Huo Chengye rushed all the way, climbing from the first floor to the eighth, but before he even caught a glimpse of Ji Xingjian, he ran into Dean Hao. “Why are you, brat, running over to our art department every single day instead of going to class?”
Huo Chengye regulated his breathing and answered casually, “I’m looking for Professor Ji.”
Dean Hao unscrewed his thermos lid and blew on the water. “He just left. Didn’t you see him when you came up?”
Huo Chengye’s mouth twitched, speechless for a moment. Could it be that he guessed he would come looking for him and left ahead of time?
Whatever, the monk may run away, but the temple cannot. Since he didn’t have classes in the afternoon anyway, he could just go straight to Professor Ji’s place to find him.
Huo Chengye stepped into the classroom right as the bell rang. Lu Wei waved for him to sit by his side and half-joked, “Why did you come back so fast? Constipated? I’ve got some glycerin enemas over here; I can dig them out for you when we get back to the dorm.”
“Get lost.” A flash of displeasure crossed Huo Chengye’s face as he gave Lu Wei an unceremonious kick.
Just as he opened his book, Lu Wei leaned over again with a sly grin. “Then what’s with that constipated expression on your face? Who pissed you off?”
Huo Chengye cast a sidelong glance at him and gave a cold scoff. “Did you and your partner make up, smiling so brightly?”
The smile instantly vanished from Lu Wei’s face. “Other people’s roommates stab you in the back only at critical moments; you, on the other hand, stab me a couple of times every now and then.”
Throughout the entire class, Huo Chengye was completely distracted, pulling out his phone every so often to send messages to Ji Xingjian. Previously, it would show as read by the recipient, but now there were over a dozen unread messages in a row. Was he too lazy to even look at them?
The Alpha grew increasingly restless, unconsciously starting to bounce his leg. At this point, he still hadn’t realized that he was starting to care deeply about Ji Xingjian’s attitude toward him.
As soon as the bell rang, Huo Chengye tossed his textbook to Lu Wei, dropped a casual “I’ve got things to do; go to the cafeteria yourself,” and left the classroom without looking back.
Many things happened the year Huo Chengye turned sixteen. Aside from suffering stimulation during his secondary sex differentiation that left him permanently allergic to Omega pheromones, his mother also divorced his father and moved abroad, while he was legally awarded to his father.
That same year, his father remarried, taking the very woman he had cheated with as his wife, and that woman was already pregnant.
Ever since that half-brother was born, Huo Chengye’s relationship with his family grew even more strained, and he avoided going home whenever possible.
Although his father was not a good husband, he still paid close attention to his son. Knowing that Huo Chengye felt uncomfortable staying at home, he bought him an apartment near the university so he had a place to stay when he didn’t want to go back.
Huo Chengye usually lived in the dorms and only went to the apartment during school breaks.
He walked back to the apartment in ten minutes to grab his helmet and gloves, then headed down to the underground parking garage to dig out his street bike, which he hadn’t ridden in ages.
Driving from the university to the residential complex where Ji Xingjian lived took about forty minutes, or at least an hour if he hit traffic. Since it was just around lunchtime, the roads were a bit congested.
By the time Huo Chengye arrived at the entrance of Ji Xingjian’s complex, it was already past one o’clock in the afternoon. The sun was blazing fiercely, wilting the flowers along the roadside.
“Uncle, have you seen Professor Ji come back? You know, the really good-looking painter.”
“You mean the owner of unit 1006? He’s back. Looking for him?”
Huo Chengye nodded.
The security guard pulled out a pen and a logbook. “Sign in first. You can only go in after you’re done.”
Huo Chengye quickly filled it out and handed it back. The guard glanced over it roughly. “Alright, go on in.”
“Cough, cough.”
Ji Xingjian lay on the sofa, his throat aching fiercely with every cough. His throat was already inflamed and uncomfortable, and shouting through a lecture for an hour and a half this morning had only worsened his condition.
Right now, he felt as though all his energy had been drained, utterly unwilling to move a muscle and wishing for nothing more than to just lie down.
Ji Xingjian rarely caught a cold, but whenever he did, it hit him hard. Fortunately, he had no classes for the next few days, and the university hadn’t scheduled any activities either, so he could rest properly at home.
“Woof, woof, woof.” Seeing him in such distress, Xiao Ye looked deeply worried. Unable to help, it could only lie down right beside him to keep him company.
Seeming to remember something, Xiao Ye dug a pile of different-colored buttons out from under the coffee table, looking at Ji Xingjian after pressing each one.
“I’m hungry.”
“I’m thirsty.”
“Go out to play.”
“Thank you.”
Those buttons were bought by Yu Siqi so Xiao Ye could express its needs through sounds recorded in Yu Siqi’s voice. At first, Xiao Ye loved the button set, but ever since Yu Siqi had held it and kissed it repeatedly for an entire evening, it never pressed them again.
Pulling them out today was its way of telling Ji Xingjian that when he felt unwell, he needed to find Yu Siqi.
Understanding what it meant, Ji Xingjian turned onto his side and stroked its head. “Yu Siqi is busy planning a wedding for a client these days, running himself ragged. We can’t disturb him.”
“Awooo.” Xiao Ye looked toward the painting on the wall.
“No, we can’t let the mentor’s wife worry.” Ji Xingjian let out another dry cough, speaking weakly. “It’s fine. I’ll go to the clinic for an IV drip later. A couple of days of drips and I’ll be right as rain.”
Xiao Ye didn’t understand. It rested its chin on the edge of the sofa, watching him motionlessly.
After a little while, Xiao Ye suddenly pricked up its ears and looked warily toward the doorway.
Huo Chengye had pressed the doorbell for ages without hearing a peep, only to realize the doorbell was broken and resort to knocking on the door with his hand.
Knock, knock, knock.
Before moving in, Ji Xingjian had soundproofed every room, so the knocking sounded muffled and indistinct. Xiao Ye’s auditory system was sharper than a human’s, so it nudged Ji Xingjian’s shoulder with its nose and let out a low whine to signal that someone was outside.
Ji Xingjian was feeling drowsy at the moment. Perhaps annoyed by Xiao Ye making a fuss, he manually closed its mouth with his hand. “Shh, be quiet.”
Xiao Ye looked aggrieved.
Outside the door, Huo Chengye’s patience was wearing thin, escalating from knocking to pounding on the door. “Professor Ji, Ji Xingjian, if you don’t open up right now, I’m going to kick it in.”
After waiting a few seconds, still no movement. Huo Chengye let out a cold snort, his competitive spirit inexplicably provoked. “Fine, pretending you’re not home, huh? Well, I’m not leaving today either. Let’s see you try staying hidden.”
Standing against the wall for a moment, Huo Chengye pulled out his phone again to call Ji Xingjian. After ringing for a long time, the call finally went through. “Oh, Professor Ji, you’re finally willing to answer my call. Tell me, why didn’t you reply to my messages? Did you take a fancy to someone else and plan to dump me? Even if that’s the case, at least clear things up face to face. I’m not the kind of guy who pesters people relentlessly.”
Huo Chengye rambled on for a long time, but the person on the other end didn’t say a single word. “Hello, Ji Xingjian, are you listening?”
“Woof.” Xiao Ye let out a bark into the phone, deliberately lowering its volume probably for fear of waking Ji Xingjian up.
The phone had been vibrating and glowing brightly just a moment ago. Xiao Ye had pinned it under its body, but when that didn’t work, it accidentally nudged the screen twice with its nose. The vibration stopped, and a voice came through the earpiece.
It recognized the voice as belonging to the person who had visited the house a few days ago, given it treats, and played with it, which was why it was responding.
Hearing Xiao Ye’s bark coming through the phone, Huo Chengye’s face darkened instantly. What the hell? Ji Xingjian didn’t even want to speak to him, so he was having a dog brush him off instead?