最佳契合 (Perfect Match) – 十九瑶
Chapter 34
At seven o’clock in the morning, the “Pet Castle” on Huaiyang Road opened its doors.
The animal sounds include a yawn from the cat, chirping from the caged bird, and an excited tail wagging from the dogs as they stand lined up with their rails, having been hungry all night. The manager of the shop hung up the “open” sign, grabbed a bag of dog food, and began to pour some out before someone pushed the door in.
A customer at this hour?
”Pet Castle” is in an unappealing and inconvenient location. It’s a small business that offers temporary boarding, hair drying, and grooming services. Some cats and dogs that are for sale can also be found. Customers have always been coming in, despite the fact that it’s not a fancy pet shop. It’s unusual enough as it is, and on weekdays, customers line up outside the door as soon as it opens.
The shop owner wondered which of his regular customers had come in. When he turned around, he saw a strange alpha in the doorway. He was a tall man wearing a solemn expression, exuding an air of authority and mystery as he stood there with a scarf wrapped over his shoulders like a layer of broken snow, peering into the small shop, looking a bit lost.
He then looked at the car parked in front of the door, which, of course, has the three-pointed star1Mercedes-Benz logo emblem that is common among businesspeople.
The shop owner set down the bag of dog food, stepped forward, and said, “How can I help you, sir?”
The alpha said, “I’d like to ask you about someone.”
Looking for a person?
Nodding and smiling warmly, the shop owner said, “Then please come in first.”
The alpha glanced around the shop, noticed the framed decorations on the wall, and walked towards them. A variety of colorful, large and small, cozy and beautiful photographs are displayed on the wall using five rows of wooden clips. They were all beautiful memories since “Pet Castle” opened.
His omega was indeed one of them.
In the photograph, the omega is bathing an adult border collie. The border collie got into mischief and activated the water shaking mode before the rinse process finished, leading to a shower of water droplets flying across the room. The omega raised his hands to shield his face while dodging, smiling happily.
——Mr. He, please allow me to ask a question. Where are you currently working?
——At a nearby pet shop, the one by the corner. It’s called “Pet Castle.”
He An gave him this kind of response that particular day at the coffee shop.
“He…” With a deep breath, Zheng Feiluan gestured to the photo and asked the shop owner, “What’s his name?”
“Oh, him,” the shop owner said with a cheerful smile. “His name is He An. He used to work here, but he resigned and has been away for a while.”
“He An…”
Darkness and sadness washed over Zheng Feiluan as he uttered these two words.
He was once certain that the little nightingale and He An were completely different people. But when he tried to remember He An’s face to prove this, he was shocked that he couldn’t recall how he looked.
That docile omega didn’t seem to exist at all.
A crack opened in his composure. As the crack widened and deepened, his composure became weakened by irrationality until none was left.
Zheng Feiluan took a stack of bills with large denominations from his wallet and said, “I want to buy this photo.”
The owner of the shop became terrified when he estimated the amount and exclaimed, “I can’t take that. It’s too much! If you really like it, you can just have it.”
“It’s okay. It’s worth the price.”
Zheng Feiluan quickly set the bills on the counter in a neat way and took the picture out of the wooden clip by himself. After closely looking at the photo of the omega’s frozen smile, he finally managed to ask, “Do you remember what kind of person He An was?”
“He was… charming, generous, and dedicated. Many of the shop’s customers, as well as the cats and dogs, are fond of him. If only he weren’t an omega and were of a different gender…”
The shop owner immediately started chatting, “To be honest, when he came to apply, I didn’t want to hire him. Omegas have a weak physique and heat cycles. The hassle was too much for me to handle as a small business owner, and I was scared of letting him on board. Doing so would’ve been risky. However, I let my guard down and took the child because he was so poor and looked so miserable. But he was unexpectedly calm, friendly, and well-organized. There were no losses at all; he could do as much work as two people combined…”
“He was struggling financially?”
“How could he not? It was said that his family owed a huge debt, and they were eager to pay it back, so they made him drop out and urged him to work. He could’ve graduated the following year. How unfortunate.” The shop owner shook his head and sighed, “This kid was smart. He was admitted to Yuanjiang University, where he studied the most famous business major. After the tragedy in his family that ruined six or seven years of his hard work, all he had was a high school diploma that no one could question and no plans for his future.”
Yuanjiang Business School?
It was shocking to Zheng Feiluan when he first heard about this because Yuanjiang had very high business evaluations and they favored alphas. The admission rate for omegas is less than 10% of that for alphas. How good must He An be to get in?
To think that he even mocked He An’s educational background.
If He An’s family hadn’t undergone a change, he would have graduated with honors and secured a respectable, prestigious job—maybe even at Jiusheng’s office. Things could’ve started out very differently between them.
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As the starving beagle cries out for food, the shop owner reaches into the bag of dog food and pours it into the bowl, producing a clunking noise.
“He An, that young man, puts in a lot of time and effort to make money. Sometimes he’ll even deliver the flowers himself if he notices that the flower shop next door is closed because of a typhoon or heavy rain. Same with his neighbor, who is lazy whenever the weather is bad; he would pay He An three to five dollars to run errands for him.”
“Then, I’m not sure what happened, but he unexpectedly got pregnant. He did not request time off despite being pregnant. He continued to work diligently in the shop despite his growing belly. He didn’t have an alpha to care for him, so I wanted to know what was going on, but he wouldn’t tell me. Honestly, I wanted to simply dismiss him and make him go home and rest, but the poor kid doesn’t even have any savings. If he loses his job, how will he support his kids? Still, I had no choice but to let him go.”
Zheng Feiluan couldn’t bear listening any longer and had to force himself to ask, “What happened next?”
“Next?” The shop owner said with a heavy sigh, “Well, bad luck never comes by itself. Word on the street is that he abruptly left Yuanjiang after offending a powerful figure there; as a result, he was no longer allowed to live here… After he left, he never returned. He contacted me a couple of times at first, but then he just stopped. I’m not sure if his child was born…”
Sometime during their conversation, a closed door creaked open.
Peering out, the owner’s wife gave Zheng Feiluan a suspicious look before reaching out to call the shop owner inside.
A heated argument broke out instantly in the room.
Through the door, the boss lady’s piercingly bright voice rang out, “Are you insane?! Can’t you smell the pheromone on that alpha? What did He An smell like before? Wasn’t it the same? You even went so far as to say that his alpha doesn’t look after him. What’s wrong with you? That person out there is the scumbag who got He An pregnant! He ignored his own pregnant omega before, and now he’s asking about him. How could you just blurt out everything so easily? What if he goes out looking for He An and kills him? Don’t you realize you’ve committed a crime?!”
The place went completely silent, and the outside was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The shouting was like a slap in the face for Zheng Feiluan; it made him feel so humiliated that he couldn’t take it.
He was pinned there with his lips slightly open, but he couldn’t say anything back.
A short time later, the shop owner walked out. The way he acted had suddenly shifted, and all of the earlier excitement had faded. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have much information about He An,” he said politely to Zheng Feiluan, “Please ask someone else.”
After finishing his sentence, he grabbed the heap of cash from the counter and handed it back to Zheng Feiluan, saying, “I can’t accept this money. Please put the photo back…”
“Sorry to bother you.”
Zheng Feiluan took the money, gave back He An’s picture, gave the shop owner a hesitant smile, and then walked out of the pet shop.
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Despite the snow and wind, he did not get in his car and instead crossed the street to the apartment complex down the road.
The neighborhood is forty years old and has seen better days; it is now so rundown and crowded that it is unattractive to potential tenants and makes the city look bad. It isn’t rentable at a reasonable price because it is cluttered and shabby. People who have lived here for many years are mostly elderly, and the rest of the tenants are low-level workers who are struggling to make ends meet.
It appeared to be in ruins, with blackened walls, a strong burnt odor, and a layer of charcoal residue at the entryway to the corridor.
Zheng Feiluan slowly made his way up the escalator. In the hallway, most of the light bulbs were either broken or dead, and only a handful of lights seemed to be flickering. It was so dark that he thought he had walked into a chimney. Along the way, the trash cans smell bad, and the filthy water has been building up for a long time, leaving behind putrid yellow-green stains.
The long-lost moonflower is now nothing more than a heap of writhing bones, a lifeless form buried in a cracked clay container with deteriorating, dry soil beneath.
On the fifth floor, there were four homes, each with four rusty copper iron doors that made it look like four identical brothers were standing next to each other. Even though this was Zheng Feiluan’s first sober visit, he could tell which door to knock on with just one look.
The person who opened the door was a beta girl dressed in a thick sweater, velvet slippers, a colorful scarf, and a blouse. She was also carrying a hot water bottle. She seemed like she was practicing polar performance art2A flexible course of study for students who are already committed to excelling academically while also pursuing careers in the performing arts. at first glance.
Zheng Feiluan came as a complete stranger to her. She stood trembling at the door, stomping her feet. She let out a puff of white air as she opened her mouth and asked, “Who are you looking for?”
Zheng Feiluan asked, “Is the air system broken again?”
“Huh?” The girl was taken aback and replied, “The air system has always been broken. It hasn’t worked since I moved in… Are you with the property management company? Are there still any property owners left in this neighborhood?”
Zheng Feiluan chuckled and said, “Not at all.”
“Then you are…?”
“I used to live here with my omega. Back then, winters were harsh because the air system never warmed up. Two of us had to sleep with our arms around each other to stay warm. After that, he left me, and I missed him, so… Would you mind letting me see the house we lived in before?”
It was most likely because Zheng Feiluan’s aura was overly positive, and he seemed far from a gangster. Without suspicion, the girl opened a path for him, “Look around as you please. It has been days since I last cleaned up, so I hope you don’t mind the mess.”
He thanked her and then walked in.
The rental house remained unchanged from its original layout, with a tiny kitchen squeezed into the hallway and a pile of junk in the corner. With dozens of square meters of space, nothing is ever hidden; you can see everything just by standing at the entrance.
Every single chair and cabinet sits in their exact spot; the room is cramped and fixed in place just like the Huarong Pass3A popular sliding block puzzle in China that challenges players to use their spatial reasoning abilities., unable to move. They became a lingering memory, with the only difference being He An.
He An is the only one who isn’t here.
Standing at the gap between the bedroom and the hallway, Zheng Feiluan reached out and touched the cold gas stove. Once, when it was freezing outside and the air system wasn’t working, He An would stand here and make him a bowl of tasty white mushroom soup.
He turned around again and looked at the old cupboard beside him.
On that particular day, when he got violent in the hallway, he knocked over a corner of the cupboard, and a piece of paint had peeled off its surface.
Not only that…
At the sink, a plastic hook hung a red-orange rag. It had a grimy appearance, was wrinkled, and was coated with sticky goo. When Zheng Feiluan noticed it, his face changed. He lifted up his hand, took it off, and held it tightly in his hand.
It was He An’s small blanket.
In times when he is separated from He An and feels vulnerable, this small blanket will offer him temporary comfort.
The once-soft and warm fluff is now torn and has lost much of its luster. And the lemony, thick scent of dish soap had erased He An’s smell after all those scrubs.
“I-I found that under the bed and thought no one would want it, so I used it as a rag…” When the girl noticed how much he valued the little blanket, she felt a bit nervous and wondered, “Was it his? Should I buy one to compensate you?”
“No need.” In a low voice, Zheng Feiluan said, “I’ll just take this one.”
Many things in this world cannot be replaced. They are unique items of value that are better damaged and torn than lost.
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The color of the snow was dreadful, and large chunks of it flew by the front window. As Zheng Feiluan sat in the car, caressing the rough and filthy blanket, he felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into despair.
Where else can he go?
Over 20 million people live in this city; who isn’t as small and quiet as sand and dust? Besides an old picture and a small blanket, what else could he look for that would lead him to He An?
Hold on!
Suddenly, as if struck by lightning, he recalled a specific place—the apartment in the Yuanjiang suburb in the west.
He An lived there for three months. When the building was empty, the “him” who was seeking a mate but couldn’t find one, bought the small apartment. He didn’t change ownership or rent it out, and he kept it in the same condition as when the owner left.
Zheng Feiluan simply did not have the courage to touch anything that existed in that place.
It’s like breaking a dangerous rule.
Everything he remembers about his mate-seeking episodes is clear and vivid, as if from a movie. Though scenes are playing out in front of his eyes, that cold winter night is different—there are no pictures, just written words that explain what happened and why. It’s very dull and boring. Simply put, he wouldn’t be able to handle it if that scene was vividly shown to him.
There were many things that happened that night.
He went to the western suburbs by himself and skipped the annual Jiusheng meeting. That time, He An was nine months pregnant and due in approximately ten days.
But that night, their daughter was born unexpectedly.
On December 25, he slept the entire night in a small apartment in the western suburbs. In the dream, there is snow in the sky, glowing lights that never go out, and a bright red that pairs with the unending white. It’s like how the white walls of a hospital look next to the crimson light in the operating room.
Zheng Feiluan’s fingers crackled and jiggled as he clasped the blanket even tighter.
How could he leave?
The place that held memories of He An’s life also held a nightmare that he was scared to face.
However, he is left with no other option.
⋮
Two hours later, back in the Yuanjiang west suburban apartments.
After getting the key from the property, Zheng Feiluan, in his role as head of household, walked the half-turn stairs and approached the closed door. He inserted the key into the lock, took a deep breath, and turned it to the left.
Click.
Then there was a lonely sound: squeak——
The moment he opened the door, the suffocating and oxygen-deficient air hit his face. The dust that had been sleeping quietly for a year was disturbed and flew into the air, choking him and coughing out tears.
Along with this foul odor, there was a faint hint of bloody lily of the valley.
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Translated and edited by janemoyu (01/16/24)
