Chapter 1 – Returning Rose
Novel Title: 长夏醒迟 (Long Summer, Late Awakening)
Author：麦香鸡呢 (McChicken)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 余炀 (Yu Yang -MC/Gong), 靳吾栖 (Jin Wuqi -ML/Shou)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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I once had a rose. That summer, it took root in my heart, sprouted, and grew vigorously.
Later, its sharp thorns pierced my heart. Its petals are stained with my blood.
***
Summer is coming to an end. Yu Yang started working at his family’s company in the second semester of his junior year. Most of the students studying finance in the research institute started looking for internships and certifications during their junior year. Those with family companies usually started working directly. Yu Yang belonged to the latter.
He was a person who loved sports. Now, sitting in the office all day, he inevitably felt tired and bored. So he would play basketball with some university classmates at the research institute’s basketball court after work.
The evening at the end of summer carried a slight chill, blending into the warm golden sunset. The refreshing air seeped into every pore, clear and gentle, so comfortable it made people want to sigh.
In another week, the wedding of Cheng Yan and Zhou Qiao will be held. Zhou Qiao was Zhou Zhou’s sister. Zhou Zhou was Yu Yang’s childhood friend of over ten years. Yu Yang grew up being scolded by Zhou Qiao along with Zhou Zhou. Just for this kind of relationship, Yu Yang had to attend the wedding.
As for Cheng Yan, he was Cheng Che’s uncle, the youngest professor in the chemistry department in City A. It was said that he had been proposing for four years. Almost like praying to the Buddha, Zhou Qiao finally agreed to get married.
Speaking of Cheng Che, he was Zhou Zhou’s boyfriend.
So the relationships are made clear now. The omega siblings from the Zhou family have fallen into the hands of the alpha uncle and nephew from the Cheng family. The world is really as small as a sesame seed.
In fact, there is another layer of relationship between Yu Yang and Cheng Che’s family. But it was over four years ago. So it’s better not to mention it.
Because it can’t be considered a good thing. It actually torments someone quite painfully.
It’s like grains of sand buried in the flesh of a wound, lightly rubbing can stir up a whole area of skin’s pain.
***
In a blink of an eye, for being lost in his memories, Yu Yang lost the game.
His friends came over, laughing, bumping his shoulder, asking why he was so off today that he did not even know how to catch the ball when it was thrown right at him.
Yu Yang just smiled. They all walked to the bench together to drink some water. The others grabbed their stuff and dispersed in twos and threes. Yu Yang still had to go back to the company to deal with some matters in the evening. So he didn’t walk with them.
He tightened the bottle cap and then put his jacket on. He didn’t sweat much today. When the evening breeze blew, there was a slight chill running around his body. He picked up his phone again and replied to several work-related WeChat messages. Yu Yang planned to have a meal and then return to the company.
He lowered his head to look at his phone as he walked away from the court. Just as he was about to reach the iron gate of the court, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, freezing in a nearly motionless posture.
It wasn’t because there was anything special that he saw on his phone. But it was because of the scent of roses in the air.
Mixed in the cool breeze and the lingering warmth of the sunset, the scent coincided with the pheromones in his memories, pushing his heartbeat to a high frequency in an instant, igniting unspeakable hidden emotions. It was as if he could go mad in a second, evoking old wounds.
Yu Yang lifted his head somewhat incredulously. When he really saw the omega standing against the backlight in the twilight, his face and eyes instantly turned cold.
Jin Wuqi.
That was the person he had been thinking about and bitterly hating for over four years.
The memories had never faded. Yu Yang remembered, four years ago, Jin Wuqi had short, curly hair dyed a precious blue, and his tea-coloured eyes were filled with a flirtatious and enchanting charm. Countless times, he would softly call out “Yu Yang” while gently hooking his neck. The Damascus rose pheromones on his body were like hooks that tormented the mind, and they later became the nightmares that Yu Yang least wanted to face in his midnight dreams.
It was also his fault. Clearly, the other party was just playing around. But he, who was still in his third year of high school, stubbornly fell for it. He even naively asked Jin Wuqi to wait for him to grow up and fantasised about becoming a reliable alpha standing by his side.
In the end, it was all just a joke. During the summer vacation after Yu Yang’s graduation from high school, Jin Wuqi left a red envelope for his further studies and a note wishing him a happy college life. He then flew abroad without even sparing a “goodbye.”
This omega was truly heartless. He didn’t delete any of Yu Yang’s contact information, letting Yu Yang call repeatedly without anyone answering, and the WeChat messages he sent were always left unanswered.
Until Yu Yang finally had enough and blocked all of Jin Wuqi’s contact information.
He wanted to let him go. He didn’t want to torture himself like this anymore.
Yu Yang wasn’t thinking with the competitive nature of an alpha. He simply saw himself as an equal adult to Jin Wuqi. He had his own dignity. He didn’t understand why he should be toyed with and then abandoned so easily.
He also didn’t understand why this omega could still stand in front of him as if nothing had happened, with a soft smile on his lips and eyes full of affection. When in reality, there might not have been a single ounce of sincerity in it. But that complete falsehood had fooled the Yu Yang of that time, causing him to fall into a swamp from which he couldn’t climb out for several years.
The precious blue short curly hair was gone, replaced by a deep brown colour, loosely tied back. Stray strands that were not tied up fell around his face. Paired with that sweet and charming, mixed-race face, blending into the twilight. He was as beautiful as a celestial being in a classical oil painting.
The omega’s exquisite appearance contrasted more sharply with the pitiful state Yu Yang had been in over the past few years. He had been stuck in the muddy swamp, unable to move forward, lost in confusion, and had self-abandoned countless times. Meanwhile, the person in front of him was even more beautiful than before, enough to look down on him once again with his noble appearance.
His heart was beating violently. But Yu Yang just kept a cold face as he stared at Jin Wuqi. In these few seconds of staring, the memories that were once enchanting, addictive, profound, and panic-inducing raced through his mind. They intertwined with the emotions he had been deliberately suppressing for over four years. And the waves crashed over him like a giant wave. Yu Yang felt that these few seconds were almost longer than a century.
It was so long that he heard the rustling of the wind through the leaves, the long chirping of the returning birds, the bell signalling the end of class at the teaching building, and the chaotic beating of his heart.
He had already tortured himself with these memories countless times in the deep of the night, short but intense, often disturbing his sleep. So, at this moment, he didn’t want to face them again. There was no need to linger with someone who had been so cruel to himself. It would only bring him more suffering and embarrassment.
Yu Yang turned away and walked to the other side of the court. But Jin Wuqi called out to him. His gentle voice, mixed with the late summer breeze, wrapped around Yu Yang’s back and drifted to his ears, like a petal falling on his ear.
“Yu Yang.”
It was that soft, sweet, and cloying tone. Gentle yet cruel, more tormenting than a curse.
Yu Yang stopped in his tracks, turned his head, and looked at him indifferently, unwilling to even respond.
“It’s been so long since we last met. You don’t even greet me?” Jin Wuqi looked at him, eyes crinkling with a deeper smile. “Kid, why are you so immature?”
Yu Yang used to hate it when Jin Wuqi called him ‘kid’. But now, he was too tired to argue about it. It didn’t matter anyway.
“I have something to do,” Yu Yang replied calmly. “I’m leaving first.”
Without looking back, he walked towards the school gate. Jin Wuqi stood there, watching his outstanding figure, smelling the lemon soda alpha pheromones in the air, with a faint smile still on his lips.
“He’s grown taller.” Jin Wuqi muttered softly to himself. “Thinner too.”
His faint voice was quickly dispersed by the wind, sounding like a sigh.
Yu Yang opened the car door and sat inside. He tried to start the car but realised he had forgotten to insert the key. Expressionlessly, he inserted the key and glanced at the rearview mirror. He was about to step on the gas when he remembered he hadn’t fastened his seatbelt.
He felt like he had lost terribly.
Yu Yang pressed his hands on the steering wheel, bowing his head. He felt a myriad of emotions rushing crazily from his chest, unstoppable like a flood, too intense to be pinpointed. He couldn’t even distinguish what they were.
He remembered Jin Wuqi’s smiling face, his rose scent, the tips of his deep brown hair, and his soft, honey-like voice. Just a short while ago, Yu Yang’s vision, smell, and hearing had all been occupied by the elements of this omega, while other scenes faded into insignificance, completely blank, with no sense of existence.
However, in the grand sunset, Yu Yang had clearly stared at Jin Wuqi for a period of time. But now he couldn’t recall him at all. It was as if it were a dream; the experience was clear during the dream, but once awake, the memory slowly faded, making one doubt whether it was real or not. When trying to recall, only a vague image could be remembered. It was not enough to support a complete process.
His throat felt tight and uncomfortable, and it felt like something was pressing hard around his heart, making it difficult to breathe. Yu Yang frowned and took a deep breath as he slowly closed his dry eyes. He didn’t feel like crying.
However, sometimes, not being able to shed tears might be a deeper form of losing control and vulnerability.
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*Author’s Note: The updates are irregular, but things should be more stable after this piece is finished. Please bookmark it, or else the motivation might wane. – McChicken
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*Translator’s Note: Welcome to my latest translation! For those who didn’t know, this story is a sequel to ‘Your Fangs are Perfect for Biting My Glands’ which I’ve previously translated. This novel followed the storyline between Yu Yang and Jin Wuqi which was left hanging in the other novel. It won’t be as long as YFAPFBMYG. Only about 40+ chapters. Hope you all will enjoy reading this novel. -K
Damascus Rose ☝🏻
Next update: 2024.04.01 [Updates will be every alternate days]
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Link to Chapter 2: https://freenovels.net/long-summer-late-awakening-chapter-2/
