Eno pushed his wheelchair out the door despite his strong dislike for Drake’s declaration. He used his personal terminal to navigate the address of the hospital and pushed Martin to turn onto the road for the blind. He had never seen this remote planet town properly, and it was very refreshing to walk around and look at every flower and tree along the way.
He was happy, but for Martin it was more torturous. It was pitch black in front of him, and it was hard to be moved around in a strolling fashion every few seconds.
“What’s there to see?” He said anxiously, “Can you walk faster?”
It was only then that Eno withdrew his eyes from the variety of bustling commercial signs and said, embarrassed: “Sorry, I forgot about you.”
Martin was completely devastated by his natural, guilt-free attitude, “Is this your first time here?!”
“Yeah.” Eno said matter-of-factly, “I’ve been cooped up in the villa before, it’s first time I’ve been out since I came to York.”
Martin: “????”
He suddenly pressed the wheelchair and Eno almost bumped into it, taken aback: “What’s wrong?”
Martin’s expression became a little indescribable.
Drake had gone to York twice after Lea’s death to look for Eno, and each time he had been stopped outside the gates and hadn’t even seen what the Duke’s living room looked like. The first time had been shortly after the fire and he had wanted to go to Eno to ask why he had gone out with little Kersi that night and whether anything rather suspicious had happened at the banquet. When he knocked on the front door of the house, a Beta butler came out and told him that Eno and little Kersi were very close and had gone on their honeymoon together in Qatar, a million light years away from York, to relieve the pain of losing their loved ones and will come back some time later. The second time, Irene came out to receive him, saying pointedly that Eno had married, that the past had nothing to do with Eno, that Eno was now happy with little Kersi, and that he, an unmarried Alpha, had better know how to avoid suspicion and stay away from her son-in-law. And with less than ten hereditary Dukes in the entire Federation in a thousand years, they were already the pinnacle of honour, not something that an unknown field officer like Drake could come and claim as a relative, and Drake was advised not to disgrace Eno again.
At that time, Drake was young and impetuous, and he had not been able to find out anything useful, so he was already anxious. He even felt a certain level of resentment towards Eno at one point, so when he heard later that he had killed little Kersi, at that time he was busy earning military credits at the front, he just asked someone to take care that he didn’t die, and didn’t show more concern.
Fully marked Omegas will prioritise their Alpha under the submissive control of their pheromones and become more emotionally dependent on their Alpha, and alienation from their past families is commonplace. Since Eno didn’t want to avenge Lea, he would pursue it on his own. He would have been fine on his own and didn’t need the help of an Omega who has been married off.
In retrospect, if he hadn’t been so cranky, hadn’t been so convinced by Irene’s words, and had insisted on meeting Eno before leaving, the subsequent developments might have been completely different. It wasn’t that Eno didn’t miss Lea, he probably just couldn’t do anything about it.
It was a capricious fate that had pushed Eno and him into the situation they are in today.
Martin quickly reacted from his daze and said: “It’s nothing.”
They had parked on the side of the road for a while, and the taiyaki rom the stall next door had just come out of the oven, the sweet aroma of red beans rolling towards them. Eno couldn’t help but gulp, the slight watery sound of his throat sliding falling into Martin’s ears.
Martin: “……Go get it if you want it, I’ll wait for you. Got any money?”
There was no sound behind him, and after a few seconds Eno’s delighted chatter sounded a few metres away, and after another unknown amount of time, a hot taiyaki was shoved into his arms, just the right amount of warmth penetrating through the layers of gauze right to his palm.
Martin said unhappily: “I’m not eating it, greasy.”
“Then hold it for me.” Eno said vaguely, with a taiyaki in his mouth, “Mr is the best.”
Best my ass. Martin laughed to himself and put the greaseproof paper-wrapped taiyaki in his arms without another word. Eno couldn’t do three things at once, so with a snack in his mouth, he stopped looking left and right and quickly pushed his wheelchair to the hospital and entered the door of the rehabilitation unit on the seventh floor at Martin’s direction.
Nightingale had waited for a long time after receiving the news but had not seen his boss and was pacing anxiously in front of the consultation room. He was still wearing the dainty, cute pink-capped nurse’s uniform, and his eyes widened when he saw Eno: “He…hello.”
“Hello.” Eno swallowed the last bite of his taiyaki, rubbed the greaseproof paper, threw it into a trash bin beside him and smiled, “should have made an appointment, right?”
“Ah, yes.” Nightingale responded then, taking the wheelchair from Eno’s hand, “I’ll take Mr Martin to his examination, you can rest in the waiting room over there for a while.”
Eno said ‘troubled you,’ and bent down naturally, reaching for the still-warm greaseproof paper bag in Martin’s arms, and spun around to enter the waiting room. Nightingale hurriedly pushed Martin into the examination room and, to show his concern for his superior, first performed a scared look: “So…what happened to your hand?”
Martin said badly: “Burned it. Came back to get some gel for me to apply.”
Nightingale hastily responded and moved closer, his tone very subtle: “Do you know what your friend is wearing today?”
Martin suddenly remembered that the first thing Irene had said when she walked in the door was ‘look at you’ and instantly felt his head ache again: “He’s not running around naked, is he?”
“Not really.” Nightingale forced a smile, “Peachy red lantern sleeve shirt with fluorescent green slacks, just imagine.”
“…Never mind.” Martin sighed resignedly, “Let him be.”
“But he really does look so happy.” There was a hint of envy in Nightingale’s tone, “And I think he’s even better looking in person than he’s made out to be…he’s so good looking too, he looks good even dressed like that!”
The corners of Martin’s mouth lifted slightly, “Yeah, he was the school flower back in the day. I haven’t seen an Omega prettier than him since.”
Nightingale whispered: “You haven’t seen many Omegas since then either.”
Martin: “???”
Seeing that he was about to turn pale, Nightingale coughed and said: “I just felt you got on well with him.”
“He’s the one who’s too thick-skinned.” Martin muttered, “I can’t help it…I have to get rid of him. By the way, later on you say that I asked for him to be examined, find a reason to draw some blood from him, draw two more tubes, so he doesn’t have so much energy.”
He lowered his voice and said, “Find an absolutely reliable biology lab to do an Omega gene sequence comparison…make sure you bypass the Federal Central Biology Lab.”
The cheeky expression on Nightingale’s face also withdrew and became grave, “You found something?”
“I saw the Inhuman’s eyes when he manoeuvred the fighter to crash into me, they were a very strange scarlet colour.” Martin said, “Little Kersi is an Alpha no matter what, what makes Eno, a weak Omega, able to resist the pheromone suppression and kill him? The social elites of the dictatorship are eccentric, but they’re not really stupid. Something so obviously fishy couldn’t be seen? It wasn’t just you during the trial, the Kersis must have played some kind of mediating role in it as well. I saved Eno’s life once when I was at school, and his pupil colour then resembled this scarlet, and today he nearly killed the Duchess, and Irene said he had a change in pupil colour, so it’s not necessarily a coincidence.”
“We may have been looking in the wrong direction all along, these Inhumans aren’t after the Silver Cross, but because I’ve been investigating Ivan’s project, they’re afraid I’ll actually find out something and want to silence me. Contact your informant in the Inhuman star realm and ask him to investigate the clues about the Inhumans with the red pupils. Contact Grey quietly if you encounter any difficulties, and don’t let anyone know that I’m still alive.”
Nightingale nodded cautiously and Martin let him push him off for a check-up, treating the burns on his hands again with the best healing gel the hospital could buy. The test results were exactly the same as last week, and Martin tapped his fingers on the armrest of his wheelchair anxiously as Nightingale delivered Eno’s medical report, translated it into Braille and handed it to Martin: “The genetic comparison will take some time, I’ll contact you as soon as it’s done.”
Martin nodded as he opened the report. Everything was fine with Eno’s health, and the remaining injuries would be healed in a few days at home. It was just that the uterus had been irreversibly damaged, but it hadn’t completely lost its function, but the chances of conception were extremely low. Martin thought with some regret that the Alpha that Eno really loved should not dislike him, if he dared to dislike his brother-in-law, he had to find someone to beat him up.
Eno lost all his relatives in that fire. Since he is considered as half of his natal family, the misunderstanding has been resolved now, and taking good care of his brother-in-law is a matter of course.
“Send a few people to keep an eye on Kersi’s house, and notify me immediately if there is any change. Then go and check the Alpha who often enters and leaves Kersi’s mansion and their marriage and love history.” He commanded Nightingale with a smile on his face, “My brother-in-law’s true love depends on you .”
Nightingale had a question mark on his face, but he didn’t dare to ask why, and left in a daze. Eno came in and pushed the wheelchair. The faint smell of red beans was still lingering on his body, and he complained in a low voice: “So much blood was drawn. I’m so dizzy.”
Martin said calmly, “This is the way to do a full-body examination. Do it all at once, otherwise you will have to go to the hospital if something goes wrong in the future, and you will have to trouble me to come over and sign for you.”
Eno felt that what he said made sense, so he didn’t think about it, and pushed the wheelchair to go back. Along the way, they passed by the vegetable market and bought another handful of green vegetables, ready to go home and cook soup.
After arriving home, Eno left Martin in the living room, and went to the kitchen to make dinner. He prepared the ingredients before Irene came in the morning, and now there was no time to bake the small cake, so he broke up the eggs and mixed them into the vegetable soup, diced tomatoes and stirred them to make hibiscus egg drop soup. As for the main course, he randomly fried two pieces of fragrant steaks, cut two pieces of broccoli and a few rose petals and put them on the edge of the plate, and the quality instantly improved a lot. The post-dinner snacks are two pieces of egg tarts. He prepared the egg tart liquid a few days ago. Fill the tart shells and throw them in the oven.
Eno quickly made a table of simple dinners with all kinds of flavours and colours, and went upstairs to call Martin to eat: “Would you like to have dinner with me?”
Martin sat in the middle of the bedroom, half-closed his eyes and dozing, not knowing what he was thinking. After hearing the voice, he just raised his eyelids and said coldly: “Not eating.”
“Eat ma.” Eno said in a good voice, lying on his wheelchair, “It’s so boring to eat alone.”
“Eno.” It’s rare for Martin not to lose his temper with him, “I can’t see, I can’t use chopsticks, the dishes will fall on my body, it looks ugly, and I can’t wash clothes by myself. Please cure your princess syndrome. Don’t be self-centred forever, can you also consider my feelings occasionally? Are you only satisfied if I say it myself?”
Eno became quiet, and Martin just breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, when he heard the devil-like weak and stubborn voice say: “I will solve these problems, can you have a meal with me?”
He didn’t know what Eno’s expression was now, except that it sounded a little resigned and a little heartbroken, so much of a contrast to the noble Eno of his teenage years that he didn’t know how to face it for a moment. He could only end up nodding stiffly and going downstairs with Eno, allowing himself to be pushed to the table.
Eno had cut the steaks into bite-sized chunks, each piece was firmly nailed with a toothpick so that Martin could pick them up and eat them. As for the vegetable soup, he had thought of all this when he cooked, cutting the greens and tomatoes into very small pieces and breaking the eggs completely, which now went into a straw-type water glass, so that Martin could suck himself up and finish it without fear of spilling it.
Eno had even put a whole napkin around Martin, leaning over to tie the knot so close that he could smell the rich scent of roses with the slightest inclination of his head, as warm and exuberant as Eno was now. He felt more and more that he couldn’t understand Eno, Martin’s identity was obviously a stranger to him, but he could treat him like this, always talking nonsense, and always gentle and thoughtful when he should be considerate, just to say a few more words with himself.
It’s a good thing that the one he met is me, Martin thought to himself, otherwise how would he live if he was replaced by chauvinistic A?
Martin was just starting to feel sorry for himself when Eno punched him so hard that he thought all that pity might as well be fed to the dogs: “Martin, Martin, you look so funny like that, can I take a picture of it for keepsake?”
Martin: “?????”
He was furious: “No!!!”
In response, the shutter clicked and Eno put the Polaroid down, put the picture away carefully and offered Martin a piece of steak: “It’s already been taken, calm down ah.”
Martin swallowed the steak and condemned him righteously: “You’re too much!”
“I promise I won’t show anyone else.” Eno swore, his white fingers resting on Martin’s dumpling hand and shaking it gently, “When I’m gone in future, it’s also good to leave a keepsake.”
Martin looked up sensitively: “Where are you preparing to go?”
“I don’t know. Wherever I go, I guess.” Eno said softly, “Hai, why am I telling you this, you won’t be happy to hear it.”
“You don’t have to go for now.” Martin frowned and said, “Be a good man and I’ll find a place for you. I promise you won’t go to a waste planet, don’t think so much about it. Let go of your hand, don’t act coquettishly.”
Eno smiled slightly, a thread of sadness running through his eyes in his amber pupils.
“Ok ah.” He said, “Thanks.”
Martin nodded in satisfaction, “The premise is that you must be obedient. Obedient, understand? Take your hands off me and keep away from me.”
The smooth, delicate hands did leave, and a few seconds later a steak was shoved into his mouth with a breeze. The sauce was rich, the steak properly fried, with a hint of the sweet and sour taste of lemon, perfectly tender.
Eno wiped the sauce from the corner of his mouth with a paper towel and spoke quickly, “Don’t wanna.”
Martin was shocked: “Comrade Eno, you are begging me to take you in? Is that a begging attitude? You think I’m easy to bully because I can’t handle you, now you don’t even bother to pretend, do you?”
His cheeks puffed out as he spoke, the expression on his bland face made particularly vivid by his anger. Eno laughed wordlessly, took the still-warm tart and shoved a small spoonful of the central, clear yellow runny heart into his mouth.
Martin’s voice came to a screeching halt, swallowing the sweet mass with difficulty before muffling: “I don’t eat this. Only you Omegas like something so greasy.”
Eno gave an hmph, shoving the tart into his own mouth two or three moves, pitching another piece of steak to him and pressing his head to make him take a sip of vegetable soup.
Martin managed to swallow it all and said indignantly: “You don’t pretend to be dead!”
“Didn’t.” Eno’s voice was slurred from chewing on the tart, “I know you don’t like me.”
He cleared his throat and declared solemnly: “But I will not change.”
Martin had had a smooth ride growing up, and although there had been many suitors, they had all come to him dressed up, doing their best to look their best, and one was better than the other at being cute and sweet. As for later, after not running to the capital star, he stayed in the legion all day to eat, sleep and beat up strangers. He has never seen any other living Omegas except the nightingale. In his limited Omega experience, he had never seen such a brazen and unscrupulous person as Eno.
He really found it unbelievable: “I had an Omega I like, and even though he’s not here anymore, can you show him a little respect? Your behaviour is really…”
Martin deliberated over and over whether there was a slightly more subtle word to use, but Eno said it for him straight away: “Shameless ba.”
“……”
Eno’s thin lips tightened, redness slowly stained his eyes. He said: “I don’t want to change.”
He doesn’t want to be alone anymore.
