have been blood left on his lips from biting Feng Chengyu’s shoulder.

Unable to hold back, his eyes welled up again.

He went back to bed, falling asleep again amidst the lingering scent of Feng Chengyu.

When he woke up in the morning, Qin Bao felt much better, but when he looked in the bathroom mirror, he was startled. His eyes were swollen, his face was pale, and the glands on his neck where he had been bitten hadn’t healed. His body bore marks from their “fight.”

After freshening up, he cleaned up the house a bit before leaving.

Thanks to the exposure of their marriage, Qin Bao had become a “giant baby,” unable to go anywhere by himself, so he arranged for Xiao Xu to pick him up.

Xiao Xu was shocked when she saw him. “Brother Bao… what happened to you?”

Because of the permanent mark on Qin Bao’s neck and Feng Chengyu’s wedding ring, Xiao Xu had long suspected they were married, but the revelation still hit her hard. She had thought that, since their marriage was now public, they would be sweet and loving when they met.

But now it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Qin Bao wore Feng Chengyu’s clothes, wrapping himself up tightly despite the hot weather to cover all the marks. But the swelling in his eyes couldn’t be hidden.

“I’m fine, I didn’t sleep well last night.” Qin Bao seemed calm, leaning coolly against the seat, his thin frame making him look somewhat fragile at the moment.

“This is a gland patch.” Xiao Xu handed it to him without asking further. “So where are we going now?”

“Back to the set.” Qin Bao said. “Brother Lu booked the tickets.”

Brother Lu was helping handle the privacy exposure, so only the two of them were returning to the film set. The crew couldn’t be left hanging for too long, but no one expected Qin Bao to return to work so soon.

Fortunately, the journey was safe. The hotel and local police were responsible, and the people who had crowded outside the hotel had left. Recently, only those related to the crew were allowed in.

Back at the hotel, Qin Bao didn’t encounter anyone from the crew.

After icing his eyes for a while, Xiao Xu told him Xu Tangzhou had finished shooting for the day and returned.

Qin Bao put down the ice, acting as if everything was normal. “I’ll go see him.”

Xiao Xu was worried but only nodded. “…Okay.”

Seeing him walk away as if nothing had happened, Xiao Xu felt she might be overthinking. With Mr. Feng around, Qin Bao wouldn’t be hurt by the online comments.

When Qin Bao reached Xu Tangzhou’s room, his first question was, “How did it go? Did he sleep?”

He was asking about Xu Tangzhou’s surprise visit to Ling Che in the capital.

Xu Tangzhou looked dejected. “No.”

Qin Bao was exasperated. “Xu Tangzhou, are you useless or what! What about the low-neck T-shirt I lent you?!”

Between an Alpha and an Omega, wasn’t it just that straightforward?

Although half of what he said was to provoke Feng Chengyu, the other half was true. With pheromones, everything that happened between an Alpha and an Omega was so natural that sometimes it was hard to control. Otherwise, on the night of his coming-of-age ceremony, they wouldn’t have lost control.

This conclusion had been proven countless times over the years. Pheromones were unreasonable.

That low-neck T-shirt was a new season’s designer item, very sexy. Qin Bao bought it but hadn’t worn it yet. And Xu Tangzhou didn’t use it?

“The T-shirt was sexy enough, but there was a third wheel,” Xu Tangzhou joked. “When I arrived, Ling Che was with Ying Chen.”

Qin Bao only learned later that, besides Mo Xiao, Ling Che was also friends with Ying Chen.

Ying Chen’s previous move wasn’t due to bankruptcy but because he and Ling Che had bought a new house together, living so closely that they were practically on the same floor.

Qin Bao was speechless. “Is Ying Chen a leech? He’s a scumbag and might never get a wife, dragging his friends down in the process!”

Xu Tangzhou patted his shoulder, saying, “Don’t worry, karma catches up. He’s currently being played by someone else.” He then asked about the more pressing matter, “How are you two? Are you okay? Why did he suddenly take you away?”

By “you two,” he naturally meant Qin Bao and Feng Chengyu.

Qin Bao, having come here to avoid dwelling on last night, responded casually, “…”

“That hacker exposed another female celebrity’s pheromones today,” Xu Tangzhou said worriedly. “Did you see it?”

Qin Bao had already seen the trending news.

As long as the hacker remained at large, Omega artists couldn’t feel at ease.

Everyone was on edge, and Xu Tangzhou was certainly nervous too.

Qin Bao said, “What I’m about to tell you, don’t tell anyone else. This time, someone is targeting Feng Chengyu, and you’re all collateral damage.”

As he spoke, he went on to recount the entire story to Xu Tangzhou.

Their family backgrounds, marriage, the impact on Feng Chengyu after their relationship was exposed—Qin Bao calmly explained everything.

“In fact, you knew most of this before. I told you everything before we got married,” Qin Bao said. “You just don’t remember now.”

Xu Tangzhou felt guilty for not remembering and thought he should help his friend more now, even if it was just to ease his mind. “Why don’t you want to go public with him? Is he not good to you?”

Qin Bao shook his head. “No, he’s very good to me. It’s just… we plan to get a divorce.”

Xu Tangzhou: “…You don’t like him?”

“I used to like him, but not anymore,” Qin Bao lowered his eyes. “Now… It’s very complicated, because of my own issues, and because of my family issues. In short, ‘liking’ doesn’t cover it anymore.”

Xu Tangzhou hit the nail on the head: “Because ‘like’ has turned into ‘love,’ right?”

Qin Bao didn’t move or say anything in rebuttal.

Xu Tangzhou asked again, “Does he like you?”

Qin Bao replied, “It’s not that simple. If it weren’t for the arranged marriage, we wouldn’t even be in the same world.”

Xu Tangzhou, already aware, still said, “I understand all that, but with an 82% compatibility rate, don’t you think it’s a shame?”

After Qin Bao’s pheromones were exposed, some people used Feng Chengyu’s public information and the online compatibility calculation formula to match them, finding that Qin Bao and Feng Chengyu’s compatibility rate was an astonishing 82%, far exceeding the average compatibility rate.

Many people changed their attitudes, shifting from saying they were married for convenience to calling them a match made in heaven, sparking hot discussions online.

The world seemed crazy, changing every day without reason.

Qin Bao said, “That’s inaccurate. Actually, it’s 78%.”

Xu Tangzhou was extremely envious. “Isn’t 78% high enough? After all, some people only have 18%.”

Xu Tangzhou was talking about himself and Ling Che.

It turned out that a few years ago, Xu Tangzhou broke up with Ling Che because, after his differentiation, they found their compatibility rate was only 18%, making it impossible to complete the marking process. Xu Tangzhou’s parents had a similar situation, with a very low compatibility rate leading to an unhappy marriage. Taking lessons from the past, Xu Tangzhou was too young and lacked the courage, so he broke up with Ling Che.

Qin Bao felt something was off. “Wait, we discussed this before. When you hadn’t differentiated yet, we fantasized about your compatibility. I remember you saying that if your compatibility was too low to complete the marking, as long as you could be with him, you would choose to remove your glands and become a beta.”

Xu Tangzhou, having lost his memory, didn’t remember this at all and stood there stunned.

Qin Bao gave him a weak smile. “Xu Tangzhou, maybe I should get my glands removed too. Do you think the hospital would give us a discount if two people get surgery together?”