Many scholars have said a phrase; ‘The physical condition of a top Alpha is an unsolved mystery’, and this couldn’t be more fitting for Jian Heng.
On the sixth day of his hospitalization, the nurse came to urge him to discharge. Qin Cheng frowned and sent her away. The next morning, the nurse returned with the doctor and handed the medical records to Qin Cheng. The doctor adjusted his glasses and said: “Given the current situation, there is indeed no need for hospitalization.”
Qin Cheng had been helping his mother with her medical records for a long time, and now he skillfully flipped through the pages, reading every word carefully without missing a single detail.
It took him a full ten minutes before he nodded and said: “Mm, I’ll go take care of the paperwork.”
For the past seven days, Qin Cheng hasn’t left the hospital even for a moment. Worried that Jian Heng might fall behind in his studies, Qin Cheng specifically asked Tan Qi to bring homework over every day after school.
The first time he came, Tan Qi, unable to contain himself, kept winking at him, which made Qin Cheng laugh in anger: “Is there something wrong with your fucking eyes?”
Tan Qi suddenly realized and put on an act: “Oh, I think I have a stye.”
On Lao Xu’s side, although Qin Cheng’s performance of tears and sobs was so fake that Lao Xu almost felt nauseous, she managed to hold it together and even helped arrange a week’s sick leave from school.
After completing the formalities, Qin Cheng rushed back. As soon as he opened the door, Jian Heng was already sitting up, fully dressed and looking as if he had just changed clothes. Aside from a slightly tired look in his eyes from the week’s ordeal, there was no sign that he was someone who had just been stabbed.
“All done?” Jian Heng stood up.
“Mm.” Qin Cheng walked over, wrapped his arm around him for support, while telling himself that he was just taking care of a patient and had no ulterior motives, all the while quietly feeling his muscles.
In the past, he often hypnotized himself, thinking, ‘What Jian Heng has, he has; there’s no way he would be coveting it‘.
Qin Cheng finally understood that in life, one should never speak too soon, or else one might end up with a slap in the face.
Qin-ge feels that he is currently both painful and happy. He is willingly enduring the pain.
***
Department of Physiology, City Hospital.
The doctor held the test results of the two people in his hands, glancing at them while meaningfully saying: “The Alpha compatibility factor has increased more than sixteen times; young people need to exercise restraint.”
Jian Heng tilted his head to glance at Qin Cheng, and the emotion in his eyes made Qin-ge’s old face flush.
Indeed, he hadn’t been very restrained lately.
Every day, looking at such a handsome face, with pheromones that are highly compatible with you, and both of you are also in your susceptible period, full of youthful vigor——who could possibly resist?
Anyway, Qin-ge couldn’t hold back.
Qin Cheng cleared his throat and easily convinced himself. He really wanted to turn around and use his strikingly handsome big eyes to shoot a flirtatious glance at Jian Heng to see which of them could catch the other off guard.
“Do we need to be more careful than before now?” Qin Cheng asked.
“Mm, just ‘staying together,’ ‘hugging,’ and ‘gland marking’ are no longer enough to meet the increasing demand for pheromones. You need to engage in some intimate actions regularly.”
The doctor glanced at the two of them and added: “Students, just be careful not to get caught by the teacher.”
Qin Cheng’s mouth twitched. He wasn’t usually one to be easily embarrassed, but the way the doctor said that in front of Jian Heng left him at a loss for how to respond.
In the past, when he was ‘not bent’, he would have immediately retorted; ‘What do you mean hiding from the teacher? We haven’t done anything, so why are you saying such nonsense? We are two innocent people; what could we possibly be hiding from the teacher?’.
But now he was practically bent into a spiral mosquito coil; not to mention whether acting like this in front of Jian Heng would expose the truth. What worried him most was that if he kept saying this, what if one day Jian Heng thought he was an ‘incorrigible straight man’ and suddenly regretted it and won’t chase him anymore? Where would he go to cry?
“But you don’t need to be too pessimistic,” the doctor said, changing his tone. “In just one month, the Alpha compatibility factor has improved this much. If you keep at it, you should be able to recover within a year.”
“Recover?” Before Jian Heng could speak, Qin Cheng exclaimed, “Does that mean we won’t be tied together anymore?”
“That’s right,” the doctor looked at him. “Do you want to be tied together for life? You don’t want to go to college?”
Qin Cheng took a deep breath, really wanting to say that he never intended to go to college in the first place, but that statement would not only be useless but also particularly depressing, so he kept his mouth shut.
Qin Cheng couldn’t quite describe what he was feeling right now. When there was no hope for recovery, he worried about what would happen in the future; now that he knew recovery was possible, he felt a bit… lost, as if some connection between two people had been severed, leaving him uneasy inside.
This feeling is… pretty fucked up.
“As for why you have a stress response to Omega, it’s very simple. The pheromone compatibility between you and Jian Heng is nearly one hundred percent. When this situation occurs between an Alpha and an Omega, the Alpha’s pheromones will have an absolute dominating effect over the Omega, and the Omega cannot accept anyone other than their Alpha. Forcible contact can even be fatal.”
The doctor took a sip of water and continued: “You two are both Alphas, so there is no distinction of strength, but the phenomenon of dominance still exists, specifically reflected in your absolute dependence on each other’s pheromones.”
The doctor pointed at Qin Cheng: “You, under the stimulation of his pheromones, can sense Omega pheromones, not because of physiological attraction, but because of rejection. You physiologically reject Omega pheromones.”
Qin Cheng was taken aback; does this mean that he not only dislikes Omega psychologically but also physiologically?
He really is a loyal and devoted man.
“Similarly, he,” the doctor pointed at Jian Heng, “cannot accept any pheromones other than yours, whether Alpha or Omega; he cannot accept any of them.”
“This is just too…” Jian Heng’s gaze drifted over, and Qin Cheng’s throat tightened as he swallowed the word ‘good’.
But inside, he was practically bursting with joy; at least for the next year, he wouldn’t have to worry about Jian Heng liking some other dazzling Alpha. He could confidently implement his pursuit plan.
***
When he was discharged from the hospital, Tan Qi and a group of brothers skipped class to welcome the two of them back. This was specifically instructed by Qin Cheng; otherwise, there would definitely be a few students missing from the last row of each class. The school leaders would surely drag Lao Xu to gather everyone for an emergency meeting themed ‘Qin Cheng is up to something big again’.
Then, an angry Lao Xu would storm into the barbecue restaurant with a group of moral education teachers, surrounding them as if they were on a mission to ‘crack down on pornography and illegal publications1掃黃打非 (sǎo huáng dǎ fēi): anti-pornography; crack down on illegal activities; opposed to or not allowing pornography; to eradicate pornography and illegal publications; combat illicit practices; fight against unlawful acts. It’s a professional term for cultural market management. It is a law enforcement activity and an important measure to maintain national cultural security and cultural market order.‘…
It’s not the first time or the second time; just thinking about it gives Qin Cheng a headache.
This time, the ones who came to pick them up were Tan Qi, Lin Xiangdi, and Xie Yang. Among the classmates, these three were the closest, and no one could find fault with them.
Tan Qi, along with two others, was squatting at the hospital’s entrance. Their demeanor and expressions, with their legs spread apart and a cigarette pinched between their fingers, might lead an uninformed person to believe that the person being carried in on a stretcher was someone they had previously dealt with.
Seeing him and Jian Heng come out, Tan Qi rushed over from a distance. Qin Cheng opened his arms, ready for a brotherly hug, but before he could say anything, he got splashed in the face with water.
Qin Cheng wiped his face, spat a couple of times, not even knowing what it was, and said: “Are you crazy?”
Tan Qi remained unfazed, continuing to spray him with a small watering can, a serious expression on his face, muttering incantations: “nāmósānmǎnduō…mǔtuónán…2T/N: I had a headache trying to find this chant because the author didn’t write the Hanzi character. But I’ve found it; it’s the Misfortune-Dispelling and Blessings Mantra. 
”
Qin Cheng, while dodging the water, looked at the other two people, wanting to ask if they were possessed by evil spirits or something. Just then, the two of them, in perfect sync, pulled out matching small spray bottles and aimed them at Jian Heng.
“Fuck! He’s still injured! You guys, go ahead and spray me!” Qin Cheng stood in front of Jian Heng with a heroic look on his face. For a moment, he felt like his eyelashes were covered with ice.
Jian Heng grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to the back. All three of them had serious faces, and they didn’t distinguish between people. If they caught him, they would spray him with water. In addition, a jumble of chaotic incantations was also thrown in; it felt like a scene from a cult ritual. Qin Cheng had no doubt that the three of them could turn him and Jian Heng into living sacrifices in the next second.
“That’s enough,” Qin Cheng interrupted. Just now, Jian Heng’s pull had made him feel quite good, and now his voice was rising, with the corners of his mouth curling up as if he had found a fortune.
The three of them didn’t say a word. After spraying for a long time, they finally stopped.
They threw the small spray bottle to the ground and stomped on it a few times. Tan Qi, being particularly meticulous, put on a glove to pick it up and tossed it into the trash can.
Qin Cheng was taken aback, and after a long pause, he finally said: “Is it really necessary? What era are we living in, still doing this kind of thing?”
“Absolutely necessary!” Tan Qi ran back from a distance. “You two have shed blood this time; we must drive away the bad luck!”
Xie Yang chimed in: “This is the holy water that the three of us begged for in the Houshan Temple. The master said it’s effective.”
“Holy water? The leftover water?” Qin Cheng wiped his face, feeling like he was about to turn into an ice sculpture.
These brothers were great in every way, except for their brains. That included him too.
But it was fine; isn’t it trendy to like someone who’s ‘handsome yet troubled’? Jian Heng should like it, too.
If he doesn’t, then he can change. Qin-ge is quite open-minded. For the person he likes, he becomes whatever they like, and he only needs to get used to it.
After the bad luck ritual ended, a few of them casually found a noodle shop and went in.
It’s not that they didn’t want to have a big meal; the key is that Jian Heng is still recovering from a serious injury and shouldn’t eat anything too greasy. So, Qin Cheng just brought people here to eat noodles with a small handful of vegetables, skimming off the grease, and it actually looks quite appetizing.
“You can’t eat spicy food,” Qin Cheng said as he took the plate of chili next to Jian Heng and placed it in front of Tan Qi, looking at him with great anticipation. “You should try it. I’ve been here a few times before; it’s not as good as what you make, but it’s still decent.”
Jian Heng took a bite, pressed his lips together, and sipped some soup——such a casual action that Qin Cheng had been watching for over a month. But this time, as he looked at him again, he suddenly felt his nose getting a bit warm…
He quickly turned his head, pretending to casually take a bite from his own bowl. He couldn’t taste anything at all.
The plan had to be implemented quickly; otherwise, one day when he saw the person with a nosebleed, he couldn’t just lie and say he was feeling hot-tempered.
That would be ridiculous.
“The taste is okay,” Jian Heng commented succinctly, picking up the only two pieces of meat left in his bowl and placing them into Qin Cheng’s bowl. “I’ll buy groceries on the way back today; just tell me what you want to eat, and I’ll make it for you.”
I want to eat you.
Qin Cheng bit down hard on his teeth to keep from blurting it out.
The last time this phrase was said was by Jian Heng to him, right after he had just been confessed to. Shocked, he ran to a barbecue restaurant to discuss it with Tan Qi, thinking about trying to kiss Tan Qi, when Jian Heng caught him red-handed. As he reached the door, he asked Jian Heng if he wanted something to eat, and Jian Heng replied, ‘I want to eat you’.
At that moment, his reaction was no longer important; what mattered now was that Qin Cheng fully understood the meaning of those words, completely and thoroughly.
It didn’t matter if he didn’t understand; but once he did, his pants felt a bit tight.
Qin Cheng simply replied with an ‘Okay’.
Fortunately, there was a tablecloth under the table to cover things up; otherwise, Jian Heng would think he was really sick if he could get excited just by eating noodles.
The author has something to say:
The author sits cross-legged on the edge of the kang, holding a teapot in one hand and covering his heart with the other: Collection, whether you move or stay still, the updates are right here, unwavering and steadfast… Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or nourished me with nutrient solutions during the period from 2020-05-16 16:42:19~2020-05-17 17:45:10~
Thank you very much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
List of Idiom in Chapter 45
聲淚俱下 (shēng lèi jù xià): to cry and speak at the same time in a deeply sorrowful manner; to shed tears while recounting sth; speaking in a tearful voice; with one’s voice choked with sobs; in tears and crying aloud; weeping bitterly; tearfully and loudly; with tears streaming down and voice trembling; sobbing and wailing.好說歹說 (hǎo shuō dǎi shuō): to try one’s very best to persuade sb (idiom); to reason with sb in every way possible; try every possible way to persuade; describe requesting or persuading with various reasons or methods.
心甘情願 (xīn gān qíng yuàn): delighted to (do sth, idiom); to be more than willing to do something; to be perfectly happy to do something; perfectly happy to do; most willing to do; be only too glad/pleased (to do sth); you are completely willing in your heart, without any force. Mostly refers to voluntarily making some kind of sacrifice.
悵然若失 (chàng rán ruò shī): to feel despondent; to be downhearted; feel lost; become lost in a deep reverie; be in a despondent mood; be miserably disappointed; feeling depressed, as if one has lost something. It is used to describe the feeling of being lost.
接風洗塵 (jiē fēng xǐ chén): give a welcome dinner to guests from afar; welcome and help wash off the dust—to treat sb. to a dinner on arriving; give a dinner of welcome; to host a banquet to entertain guests from afar as a sign of sympathy and welcome.
念念有詞 (niàn niàn yǒu cí): to mutter incantations or sutras; to mumble to oneself; to talk to oneself continuously; muttering incantations; mumble; mutter to oneself; under one’s breath; superstitious people kept reciting spoken words when praying to communicate with the gods. Now it is mostly used to describe people mumbling non-stop.
毫不遲疑 (háo bù chí yí): without the slightest hesitation; did not hesitate (to); make no doubt of; without hesitation at all.
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