Shen Qi curled up on the bed. He had taken fever medication at noon, hoping that a nap would make him feel better, but his condition seemed to be worsening.
Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened. Inside the room, only the sound of his heavy, labored breathing remained.
He turned over, and the friction of the bedsheets against his skin sent a wave of sharp, subtle pain through his body. Only then did he realize that his entire body was burning; even his breath felt scorching.
“Little Sir?” the housekeeper asked, knocking and entering the room with a bowl of food and medicine. “Have you checked your temperature?”
Shen Qi shook his head and took the thermometer, placing it under his tongue.
Five minutes later, the number on the digital display made him freeze: 39.8℃.
The housekeeper saw it and panicked instantly. “I’ll go call the family doctor. You should eat something first.” She hurriedly closed the door and trotted downstairs.
Shen Qi’s mind felt like a mushy paste. He stared blankly at the number for a long time, suddenly remembering what the doctor had said: Betas have much weaker immune systems than Alphas or Omegas.
That is right. Even when a Beta gets sick, it is more pathetic than it is for anyone else.
At that moment, his phone screen lit up.
Shen Qi picked it up and saw a message from his father: [Send the money early this month. Your brother is going on a graduation trip to H-Country.]
He did not reply. With a blank expression, he exited the chat box, feeling even worse.
In his delirious state, he scrolled through his contacts. His finger hovered over the blacklist category, and remembering something, he clicked on it. Cheng Yanzhou’s name was still lying quietly there.
“…”
After hesitating for a long time, he finally unblocked him. He stared at the other person’s profile picture for a long time, and, driven by some inexplicable impulse, he typed and sent a message: [I have a fever.]
Almost instantly, the screen displayed: “The other party is typing…”
Shen Qi’s heart rate spiked suddenly. He gripped the corner of his blanket tightly, feeling a flicker of anticipation for what he might reply.
[Find a doctor.]
Three words, curt and decisive, without even a punctuation mark. The lines between the words radiated endless coldness.
Shen Qi stared at the message and suddenly curled his lips into a smile. He should have known. Cheng Yanzhou had always been like this, forever maintaining a perfectly calculated distance, forever unwilling to make an exception for him.
He lay there for a while longer, reflecting on the cause of his fever, as he rarely got sick. He thought vaguely that perhaps it was retribution for his heavy drinking, or maybe he had caught a cold waiting too long at the restaurant on their anniversary, or perhaps it was just the heavy emotional toll of the past few days.
But most likely, it was the tears from last night. He remembered crying the moment he saw Cheng Yanzhou at the bar. Well, it made sense; three years of pent-up grievances had exploded all at once, and his body simply could not handle it.
The medicine box on the nightstand was empty, and the water glass was dry. Shen Qi tried to prop himself up, but a wave of dizziness washed over him, so he sensibly crawled back onto the pillow.
So cold. So hot.
He curled himself into a ball, but could not stop shivering. Faintly, he remembered getting sick as a child, when his mother would make him ginger soup. But now, in this mansion, besides the housekeeper who came to cook and clean at scheduled times, he was all alone. Just like every other day for the past three years.
Before long, the housekeeper knocked and entered with the family doctor. Shen Qi was already delirious; he was moved around for a physical examination and coaxed into taking his medicine. After a while, the housekeeper led the doctor downstairs to rest, and the room returned to silence.
However, an hour after the fever reducer was taken, his temperature continued to climb instead of dropping.
Shen Qi lay there, dazed, his vision blackening in patches. In a state of delirium, he thought he heard the door push open and felt someone place a hand on his burning forehead.
“Cheng Yanzhou, is that you?”
No response.
Shen Qi struggled to open his eyes. The room was empty, save for the curtains billowing in the wind. A hallucination.
He gave a self-deprecating laugh and reached for his phone to call Yu An for some comfort, only to see an unread message when he unlocked it:
[The doctor will arrive in ten minutes.]
The sender was Cheng Yanzhou. The timestamp showed it was sent over an hour ago.
Shen Qi stared at the message for a long time, his nose and heart aching. Should he be happy? At least Cheng Yanzhou remembered that he was sick. But why couldn’t he show any genuine concern? Why couldn’t he be bothered to come back and see him in person?
In the end, it was just because he did not care.
In a fit of pique, he did not reply to anything.
Now, his mind suddenly felt much clearer; perhaps the fever reducer had finally started to work. He turned his head to look out the window. A flock of birds just happened to sweep past the treetops of the villa garden, creating a rustle of wings and a chorus of chirps.
Shen Qi watched quietly as the birds flew further away, disappearing into the vast sky. Something shifted in his heart. He thought, I should try to let go of these feelings. Even if it might not be easy, he would learn how to do it.
He suddenly understood a lot of things. Why did Cheng Yanzhou refuse to divorce him, even though he clearly had no feelings for him? Perhaps Cheng Yanzhou cared about the reputation of his family, or perhaps his possessiveness was just too strong, even if that possessiveness did not stem from love.
As Yu An had said: “He is the one who has failed me!”
Shen Qi did not want to drain himself like this anymore.
Cheng Yanzhou, I am going to let you go.
He whispered to himself in the depths of his heart.
At the top floor of the Cheng Group, Cheng Yanzhou stared at his phone screen, his knuckles white.
He still felt a flicker of joy that Shen Qi had unblocked him, but receiving the news of the fever had made his heart tighten. He blamed himself for not taking better care of him; he wished he could travel back in time, even if it meant turning up the air conditioner a few degrees.
His heart had long been tethered to the person at home, but besides notifying the family doctor to attend to him immediately, there was nothing he could do.
Firstly, it was not the right time to openly and wholeheartedly treat Shen Qi well. Secondly, the partnership with Chen’s Pharmaceuticals was at a critical stage, and he was too busy with work to leave.
Thirdly, he had his own physical struggles to manage.
He touched the gland at the back of his neck.
Because he had almost lost control that night, he had resorted to taking strong suppressants that were only meant for emergencies. His glands had been forcibly suppressed, and his pheromones were in chaos. He had been forced to cut himself, using the pain to stimulate his brain and stay alert.
Even now, his gland was still throbbing. Thankfully, after treatment, it was no longer bleeding. That was the third reason: whenever he saw Shen Qi, it was too easy for him to lose control.
The primal urge to possess and dominate within an Alpha would always emerge at the most inopportune moments, but Shen Qi was a Beta; he could not withstand him.
So, other than deliberately distancing himself, what other choice did he have?
He looked down at the phone screen. Shen Qi’s profile picture sat quietly in the chat box, with the last message lingering from several hours ago, the cold, heartless words he himself had sent.
The doctor should have arrived a long time ago. Why was there no reply? Had the fever gotten worse? Or did he just not want to talk to him?
“Mr. Cheng?” his assistant knocked cautiously. “The people from the Chen firm are still waiting for your signature.”
Cheng Yanzhou sighed quietly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am coming.”