GBROTAH CH46

In the dark and narrow alley, two figures hidden in the shadows kissed and tangled. Though it was deep winter, Xie Yuanxing felt soft and burning hot.

“No… it hurts… my lips really hurt from kissing.”

Xie Yuanxing pushed away the tall figure in front of him, turning his head to escape the endless kisses. He merely pursed his lips slightly, and a faint stinging pain shot through them, feeling as though his skin had broken.

X kissed urgently and deeply, even sucking and biting his lips, like an insatiable hyena.

There was silence in the darkness. A moment later, Xie Yuanxing only felt his lips soften, as if a thumb had lightly pressed them. X’s voice came from above his head, “Then we’ll kiss again later.”

Huh?

Still kissing?

Xie Yuanxing’s eyes widened blankly. His face was red now, and his eyes were round and moist, like appealingly colored candied tomatoes. Just looking at them made his mouth water.

An Alpha’s eyesight was keen. X could see, and his gaze was obsessed and burning.

He subtly showed a tendency to lean in again. Xie Yuanxing couldn’t see, but he could feel it, and quickly put his hand up to block him, mumbling, “Wait, not yet…”

X sighed and pulled him into his arms, his voice hoarse and gentle: “Baby, my Xingxing baby.”

Xie Yuanxing felt like a large bolster, held firmly in X’s embrace. The arms around his waist were strong and powerful, the hug so tight it was almost painful.

He had read somewhere that people, when tired or disheartened, would hug something fluffy or a bolster to “recharge.”

Xie Yuanxing wasn’t stupid; he could sense that X’s emotions were off.

He quietly acted as this “power bank.” After a while, he softly asked, “What’s wrong?”

X: “Hm?”

He seemed to chuckle, “Just missed you too much, baby. Did I scare you?”

Xie Yuanxing pursed his lips. The stinging pain was still there. Scared? Not really, but…

Their two previous meetings, X’s actions were also urgent, but not like today, as if venting some unwillingness. Today was too rushed, so rushed that Xie Yuanxing could feel X’s anxiety.

“Aren’t we dating?”

“You often say that if you do something wrong, I should tell you, and you’ll change. Well, it’s the same for me. If I do something wrong, you should tell me, and I’ll change too.”

X reached out to caress Xie Yuanxing’s face, his thumb feeling the smooth tenderness beneath his touch, like a loving caress. “Baby didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Our Xingxing baby is good in every way.”

Xie Yuanxing thought for a moment: “Is it because I keep refusing to meet? But it really has been a busy exam week lately.”

“I also had to prepare a teaching demonstration for my part-time job interview, and I really did have an interview today.”

X: “I know, baby, don’t reflect on yourself.”

Oh, so that wasn’t the reason.

Xie Yuanxing blinked in the darkness and then said, “Is it because of my friend? Lin Xiuming?”

X fell silent. The alley was dark and quiet, so quiet that they could hear the shouts of a sweet shop’s promotional event outside.

He guessed right.

But Xie Yuanxing didn’t understand. He was very clear that Lin Xiuming was just his friend. He opened his mouth and asked, “What’s wrong with him? You don’t like him? Why?”

X’s voice sounded a little muffled, with annoyance: “Nothing.”

Xie Yuanxing poked him, “Be honest. I’m very slow; I can’t guess.”

In the darkness, Xie Yuanxing’s expression was serious: “The heart cannot speak, and it hides very deeply, so it needs a mouth that can speak to describe it, to express it.”

“We have mouths, so we should use them to speak love, to express grievances, to confide dissatisfactions. Kissing alone is useless; it needs to make a sound.”

X seemed stunned. The irritation between his brows slowly subsided, but when he actually tried to speak, it was as if something was blocking him.

X: “Baby.”

He called softly, a little helpless: “Some things, if I say them, I’m afraid baby will think I’m petty.”

Xie Yuanxing couldn’t help but chuckle, and honestly said, “I think… you’ve never been generous.”

Fearing X’s mortification, Xie Yuanxing quickly added, “But if you were generous, it wouldn’t be dating anymore. This is an exclusive game for just two people.”

X fell silent again, but Xie Yuanxing was very patient, waiting quietly.

After a long while, X’s voice came from above, sounding almost painful as he spoke, “Did you agree to date me because of Lin Xiuming?”

In that instant, Xie Yuanxing was as bewildered as if he were a freshman hearing a Ph.D. level math problem.

Xie Yuanxing: “What?”

X: “I never told you my name. You only know me as X. Doesn’t Lin Xiuming’s name have an X in it, and you two grew up together as childhood sweethearts?”

X: “When we meet, it doesn’t matter if you can’t see my face. This kind of relationship is strange, yet you’ve never raised any objections. Are you using me as a substitute?”

Xie Yuanxing’s forehead twitched. He felt as if he had heard some Arabian Nights tale, so shocked that he wanted to open X’s head and see what was inside.

Just now he had called himself stupid, unable to guess.

Now, it seemed no one, no matter how smart, could keep up with X’s thought process. It was so bizarre, like welding railroad tracks and clouds together.

Xie Yuanxing took a deep breath and said, “You… should find time to see a doctor about your brain.”

Though he was rebuffed, the stone in X’s heart strangely settled.

After relaxing, two thoughts popped into his mind, one after another.

One was that baby could also rebuff X, not just Shen Bianye.

And the second…

“Does baby also need to transfer me 8 yuan for the registration fee?”

Xie Yuanxing said faintly, “Transfer 30. With your brain, you won’t get better without seeing a specialist.”

Then he sighed helplessly, “Don’t think weird things. When Lin Xiuming just entered junior high, he confessed to a girl with short hair, thinking she was a boy, asking if she wanted to be his boyfriend, and even said he didn’t mind if she was short, ‘short one is still one,’ and was chased and cursed by the girl for three blocks.”

“I know all his embarrassing stories. How could I,” Xie Yuanxing couldn’t go on, even feeling a chill.

X wasn’t interested in Lin Xiuming’s story; it sounded funny but left him indifferent. Instead, he said, “I was wrong, baby, I shouldn’t have thought such things, but…”

Xie Yuanxing fumbled for X’s face in the darkness, “We’re in an online relationship anyway. You don’t let me see you for your own reasons, and I trust you.”

If he saw, this relationship would have to end, and Xie Yuanxing didn’t want that; he couldn’t bear it.

Guided by feeling, he kissed X’s lips and said seriously, “You chose me, and I chose you. As long as you don’t change, don’t leave, I will never leave you.”

“This is a promise. Promises don’t change.”

In Xie Yuanxing’s heart, X was just X. X had chosen him, and he had chosen X.

But in the darkness, Shen Bianye’s expression was complex and deep. He looked at Xie Yuanxing intently, watching for a long time.

He leaned down and kissed Xie Yuanxing’s forehead. He took something out of his overcoat pocket and placed it in Xie Yuanxing’s hand.

He didn’t directly answer Xie Yuanxing’s words, but instead said, “Baby, you go first. I’ll stay here for a while.”

“This is a gift for baby.”

Xie Yuanxing walked out of the alley. The bubble tea shop at the alley entrance was singing a cheerful “You love me, I love you.” He opened the green box in his hand; inside was a ring.

It was shaped like a coiled snake, with black scales, giving it an overall silver-black, imposing look. For some reason, Xie Yuanxing thought of stickiness and dampness.

He thought for a moment, then threw the box into a roadside trash can and put the ring on his index finger.

The ring slid down his slender finger to the base, a perfect fit, neither too tight nor too loose, yet it felt like a slight confinement.

In the early morning, the sky was a dim, heavy gray. People walking on the street were hit by the cold wind, their morning yawns stifled, and the cold air filling their lungs made them shiver.

Xie Yuanxing’s eyelashes were damp with frost. When he went to a roadside breakfast shop to buy steamed buns, his voice was still listless and spiritless.

When his phone rang, he still sounded unenergetic when talking to X.

X: “Baby, are you out yet?”

Xie Yuanxing: “I’m buying breakfast downstairs. I’ll go up after I eat.”

X: “Baby’s voice sounds very unenergetic. Did you not rest well last night?”

X: “It’s winter break now, baby, why don’t you rest and enjoy the break?”

X: “Don’t you have a boyfriend? Baby doesn’t have to work so hard.”

Xie Yuanxing gulped down two mouthfuls of soy milk, clearing his throat. His voice was no longer so sleepy: “It’s not hard. It’s just something to keep myself busy.”

“It’s almost nine. I’m going to work now. I’ll talk to you later.”

X: “Okay, baby, go be busy.”

Xie Yuanxing quickly finished his breakfast, threw the plastic bag into the trash can, and walked upstairs with the stream of students.

Teacher Guo saw him arrive and said, “You’re here. I’ve arranged everything for you. You’ll be in charge of class two and class three of the second year. Any issues?”

“An assistant’s job is simpler than a lecturer’s. Two classes are completely manageable, don’t worry.”

“These are the class group chats and two work group chats. Please join them.”

Xie Yuanxing nodded hurriedly, took out his phone, and scanned the QR codes one by one.

The ring on his finger brushed against the back of his phone, making a faint, metallic sound.

Teachers have sharp eyes and are adept at recognizing luxury goods. After seeing it clearly, they were puzzled for a moment. How could someone wear a two-thousand-yuan ring and use such an old phone?

But Teacher Guo didn’t ask further and took Xie Yuanxing to meet the homeroom teachers of the two classes.

Although it was an education institution, it also had classes and teachers. Xie Yuanxing’s job was to assist, and he would also explain problems to students.

The morning flew by in a blur, and the two work group chats kept buzzing with messages.

They said he only needed to manage two classes, but in reality, every teacher there would ask him to do things.

By the time most teachers had finished their classes and gone for lunch, Xie Yuanxing was still standing in front of the office printer, tirelessly collating test papers.

When his WeChat call rang, Xie Yuanxing felt like his head was about to explode. When he saw it was X, he relaxed.

“What’s up?” he said.

X: “Baby, are you off work? Are you tired?”

The printer rattled. Xie Yuanxing, while pulling out papers and flipping them, held his phone and said, “Not tired.”

X: “Really? Baby, don’t lie to me.”

Xie Yuanxing hummed, “Really. It’s just that there are many things, and they’re all mixed up, making me a bit dizzy.”

X: “That’s good. I saw it’s lunchtime break. I ordered takeout for baby. Remember to pick it up later.”

Xie Yuanxing: “Okay.”

“But you don’t need to order next time. This place provides meals. I picked this place specifically because of that.”

The gift he had his eye on was beautiful. If he didn’t save a little on living expenses, two months’ salary might not be enough.

X chuckled, following Xie Yuanxing’s slightly proud tone, “Good, worthy of our Xingxing baby.”

“Go eat quickly, don’t be busy. You can probably do the rest after eating.”

Xie Yuanxing paused, then heard X say, “I hear the printer running over there.”

Xie Yuanxing pursed his lips and softly hummed in acknowledgment.

The call ended. Xie Yuanxing finished packing up the last bit and went to pick up his takeout. Shen Bianye turned and walked back into the hospital from the quiet corridor.

Dr. Li was looking at various examination reports. Seeing him walk in, he said while looking at the reports, “You weren’t serious about treatment before, but you’ve been coming very diligently these past two days.”

Shen Bianye was noncommittal, “Didn’t you say there’s hope for a cure? Who doesn’t want to live?”

Dr. Li sighed with complex emotions, “Indeed.”

“Your problem is both simple and difficult to explain. For a normal Alpha, the susceptible period occurs once a year, at most twice a year.”

“Yours occurs almost every seven or eight days, or every ten to half a month, extremely irregular and frequent.”

“Current medical methods cannot forcibly intervene in the susceptible period, which makes your problem very complex. If you suppress it directly with medication, your next susceptible period will also be correspondingly prolonged.”

“These are all things that deplete your life, which is why so many doctors said you wouldn’t live past thirty after you differentiated.”

He pulled up Shen Bianye’s examination reports recorded on the computer, “Your susceptible period is now appearing later than before, which is a good thing.”

Then his tone shifted abruptly, “But you’ve injected too many suppressants. It’s reached the point of drug abuse, which is also very damaging to your body.”

Dr. Li said, “You mentioned last time that Xie Yuanxing couldn’t stand the smell of your pheromones.”

“So I suggest that, except when simulating marking a gland, you temporarily avoid contact with him, and then you won’t need to control your pheromones.”

Shen Bianye frowned imperceptibly. He didn’t speak. Dr. Li added, “Even when you bite him, let him leave right after.”

“I know an Alpha’s instinct will make you unable to leave him at that time, but compared to the harm of suppressant abuse, you should bear with it. He’s a Beta, unaffected. He’s calm at such times, you can let him go.”

“Besides suppressants, your pheromone fluctuations should not be too frequent or too intense right now. Even if Xie Yuanxing can adapt to your pheromones, it’s still best to maintain distance for now.”

Dr. Li said, about to take out his phone to text Xie Yuanxing, “I’ll tell him.”

Shen Bianye frowned, “I’ll tell him myself.”

Dr. Li looked at the uncontrollable irritation on Shen Bianye’s handsome face and continued typing his message without stopping, “No, I’ll tell him.”

If Shen Bianye didn’t say anything, then his medical advice would be for nothing.

Shen Bianye: “Wait.”

He paused, then said, “Another day. Tell him after next weekend.”

He couldn’t say why, but he didn’t want Xie Yuanxing to know he visited the doctor so frequently.

Xie Yuanxing received Dr. Li’s message during class.

His phone vibrated silently in his pocket. He didn’t notice it, still looking down at the students’ problems. Taking the opportunity to bend over, he secretly kneaded his lower back like an old man.

So sore.

Just another month and a half of this, and he would get his part-time job salary.

Xie Yuanxing lectured on trigonometric functions, while secretly calculating the time in his head. When he was a student, he’d spend all day calculating when the holidays would begin. Now that he was a temporary teacher, he’d spend all day calculating when he could leave work.

The education institution was highly competitive in terms of service and teacher quality. Every classroom had surveillance cameras, constantly streaming to parents’ phones.

The lecturer would give students problems to do, and Xie Yuanxing would patrol, checking on their progress and explaining things to them.

Although there was a chair for the assistant in the back, patrolling two classes meant there was basically no time to sit down. After a full day, his lower back ached terribly.

When the bell for class rang, Xie Yuanxing cheered in his heart even more joyfully than the high school students sitting and listening. He walked out the back door and sat down, letting out a huge sigh of relief.

He lowered his head and turned off his phone’s silent mode. The work group chat buzzed twice. Someone in the group tagged him: “@Teacher Xie, please help mark the last mini-quiz papers for Class Two.”

Xie Yuanxing replied “Okay” and got up to walk to the office. As he walked, he looked at the other red dots on his messages. He was a little surprised when he saw a message from Dr. Li.

After seeing the message, he paused again. In that case, his accidental refusal had actually aligned with the doctor’s advice.

Xie Yuanxing calculated the time. He and Shen Bianye hadn’t seen each other for about half a month, so he should be coming soon.

He finished work at 9 PM. Xie Yuanxing picked up the groceries he bought on his way to work that morning from his locker and slowly took the bus back to school.

He couldn’t use high-power electrical appliances in the dorm, so his forty-two yuan small pot boiled water astonishingly slowly.

While waiting for the water to boil, Xie Yuanxing went to the balcony to wash his bok choy.

His slender, fair fingers turned red almost instantly under the cold winter water. Only the bok choy leaves remained vibrantly green. Xie Yuanxing walked back into the dorm, placed the vegetables aside, and breathed warm air onto his fingertips.

After the water boiled, he put in noodles, not forgetting to poach an egg. While waiting for that, he chopped green onions on a small cutting board with a dong dong dong sound. Only then did he sit down and rest his chin in his hand, waiting.

The sound of the dorm door opening made Xie Yuanxing turn his head, and his gaze met that of the person who walked in.

Having a guess and some preparation, Xie Yuanxing wasn’t surprised to see the newcomer. “I saw Dr. Li’s text message.”

“Mm.”

Shen Bianye walked in, dressed in a dark overcoat, tall and cold, as if carrying the frost and snow from outside with him.

Inside, the pot boiled, gurgling with steam.

Shen Bianye’s gaze followed the sound, landing on the pot. After seeing what was inside, he frowned immediately.

Shen Bianye: “Why are you just eating this?”

Didn’t he say the workplace provided meals? Was he lying?

Then where did those meal photos sent to X every now and then come from? Did they only cover lunch? Did he send photos of lunch at the institution even in the evening? And then secretly went back to the dorm after work to eat something perfunctory?

How did he manage to make himself so pathetic?

“I’m not concerned about you, it’s just that you…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Xie Yuanxing dashed over to him, swiftly turned around, and lowered his head, exposing his neck.

“Dr. Li said you shouldn’t stay with me for too long right now. You bite, and then you leave.”

He paused, remembering that he was supposed to leave. Shen Bianye would lose control of his pheromones after biting him, so walking out immediately would be inconvenient.

He turned his head again, “Wait, I think I’m supposed to leave.”

Xie Yuanxing’s gaze drifted blankly around the dorm, then stopped on his bubbling small pot, “Then wait for me.”

He then scurried back to his small pot, put the bok choy in to blanch for a while, and then sprinkled in the chopped green onions.

Shen Bianye followed him, “You can cook?”

Xie Yuanxing reached out and unplugged the power cord, saying, “Yes, I can. If I didn’t do it well before, I’d get beaten.”

This bowl of noodles was cooked with leftover chicken broth from yesterday, and he even poached an egg in it. It smelled really good.

He spoke casually as he said this. After speaking, he picked up the pot, turned his back to Shen Bianye, once again exposing his slender, fair neck, “You bite.”

Shen Bianye didn’t move. “Are you taking the pot out? Don’t you have a bowl?”

Xie Yuanxing: “I’m eating alone, so the pot is fine. It saves me the money of buying a bowl.”

Shen Bianye had never seen someone so frugal. He was utterly defeated, somewhat wanting to laugh, yet also feeling a strange itch. “Then what if I want to eat some?”

Xie Yuanxing turned to him in surprise. Shen Bianye raised an eyebrow, “I’ve treated you to meals for an entire semester. I can’t even taste a bite of your noodles?”

“Xie Yuanxing, there’s a limit to being stingy.”

Xie Yuanxing let it go in one ear and out the other, pretending he heard nothing. He put down the pot, found a pair of chopsticks, and then took out the pot lid, handing it to Shen Bianye. “You can pick some out and eat it.”

Shen Bianye: “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t even buy an extra bowl? How do you have extra chopsticks?”

Xie Yuanxing: “Buying a single pair of chopsticks is more expensive than a whole pack. It’s not cost-effective.”

The reasonable yet unexpected explanation choked Shen Bianye, leaving him speechless. For the first time in his life, he held a pot lid and a pair of chopsticks, standing by the pot, and ate a bowl of noodles.

Xie Yuanxing, beside him, seemed to want to speak but held back, “Didn’t Dr. Li say it’s best for you to spend less time with me recently?”

“Staying here all the time isn’t good for your pheromones, right?”

Shen Bianye scoffed, “You say it so nicely, but you still want to get rid of me?”

“Don’t worry, it’s just that I can’t stay long after biting you.”

It wasn’t just because Xie Yuanxing couldn’t stand the smell of his pheromones. It was also because with Xie Yuanxing there, his pheromone fluctuations would be very intense, and he had injected too many suppressants, so his pheromones shouldn’t fluctuate too much right now.

Xie Yuanxing “oh’d” and fell silent.

A question lingered in his mind: Shen Bianye was almost done eating, so what would he eat?

He watched Shen Bianye finish the noodles, pick up the pot, and walk towards the balcony. Just as he was about to press the dish soap kept on the balcony, Xie Yuanxing finally couldn’t hold back, “You… what are you doing?”

Shen Bianye: “I ate it, so of course I’ll wash the pot.”

Xie Yuanxing hesitated: “Can you? Or maybe I should do it.”

He could tell that Shen Bianye’s dishwashing movements were clumsy, but thankfully, this task didn’t require much skill. Clumsy as he was, he still finished it.

Shen Bianye rinsed his mouth. Before he could speak, Xie Yuanxing actively and instinctively moved closer.

Behind him, Shen Bianye’s face darkened. Was he that eager to get rid of him?

After leaning down and taking a fierce, light bite, Shen Bianye’s entire body felt as if his blood had boiled for a moment. He was both shocked and perplexed, filled with disbelief.

As his fangs pierced the skin, the droplets of blood that entered his mouth tasted impossibly sweet. It wasn’t an overwhelmingly sweet taste, but a rich, cake-like aroma, like it was steeped in milk, filling his mouth with a creamy sweetness.

While Shen Bianye was still dazed, his pheromones instantly became excited. The entire room filled with the scent of embers after a raging fire. More and more, heavily and fiercely, they brushed against the back of Xie Yuanxing’s neck.

Xie Yuanxing couldn’t detect the pheromone activity. He only smelled the scent, which made him cough continuously, unable to stay for a moment. He grabbed the keys from the table and walked out.

Standing still in winter made him cold quickly. He didn’t want to stand foolishly outside the dorm, so he thought for a moment and decided to go for a walk to pass the time.

The dorms here were quiet. Shen Bianye was still standing in the spot where Xie Yuanxing had left, his expression changing repeatedly.

He had tasted it. Sweet. It was that simple to taste it.

Recalling X’s and Xie Yuanxing’s conversation earlier today, nothing special had happened.

He hadn’t seen anything that would have made Xie Yuanxing happy.

It was just a very ordinary evening. Xie Yuanxing had just gotten off work and cooked a bowl of noodles.

He didn’t need to painstakingly prepare to take Xie Yuanxing to see fireworks, or to make Xie Yuanxing bid farewell to the past. Xie Yuanxing himself could easily let go of all unpleasantness.

Shen Bianye lowered his gaze, letting his pheromones fill the dorm, boiling, violently fluctuating, and rampaging.

When Xie Yuanxing returned to the dorm, Shen Bianye had already left. High Uncle, who regularly delivered meals, was waiting at the door with a lunchbox.

High Uncle smiled and said, “Haven’t seen you in half a month. Young Master Shen asked me to bring you a meal.”

“Young Master Shen also said that he’ll continue to send meals like before, and that you ‘don’t taste good’.”

As he spoke, High Uncle grew puzzled. “What do you mean ‘you don’t taste good’? What does that mean?”

The agreement between him and Shen Bianye was known to very few people; High Uncle was unaware.

So Xie Yuanxing simply said, “I just cooked some noodles, and he ate a bowl. Maybe he didn’t like the taste.”