MOFB Chapter 67

Shen Huaizhi’s reasoning sounded noble and righteous.

He truly was doing it for Jiang Heng’s sake, to save him, and he was even willing to endure the pain himself. Aside from making the decision without Jiang Heng’s consent, it all seemed very admirable.

In some ways, it was indeed similar to what Xie An had done.

They both claimed to be acting in Jiang Heng’s best interest.

“Wouldn’t you agree?” Shen Huaizhi added leisurely. Although it was phrased as a question, Xie An couldn’t help but detect a condescending tone in his voice.

This kind of question only served to enrage Xie An further.

She looked up at Shen Huaizhi, but he didn’t seem to care about her at all at that moment. He didn’t even offer her the basic respect due to an elder, instead focusing entirely on the person lying on the hospital bed.

Dr. Shao coughed lightly and agreed, “It’s for the patient’s well-being.”

“You’re just trying to satisfy your own selfish desires!” Alphas are inherently selfish creatures!

At this point, Xie An could no longer maintain her usual gentle demeanor. Everything that had happened today was slowly shattering the years of effort she had put in.

With red-rimmed eyes, she stared at Shen Huaizhi and said, enunciating each word, “I won’t sign the papers. I’m taking Jiang Heng away.”

Otherwise, all her hard work would be in vain…

She was certain she could find another way to wake Jiang Heng up, rather than handing her comatose son over to a worthless alpha!

As she finished speaking, Shen Huaizhi seemed to find her words amusing and let out a mocking laugh. He turned around and shook his head at her, saying, “That’s not going to happen.”

“It doesn’t matter if you refuse to sign.”

“I hope you can accept that I want to save Jiang Heng.”

“Don’t you want that too?”

It was as if her refusal meant she didn’t want to save Jiang Heng.

But that wasn’t the case. She did want to save Jiang Heng. He was in a coma, but that didn’t mean he was lifeless… If she just had a little more time, she was sure she could find a way…

As Shen Huaizhi spoke, he seemed to lose his patience. He glanced at Xie An, who appeared unable to accept the situation, furrowed his brows, and seemed slightly irritated.

Dr. Shao, adept at reading the room, promptly produced the consent form and presented it to Xie An, making a gesture that invited her to read it.

Of course, the consent form was fake, as Jiang Heng didn’t actually need surgery. Although it was unethical for a doctor to deceive a patient’s family, Dr. Shao was somewhat aware of the circumstances surrounding this deception. It was a benevolent lie, though not kind in Xie An’s eyes.

Seeing the form, Xie An seemed to lose all strength, collapsing against the glass wall with a thud. She slid down slowly, shaking her head and unwilling to accept the form, as if it were something that could end her life.

Dr. Shao was taken aback by her reaction, thinking, “It’s just a consent form. Why is she so adamant about stopping it?”

He found it hard to understand why Xie An, who was willing to risk everything to save her son, was desperately trying to prevent it. Dr. Shao couldn’t fathom how Xie An, who had received high praise for her work, could act so irrationally. He had read some of her papers and acknowledged her brilliance, yet she had clearly gone astray.

As he approached, Dr. Shao heard Xie An muttering to herself.

“It’s impossible. I won’t let this happen.”

“Jiang Heng will wake up.”

“My experiment will succeed.”

“You all don’t understand…”

Dr. Shao thought: …

Fortunately, he had seen many peculiar reactions from patients’ families. He had encountered similar distress before and had a strong mental fortitude himself. He simply shook his head, observing Xie An as she spoke through her tears, unable to muster any sympathy.

To Shen Huaizhi, Xie An’s tears were worthless. They could never restore Jiang Heng’s peaceful life, his normal health, or his carefree future.

For the mistakes Xie An had made over the years with Jiang Heng, she would spend the rest of her life in prison paying for them. Yet, Shen Huaizhi believed that wasn’t enough.

What he could do was destroy everything Xie An cared about. If she truly loved Jiang Heng, she should have agreed wholeheartedly to the medical plan for complete marking, rather than hysterically refusing.

Even if Xie An had a trace of love for Jiang Heng at this moment, Shen Huaizhi would not alter his plans for the day.

He was not a good person. On the contrary, when it came to Jiang Heng, he always aimed to be the bad guy to protect his omega. He would not feel any sympathy for Xie An.

Since Xie An had ruined Jiang Heng’s past, Shen Huaizhi would destroy everything Xie An had painstakingly built over the years, undermining her beliefs. In the future, he would restore Jiang Heng to the way he should have been.

Perhaps Jiang Heng would never know that Xie An had once cried so desperately for him outside the ward. Even though the reason for her tears might have been that she believed her experiment was coming to an end.

But this was not the end.

Five minutes later, Xie An’s phone rang.

She had been crying silently, her fingertips turning a sickly white from pressing against the floor, and the entire floor was so silent that only breathing could be heard. When the phone rang, she instantly snapped back to her senses and eagerly took out her phone.

Shen Huaizhi glanced at her but said nothing.

The call was from her assistant.

As soon as Xie An answered, her assistant’s voice came through, choked with tears: “Professor, where are you? The lab has been investigated!”

For a moment, Xie An was stunned, as if it took her a while to process. She wiped her tears with one hand and spoke soothingly: “It’s okay… it’s just an inspection.” Her voice still carried a nasal and trembling quality from her crying, but it was calm and gentle, as if she were not the frantic person she had been moments before.

“It’s not just that, Professor. They’re looking for you!” The assistant sobbed: “The hospital has also been investigated… Senior, Senior said you should escape… It’s best if you run abroad.”

Despite the urgency in the assistant’s voice, she herself felt that escaping was nearly impossible. With today’s technology, no matter where Xie An fled, as long as she was alive, there would always be a way to find her. Her father had been arrested just during the paper phase of this project.

She had always known that such experiments violated regulations. As a researcher, the one thing you could never do was attempt to alter the genes that are fixed from birth. Her father had once said that to contribute to the new era of humanity, one had to be prepared for sacrifice.

But she only wanted to fulfill her father’s wish; she did not want to sacrifice herself.

Xie An stared blankly at the floor, remaining silent for a long while. Then, as if awakening from a dream, she asked, “What about the data? Our experiment data? Is it all hidden?”

The assistant’s voice came through, broken: “Hidden… hidden well.”

Xie An breathed a sigh of relief but forgot why the lab was being investigated while the assistant could still make this call as if nothing was happening.

“Professor, where are you now? Do you need me to pick you up?”

Xie An faintly heard some clattering noises and voices on the assistant’s end. Realizing something, she wiped her face, smiled bitterly, and maintained her calm tone, “No need. Just hide the data well.”

“I can’t leave here yet.”

“But, Professor…” The assistant tried to say more, but Xie An hung up the phone.

The assistant stared at the dead phone for a moment, then handed it over to the two supervisors beside her.

“She confessed.”

“The data is in the safe in the wardrobe. The password is…” The assistant said, then crouched down and broke into silent sobs. She didn’t want this, but if she could provide evidence, she might get a reduced sentence.

The two supervisors exchanged glances, showing no sympathy. They pulled her up and handcuffed her.

Meanwhile, after hanging up, Xie An looked back at Shen Huaizhi. Compared to when she arrived, her face was now much paler and she looked extremely dejected.

Despite having just gone through a breakdown, she got up from the floor, perhaps feeling she had gotten dirty, and brushed off the dust on her clothes before offering a forced smile to Shen Huaizhi.

Her face still had tear stains, her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair was disheveled, making her appearance less than presentable.

“Have you made up your mind?” Shen Huaizhi asked, as if he hadn’t heard her phone call.

Xie An turned her gaze to the person lying inside, her eyes gradually showing a hint of madness. After a long while, she asked softly, “Before the surgery, can I… perform my final step of the experiment?”

Upon hearing this, Dr. Shao looked at her in disbelief.

At this point, why was she still thinking about the experiment?

He could understand a biologist’s obsession with their work but could not grasp Xie An’s behavior.

Shen Huaizhi seemed to have anticipated her request, slowly shook his head, and calmly refused, “No.”

Xie An laughed despairingly, “Alright.”

Everything she had worked for was now destroyed.

–

Jiang Heng slept deeply. He had a beautiful dream.

In the dream, Xie An and Jiang Jin hadn’t divorced. When he was still in his crib wearing diapers, they took turns staying by his side every day. Whenever there was a parent-teacher meeting, they would go together. They would urge him when his grades were poor, scold him when he fought, educate him, and feel distressed when he was ill, staying by his side and comforting him.

Next door, there was a family with a son about the same age as him. They were inseparable and were like childhood sweethearts. However, that boy always bullied him, and they often fought, ending up with bruised faces, only to hug and make up the next moment.

But the dream was too short. He didn’t have time to grow up, and neither did the boy. Xie An and Jiang Jin didn’t have time to grow old.

One good thing, though, was that he woke up without any grumpiness.

When Jiang Heng opened his eyes, he saw Shen Huaizhi sitting by his bed, looking down at something.

Jiang Heng closed his eyes again. The medication didn’t have much side effect, just made him very sleepy. Despite sleeping for what should have been a long time, he still hadn’t fully woken up.

He licked his lips and asked slowly, “Class Monitor, what are you looking at?”

His voice was hoarse from sleep.

It seemed that Shen Huaizhi only then noticed he was awake. He lifted his gaze, reached out to touch Jiang Heng’s eye corner, and when he saw it turning red, he softly replied, “Your medical records.”

Jiang Heng responded with a simple “oh,” blinking his eyes. He wasn’t very concerned about the examination results.

“There’s nothing much, just…” Shen Huaizhi paused.

Jiang Heng’s nerves tensed up at his words. Although he wasn’t very concerned, there were indeed issues with his body…

Seeing Jiang Heng’s change in expression, Shen Huaizhi chuckled softly, “It’s just that your susceptibility period will completely disappear after complete marking.”

“There’s even a possibility that you might be able to smell your own pheromones.”

Of course, this was just a possibility. It was extremely rare to find an AO with a perfect match of one hundred percent, let alone for someone with pheromone deficiency syndrome to find a one hundred percent match to cure their condition.

Thus, even doctors couldn’t be certain how effective complete marking would be in curing Jiang Heng’s condition, so they could only speak in terms of possibilities.

Jiang Heng’s face went blank.

He stayed silent for a while before expressionlessly refusing, “Not until I come of age.”

As for what came after, he didn’t really catch, only hearing the words “complete marking.”

Hearing this, Shen Huaizhi seemed taken aback, thinking for a moment, “So, would it be acceptable after coming of age?”

Discussing such matters between an omega and an alpha was indeed risky. Hearing Shen Huaizhi’s words, Jiang Heng’s ears turned bright red.

Unbidden, his mind recalled how an omega would completely open their body to an alpha, and even just looking at pictures could be frightening, evoking a sense of underlying pain.

Even Jiang Heng, who wasn’t afraid of pain, thought that such a deep area might make one faint.

Jiang Heng decided to turn his head away from Shen Huaizhi and deliberately changed the subject, “I dreamed that you turned into a little brat.”

Shen Huaizhi, who was watching Jiang Heng’s reddened ears, found him even more endearing.

“Hmm, what kind of little brat?” Shen Huaizhi asked gently while pouring him some hot water.

Seeing his interest, Jiang Heng began to reminisce, “The kind who would fight with me every day.”

“Were you so annoying when you were little?” Shen Huaizhi was taken aback and then smiled helplessly, “No, I was very well-behaved as a child.”

From a young age, Shen Huaizhi had always been disciplined. Fighting with other boys was not something he did. Perhaps it was innate; his peers would instinctively fear him.

Jiang Heng responded with an “Ah,” and then added, “But you fought with me every day in the dream.”

He said this while gritting his teeth and getting up to take the hot water Shen Huaizhi handed him, sipping it and immediately getting the corners of his lips glistening with water.

“Was I really that fierce?” Shen Huaizhi lowered his gaze, his tone carrying a hint of amusement.

“Yeah, you were quite fierce.”

“Did you fight back?” Shen Huaizhi asked, pausing as if he suddenly remembered something, then added, “Why do you dream about me all the time?”

Jiang Heng was about to say that he certainly fought back and even left Shen Huaizhi with a bruised face. However, upon hearing Shen Huaizhi’s question, he instinctively felt it was not a good topic and immediately fell silent, unwilling to respond.

Shen Huaizhi wasn’t annoyed. He leaned down, touched the water-dampened corner of Jiang Heng’s lips, and even gave it a light lick.

Jiang Heng: “……”

What’s more, after the brief kiss, Shen Huaizhi pursed his lips, as if savoring it.

The realization left Jiang Heng’s freshly awakened mind a bit dizzy. He didn’t even realize that he was blushing so easily from such a fleeting kiss.

–

In the second week of the new school year, the first small-scale collective test for the high school freshmen and sophomores took place, commonly known as the baseline test.

The exam content was mostly focused on the winter vacation homework.

Before the test, Shen Huaizhi had already helped Jiang Heng review the potential questions from the winter vacation homework. Shen Huaizhi was not only a genius at exams but also excellent at predicting questions. After the last exam, Jiang Heng felt incredibly refreshed.

As he entered the classroom, he heard Chen Xingchi complaining about how his winter vacation homework was all copied, and he couldn’t remember any of the questions.

Jiang Heng was about to mock him a bit when Chen Xingchi, seeing him walk in, immediately changed his tone, “Are you going to the hot springs this weekend, Jiang Heng?”

Jiang Heng slowly yawned, looked down to think about his study progress for a while, and then shook his head slowly.

“No, I’m cutting off all extracurricular activities.”

Chen Xingchi, having expected this outcome, sighed, “Thanks, Dad. I got scammed out of some money again by He Ci.”

“We had agreed to go to the hot springs this weekend, and He Ci said you might want to go too.”

The weather was still cold, and soaking in a hot spring was the most comfortable way to relax in such weather.

“So you made a bet?” Jiang Heng was a bit tempted by his words.

Chen Xingchi leaned on the desk, looking disheartened, and nodded, “I bet you would go.”

Jiang Heng hesitated for a moment, then looked at Shen Huaizhi, who was seriously marking his mistakes, “How much did you bet?”

Chen Xingchi held up both hands.

Jiang Heng immediately said, “I’ll take seven, you take three.”

Chen Xingchi, realizing his meaning, responded, “……You’re really heartless. It should be fifty-fifty!”

“I’ll take eight, you take two!”

“Forget it… let’s make it six-four, Dad.”

Jiang Heng was satisfied with this result.

After bargaining with Chen Xingchi, he sat back down in his seat.

Not long after sitting down, he became restless again, stealing glances at Shen Huaizhi.

Shen Huaizhi seemed oblivious to what Jiang Heng and Chen Xingchi had discussed and did not notice the frequent glances directed at him. He continued organizing things by himself.

Jiang Heng’s actions, though seemingly straightforward, were hard to ignore.

After a while, Shen Huaizhi, who was unaware of his own dwindling self-control, realized that just a few glances from Jiang Heng made it impossible for him to concentrate.

“Jiang Heng,” Shen Huaizhi said helplessly, “Stop staring.”

Jiang Heng cleared his throat, pretending to be casual and glancing around, though the test had just ended and everyone’s thoughts had long drifted elsewhere. There were hardly any people in the classroom, let alone anyone paying special attention to them.

“You’re good-looking,” Jiang Heng said with a serious face, and then meticulously traced the contours of Shen Huaizhi’s profile with his eyes.

No matter how many times he looked, he always found Shen Huaizhi handsome.

His voice was intentionally soft, giving it a hint of coquettishness.

Shen Huaizhi, caught off guard by the sudden compliment, was slightly stunned before he smiled and said, “Well, then you can keep looking.”

Seeing that he seemed not to understand his intention, Jiang Heng leaned forward and touched Shen Huaizhi’s arm. “Um, did you hear what Chen Xingchi just said?”

Shen Huaizhi moved his arm slightly, allowing Jiang Heng to be close, and replied, “I heard.”

Jiang Heng immediately asked, “So what are your thoughts, Class Monitor?”

After a pause, he added, “It’s not that I want to go for fun. The main thing is, I’m eyeing Chen Xingchi’s bet money. If I win, how about I treat you to a nice meal?”

As he spoke, Jiang Heng leaned even closer, nearly pressing against Shen Huaizhi, resting his head on Shen Huaizhi’s arm and looking up at him.

From any angle, Shen Huaizhi looked extraordinarily handsome.

Before Shen Huaizhi could respond, Jiang Heng’s own face flushed with heat.

Shen Huaizhi appeared to contemplate for a moment. “The weekend is quite busy. Can you finish all your homework in one evening and a day?”

It wasn’t a baseless concern. After all, Jiang Heng was indeed slow with his assignments.

“But there’s still you.”

Shen Huaizhi seemed to chuckle softly. “When are we going?”

“You don’t need to treat me to a big meal. I’ll think of what kind of reward I should give you.”

By saying this, Jiang Heng agreed to go together. He didn’t think much about the meaning behind Shen Huaizhi’s words and happily turned to ask Chen Xingchi about the timing.

After a while, when he turned back, Shen Huaizhi was looking down at his own arm.

Jiang Heng paid no attention to this. “Let’s go Friday night, stay overnight, and come back Saturday night.”

Shen Huaizhi nodded without much hesitation, and Jiang Heng’s smile widened immediately. He hadn’t relaxed in a long time; although pushing himself to work hard was his own choice, being able to go out with Shen Huaizhi was definitely worth celebrating.

Just as Jiang Heng was feeling happy, he heard Shen Huaizhi ask seriously, “If I agree to go with you, can I make a request first?”

“Go ahead.”

Shen Huaizhi paused for a moment and then asked softly, “Regarding the hot springs, how should we allocate the rooms?”

“I’d like to share a room with you. Is that okay?”

¹TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️”

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  TL: YSIAD “You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️”