My head was splitting with pain.
My consciousness felt hazy and ungrounded. Fang Fengqin could only vaguely feel that he was in someone’s arms, catching the faint scent of galbanum at the tip of his nose, which briefly eased his discomfort.
Right after that, however, a pins-and-needles numbness rose up from his bone marrow, building into a needle-pricking palpitation.
Fang Fengqin let out a low groan of pain, instinctively reaching out to cover the back of his neck. His fingertips dug in hard, filled with hostility, as if he were trying to violently dig out the gland embedded in his soft flesh.
Shen Jiyun unceremoniously threw him onto the bed, catching a glimpse of the blood between Fang Fengqin’s fingers.
“What’s wrong with this student?” The school doctor hurried over from behind, gasping when he saw the bloody mess at the back of the bed-bound person’s neck. He reached out to pull Fang Fengqin’s hand away, only to be forcefully shoved off.
Fang Fengqin had woken up at some point; the veins on his temples were bulging from enduring the pain, and his face was pale to the point of near transparency.
“Get out.” His voice was low and hoarse, his left hand still pressed against the back of his neck.
“Little classmate, illnesses need to be treated!” The school doctor, a middle-aged beta, earnestly advised.
Fang Fengqin closed his eyes, his body curled up, the hand covering the back of his neck trembling.
“Get out,” he repeated, his voice muffled, sounding as though he were about to cry.
Prior to this, Shen Jiyun had never seen Fang Fengqin looking vulnerable.
It was as if he were born noble and arrogant, always surrounded by a group of yes-men and flatterers at his beck and call.
He was most skilled at solving problems with his fists, like a firecracker that would only make a sound once lit, yet at the end of the day, it was still just a flashy firework.
Shen Jiyun’s cheek still hurt because Fang Fengqin had hit him, simply because of some groundless rumors, charging up aggressively to block his path and resorting to physical blows at the slightest disagreement.
The school doctor turned and walked out, returning a moment later to nudge Shen Jiyun on the shoulder.
Shen Jiyun turned his head, and the school doctor handed him a syringe of sedative, specially prepared for omegas before their heat.
“Go coax your omega.” He mistook Fang Fengqin for an omega; after all, that exquisite and striking face of his didn’t carry an ounce of aggressiveness.
Shen Jiyun reached out and took it, the corners of his pale, thin lips curving into an amused arc.
“He’s an alpha.” Although his pheromones were negligible to the point of being ignored, and he had already been temporarily marked by another alpha, he was still an alpha without a womb.
A low-level alpha who couldn’t control his emotions.
Shen Jiyun stepped forward, reaching out to grab the wrist Fang Fengqin had pressed against the back of his neck with extraordinary force.
Fang Fengqin, who had been dizzy from the pain, was forced awake once more, the dull ache stirring things up until the corners of his eyes grew damp.
“Let go! Get out!” He couldn’t help but lose his temper, even his shoulders shaking. He needed quiet right now; the pain would force him to fall asleep, a situation he was exceptionally skilled at handling.
Shen Jiyun pried his hand away, finally seeing the full state of the gland at the back of his neck.
It was shrivelled, with only a faint trace left. No wonder he often wore scent patches that ordinary alphas were unwilling to use; it turned out to be to conceal his flaw.
Having watched enough of the spectacle, Shen Jiyun finally granted him mercy and gave him an injection.
The struggling Fang Fengqin suddenly looked as though he had been choked by the neck, unable to even spit out the rest of his scolding words as his eyes rolled back and he passed out.
The reaction was abnormally large.
Shen Jiyun’s eyes narrowed, a sharp gaze darting toward the school doctor on the side.
The school doctor scratched his head. “Uh-oh, if he’s an alpha, this injection is no different from a knockout drop.”
“It’s not a big problem. I’ll bandage his wound and you can take him away. I need to go pick up my kid from school now.” The school doctor smiled honestly.
Shen Jiyun let out his grip on Fang Fengqin’s arm, nodded expressionlessly at the school doctor, and turned to walk out.
“Hey, hey! Classmate, your friend…”
“Not a friend.” Shen Jiyun’s voice was very gentle, yet it couldn’t escape his inherent indifference.
He said, “We are utter strangers.”
The school doctor hurriedly scratched his head, looking at the person on the bed, then at the person walking away, and sighed softly.
As he went to fetch the medicine and gauze, he pulled out his phone and dialed a call.
“Hello? Daddy! Are you coming to pick me up?” A crisp, childish voice came from the other end of the line; the school doctor’s child was a little girl.
The voice reached Shen Jiyun’s ears, and his footsteps paused slightly.
“Baby, Daddy has something temporary come up here, so can you wait for me at school for a bit? Make sure not to run around…”
Before the school doctor could finish his parting instructions, he saw the man who had just walked out return once more.
He bent down to pick up the person on the bed, his expression somewhat unpleasant, and said to the school doctor, “He is my friend, I’ll take him.”
“Hey.” The school doctor blankly watched as he pulled the gauze and medicine from his hands, cradling the person in one arm, skillfully paying the fee, and turning to leave.
He was cold on the outside and warm on the inside. The school doctor stood in place for a moment, shaking his head with a smile.
The sky outside had already grown dark. Shen Jiyun took a shortcut, carrying the person toward the dorms.
His phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out to answer, and the shift manager’s voice came through from the other end.
“Jiyun, why didn’t you come tonight?”
“Something came up at school, I’ll be over tomorrow.” Shen Jiyun brushed it off with a few perfunctory words. Catching sight of someone running over toward this side out of the corner of his eye, he hung up the phone and looked up.
“President Shen, I finally found you.” The newcomer was Fang Fengqin’s roommate, stopping in front of them out of breath, turning slightly odd-looking upon seeing their posture.
“What happened to Young Master Fang?” he asked with concern.
Upon seeing this person, Shen Jiyun recalled the purpose of his trip to the dorms today.
“The teacher asked me to inform you that he will fight for the recommendation quota for you.” Shen Jiyun smiled lightly. “We all hold high hopes for you.”
The roommate wore the expression of someone struck by a windfall, looking both happy and apprehensively anxious. He handed the things in his hand to Shen Jiyun. “These are what Young Master Fang wanted to take with him. A new roommate has already moved into that bed.”
Shen Jiyun was speechless.
The smile on his face faded a bit as he suddenly felt that the person in his arms weighed a thousand pounds, making them surprisingly difficult to unload.
He stood in place for a moment, and seeing quite a few people turning their heads to glance over in this direction, he helplessly carried the person back.
The apartment Shen Jiyun rented was not close to the school. Along the way, he had countless impulses to drop Fang Fengqin right then and there.
It could be by the roadside, or in a pile of trash, as long as he wouldn’t cling to him, anything would do.
Yet this person was completely knocked out, without a shred of consciousness.
In the dim night, Shen Jiyun used the faint moonlight to study the quiet face of the person in his arms.
When asleep, he really was a thousand times, ten thousand times more well-behaved than when awake. Even those lips that Shen Jiyun usually despised were pressed together obediently.
Fang Fengqin’s lips were neither too thin nor too thick; unlike the ruggedness of most alphas, when lightly pressed together, they instead carried a touch of spoiled cuteness.
His two soft lips were pursed together, plump and full. Shen Jiyun stared coldly for a while before pressing his fingertips down heavily.
The soft flesh of the lips was pushed aside by his fingertips, pitifully exposing the pearly-white teeth within. Pressing harder still, the teeth parted, and a bright red tip of a tongue probed out like a snake’s tongue.
He still carried the faint scent of galbanum on him, and every time Shen Jiyun smelled it, his gaze would deepen a fraction.
Reaching out to feel the back of Fang Fengqin’s neck, his fingers brushed against some dried blood. Bringing it close to his nose, there was no scent at all.
Not a single trace of scent. If not for Young Master Fang’s notorious reputation as a playboy, Shen Jiyun might have suspected he was a beta.
Shen Jiyun’s Adam’s apple rolled gently. The next second, he pressed the face of the person in his arms against his chest and strode forward.