Amidst the whispered gossip of the crowd, Zou Yuqing left Shuangming Pharmaceutical. Pulling out his phone to search for directions, he realized that getting home from here required transferring buses twice, taking at least an hour. Pressing his lips together, he chose to walk to the bus station instead, drawing curious and staring gazes all the way.
Perhaps people were simply curious about an Alpha who looked extremely weak and unwell, or perhaps his stumbling gait appeared overly comical to them.
As soon as he boarded the second bus, a college-student-looking boy covered his nose, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, “Um, the pheromone scent on you is way too strong. Could you put on a suppressant patch?”
“I am wearing…” Zou Yuqing reached up to touch the back of his neck, intending to say he had one on the entire time, only to suddenly realize the patch on his gland was already gone. So that was why passersby kept turning back to look at him because of the miserable state of his gland. “Sorry, it probably fell off.”
Embarrassment and humiliation washed over him simultaneously. Zou Yuqing kept his hand in place, covering his gland tightly and unable to raise his head.
“I happen to have an extra patch on me. If you do not mind, take it and use it. Your pheromone scent is awfully strong, too. Fortunately, it is a holiday and the bus is not crowded at this hour, otherwise, if anything happened, you would be in serious trouble.” As the boy spoke, he pulled a suppressant patch out of his canvas bag. “Is that vodka? Your pheromone rank must be quite high. Good thing I am not very sensitive to pheromones, or I would be finished.”
Zou Yuqing muttered a word of thanks, accepted the patch, applied it, and then looked up at the boy. It was a cheerful, vibrant-looking young man with curly, fluffy hair who appeared to be an Omega. Because he was wearing his own suppressant patch, he remained unaffected by Zou Yuqing.
Yet, vodka… Zou Yuqing gritted his teeth. Vodka was not his pheromone at all; it belonged to Wei Mingjue. That night, that mad dog had frantically injected his pheromone into Zou Yuqing’s gland to force him into submission and agony. It seemed that potent, aggressive scent was still lingering around him.
“Thank you. Give me your Alipay QR code, and I will transfer the money for the patch to you.” Instead of answering the boy’s question, he took out his phone and opened Alipay.
The boy acted as though he had heard a joke, his naturally round eyes widening even further. “It is just a suppressant patch, no need to transfer any money. Meeting is destiny. Alright, I am getting off at the next stop. Bye-bye.”
When the bus stopped, the boy waved at him and hopped off. He was full of energy, looking as though he belonged to an entirely different world from Zou Yuqing. Zou Yuqing looked out the window, where the glass reflected his expressionless face, his eyes, which should have been bright, plunged in utter darkness.
His phone suddenly vibrated. Picking it up, he saw a notification from the bank indicating that fifty thousand yuan had been deposited into his account.
His heart felt completely devoid of ripples. Zou Yuqing turned off the screen, feeling truly like someone selling himself, adjusting his price according to a sugar daddy’s demands and receiving the corresponding reward after enduring the agony. Yet, he still could not accept it, his hands trembling in a corner where no one could see.
After getting off the bus, Zou Yuqing quickened his pace into his apartment complex, only to find several middle-aged women gathered downstairs. Upon seeing him, one of them anxiously exclaimed, “Little Zou, your mother seems to have had another episode and beat someone’s head until it bled!”
Before he could even swallow the pain in his own body, another accident struck. He immediately ran up to the second floor and saw his mother straddling a man, crying nonstop while continuously pounding the man’s chest with weak punches. Nearby lay a shattered, low-quality photo frame containing a torn-up family photo that had been taped back together, one corner of the frame stained with blood.
“Yushen, why are you only coming to see me so late? You heartless man, I gave myself to you right after graduation, how could you do this to me?” Xu Jie cried bitterly, but the next second she grew agitated again, starting to slap the man across the face. “If only I had never met you…”
“Mom! He is not Zou Yushen, stop hitting him!” Zou Yuqing rushed forward urgently to pull his mother away.
However, the Omega mother, currently filled with hatred in her heart, possessed incredible strength and instead dealt her own son a slap across the face. Only then did she snap out of it, tears continuously welling up in her hollow eyes as she muttered with trembling lips, “I am sorry, Qingqing, Mom did not mean it.” Following that, she collapsed backward in utter exhaustion.
“I am sorry, my mother did not mean it, but why are you… It is you.” He had not had time to check who was being beaten earlier, nor did he understand why this man appeared in his home. Now, looking up, he recognized the familiar face of the man who had knocked him out at the club that night.
This was a face Zou Yuqing could never forget. It was too cold; although striking and masculine, it felt devoid of any emotion. At the moment, a bloody scratch marred that fair face, a wound inflicted by his mother using the photo frame.
Xia Fan climbed up from the floor, unconcernedly brushing the dust off his clothes, and then looked apathetically at Zou Yuqing. “President Wei sent me to drop off some food. Since nothing else is going on, I will leave first.”
Only then did Zou Yuqing notice an exquisite box of roasted meat rice sitting untouched on the living room table, having long since gone cold.
“Here to play the good guy? Do not come back ever again. I do not want any more ties to the Wei family, and tell your President Wei to go look for Zou Yuyang if he has issues.” Zou Yuqing let out a cold chuckle before carrying his mother back to her bedroom. “Why are you still standing there?” he asked, frowning as he turned back to see Xia Fan still rooted to the spot.
Xia Fan froze for a fleeting second, then gritted his teeth, a complex emotion flashing through his gaze. In the end, he did not say a single word, silently turning around and walking out.
So, exhausting. Zou Yuqing slumped onto the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Too many things had happened lately, and he found them impossible to accept all at once. Glancing at the old clock, it was already past four in the afternoon. He had spent the better part of the day at Shuangming, when he should have been stocking shelves at the supermarket.
Work… Zou Yuqing abruptly stood up and headed toward the supermarket. He had already caused the store manager a lot of trouble, frequently taking time off recently, and felt quite guilty about it. On the way, the sticky residue from the locust trees remained unpleasant, but no matter how uncomfortable it felt, he had no choice but to walk this path, much like his own life.
“Little Zou? Are you feeling better? Why did you not rest at home a bit longer?” Seeing Zou Yuqing, the manager looked surprised. “Do not worry about us here, take care of your health first!”
“I am fine, Auntie Zhang. Let me finish stocking the shelves.” Zou Yuqing smiled, then began arranging the merchandise. He had to admit that after the treatment, his body’s recovery speed had accelerated significantly, enabling him to continue working.
“Little Zou, was that guy this morning a friend of yours? He looked very handsome. Is he seeing anyone?” While stocking goods, the manager walked over to his side. “He looked quite wealthy, too. Is he a friend you met in college?”
“No, I only met him once. We have no relation to each other.” Zou Yuqing shook his head.
He wanted nothing to do with someone like that, yet their relationship had been destined to be extraordinary from the very beginning.