Yang Bai was studying gland research at Qinghai Medical University. The campus occupied over five thousand acres in the coastal suburbs. Aside from top-tier hard assets like cutting-edge gland research laboratories, the school also boasted its own private beach, forming a scenic backdrop that drew numerous tourists every year.
Having spent the entire night too excited to sleep, Yang Bai dragged Shen Hui and Old Dad to the school gates by six in the morning. Skillfully swiping a campus card to unlock a sightseeing cart, he dived into the driver’s seat and carted Shen Hui and Old Dad around Qinghai University, having mapped out the route entirely in advance.
“The ceremony does not start until nine. I will take you guys to Cafeteria No. 2 for breakfast first, then to the auditorium. Along the way, we can even stop by the litchi grove to pick some litchis for you to snack on during the ceremony! Hold on tight, we are heading out!”
Compared to his drug-like state of high energy, both Shen Hui and Boss Yang had souls that had yet to wake up, their eyes dull and hair messy.
Boss Yang had never in his life opened his shop before ten in the morning because he simply could not wake up early.
Shen Hui, on the other hand, had a delicate constitution. When he was first rescued, he frequently suffered from midnight fevers and convulsions, nearly ending up in the ICU several times. Boss Yang and his son had both thought he would not make it, yet he somehow pushed through sheer willpower, eventually ending up looking no different from a normal person.
The two of them did not begin to snap back to reality until Yang Bai dragged them into the cafeteria.
Yang Bai placed a bowl of piping-hot small wontons in front of Shen Hui. “Big bro, try this. This is the absolute best wonton at our school. I specially requested the shiitake mushroom filling that you like.”
The wonton wrappers before him were thin and the fillings fresh, with pieces of minced shiitake faintly visible through the dough. The soup was crystal clear, and the vendor had added their house-special seasoned side dishes.
Shen Hui took a sip. The rich yet non-greasy shiitake mushrooms and fresh meat tasted sweet, tender, and smooth, ironing out and soothing both his tongue and stomach. He narrowed his eyes slightly, wearing an expression of feline contentment.
Seeing this, Yang Bai patted his chest proudly. “I told you that you would love it, Big Bro.”
“It is indeed good.” Shen Hui nodded, beginning to eat in small, dainty bites.
His table manners were extremely elegant and pleasing to the eye, unhurried and deliberate. He would completely chew and swallow each bite before taking the next, making virtually no sound at all.
Yang Bai’s gaze was inevitably drawn to him, reminding him of how Shen Hui had looked when they first met: high fever, infection, glands collapsing, so fragile he looked as though he would shatter at a single touch.
In his shallow medical understanding, this person should have been in the morgue long ago. Yet he had stubbornly held on by a single breath, transforming into the refined, mysterious, and aloof figure he was now.
Like a mesmerizing and dangerous siren hidden in the mist, he made people want to venture deep into the unknown. Just then, his eyes drifted down to Shen Hui’s slender, fair, and sharply jointed fingers.
Yang Bai suddenly felt that his body was not doing very well. Feigning innocence, he adjusted his sitting posture, looking both guilty as a thief and eager to try, until he finally managed to make Shen Hui lose his patience.
He tapped the dining table in front of Yang Bai with his index finger. “Are you finished eating?”
This gesture struck right at Yang Bai’s unspeakable weak spot, causing his entire body to bristle as he leaped straight up, his knees hitting the stainless steel dining table hard.
“Ouch!” Yang Bai cried out, clutching his knees. As a result of his exaggerated movement, he flipped over the plate of rice noodle rolls in front of him, instantly staining his carefully prepared white shirt and long trousers.
“Crap!” Yang Bai could no longer spare a thought for his knees, frantically pulling out tissues to wipe the table before trying to clean his clothes, though his white shirt looked even more hopeless now.
Shen Hui thought to himself that he had somehow managed to set off his motor.
Boss Yang immediately stood up to help him. “Why are you always so clumsy? Will your big brother eat you?”
The hazy, pink bubbles of Yang Bai’s unspoken adolescent crush were thoroughly punctured, prompting a tragic wail. “I bought this specifically for my speech! What am I supposed to do now?!”
Shen Hui sighed helplessly. “It is too late to buy a new one now. Are there any classmates still in the dorm? See if you can borrow a set for an emergency. I will place an order for a new set right now to be delivered to your dorm, and if that fails, we will use a delivery runner.”
“Okay!” The reliable Yang Bai was on the verge of dropping to his knees, but catching sight of his biological father still standing there, he swallowed the urge and bolted out like a rocket trailing fire.
Shen Hui selected a nearly identical outfit online and ordered a delivery runner, adding a tip to ensure the timing worked out before he and Boss Yang slowly made their way to the auditorium.
He was actually very familiar with Qinghai University. Yan Jiu had also graduated from here, and walking along that coastal path once more gave him an unreal sense of a lifetime having passed, mingled with the wry amusement of having acted like an old father twice over.
“I really have to thank you for these past few years,” Boss Yang sighed with a sense of lingering unreality. When he had first picked the person up, it was purely out of an inability to watch a life slip away. He never expected that Shen Hui would turn out to be an absolute treasure who knew everything, understood everything, and even managed to whip his rebellious son into shape, truly like a fairy sent down from the heavens.
“If you had not saved me back then, I would have died long ago. I should be the one thanking you.” The sea breeze swept through the stray locks of hair by his temple, and starlight shattered by the waves landed in his eyes.
Though he spoke of a wretched past, his gaze was calmer than the sea surface, making even the sunlight around him seem gentle.
At this moment, many students were rushing toward the auditorium. Most of their gazes were involuntarily drawn to Shen Hui, eager yet hesitant to approach, as if an invisible barrier surrounded him, keeping people at bay.
Taking in the situation, Boss Yang swallowed the rest of his words, sighing inwardly with the realization that his foolish son would probably only ever remain a little brother for the rest of his life.
Upon reaching the auditorium, Shen Hui chose a seat that was neither too close nor too far, but offered a clear view of the podium. He took a bottle of water out of his backpack to hand to Uncle Yang, then opened his phone to check his green-themed software.
The hardware exchange dealers’ group was posting clearance sales. In the AAA Ordinary Hardware Repair Shop group, someone was asking when someone could come over to check out an electronic lock. Shen Hui replied that he was resting today and the earliest would be tonight.
The other party did not reply, so Shen Hui scrolled further down. Over the past three years, he had joined quite a few groups, mostly consisting of people from urban villages: secondhand trading, fruit store group-buys, flash sales on certain group-buying apps. Among the notifications was also an invitation from Yang Bai, which he opened to find was a short-drama sharing group.
Shen Hui silently declined the group invitation, found Gu Yu’s profile picture, and tapped into the chat.
“Is it convenient to meet? I feel like my glands are having some issues lately.”
The other party instantly displayed typing status.
“What is wrong?”
“They were running a fever last night, and it felt a bit itchy.” Shen Hui phrased it politely, but the truth was that last night his fever had spiked to thirty-nine degrees, and taking fever reducers had done little good. Eventually, the itchiness started originating directly from the gland, not a cutaneous sensation, but rather an itch that seemed to crawl out from his blood vessels and bones.
“Tomorrow, same old place. Stop taking random medicine.”
Shen Hui sent an OK sticker, and the other party replied with a sticker of a doctor walking into an operating room carrying a chainsaw.
He had contacted Gu Yu two years ago. Because his glands had not completely rotted away to take his life as he had expected, nor had they fully developed to transform him into an omega, they instead seemed forcibly stuck in some bottleneck state, barely keeping him alive by a thread.
When Gu Yu first saw him, his eyes had lit up, filled entirely with the vision of top-tier journal publications. Unfortunately, after researching for two years without figuring out anything, the infuriated head physician grew sarcastic toward him every single day.
Shen Hui concentrated on tapping away at his phone. Looking up again, he found that the seats around him were almost entirely filled, whereas the rest of the auditorium was still sparsely populated. Frowning slightly, he assumed something unexpected had happened, until the female student sitting next to him provided an answer.
“Handsome, could I borrow a bottle of water?” The girl was clearly an extraordinary extrovert. After Shen Hui handed over the water, she unhesitatingly unscrewed the cap and took a sip. “Thanks. Which department are you from? I will return a bottle to you later.”
Shen Hui shook his head. “No need.”
Yet the girl was clearly very approachable, the type to actively create a storyline. “Judging by your age, you have not graduated yet, right? Are you here to see Senior Yan too?”
Shen Hui had a severe psychological allergy to the surname Yan. He frowned slightly. “Senior Yan?”
“You mean the chairman of the Yan Group, honorary vice president of Qinghai University, Senior Yan Jiu! That Suyu Building on campus was donated by him. He is a young, wealthy top-tier alpha, and every time he visits the school, every single seat is packed.” The girl clearly had plenty of gossip from the school’s confession wall. “Word is that they deepened their collaboration this year, and they are going to select a portion of outstanding graduates to go straight into the Yan Group Gland Research Institute for internships.”
A bad premonition arose in Shen Hui’s mind. The moment he turned his head, the VIP side door of the auditorium swung open, and he caught sight of Yan Jiu, flanked and surrounded by numerous school board members, before he could even react.
Three years of time had rendered the alpha even more steady and resilient, exuding a heavy aura of authority in every movement, with even his aggressively sharp brows and eyes subdued significantly.
The mix of familiarity and unfamiliarity gave Shen Hui a momentary sense of unreality.
Seeming to sense something, the surrounded Yan Jiu glanced over toward this section, causing Shen Hui to instinctively pull back.
It was purely a subconscious urge on Yan Jiu’s part. He looked toward the densest section of the seating area, but found nothing out of the ordinary.
“What is it?” The university president paused his steps and asked.
“Nothing.” Yan Jiu withdrew his gaze and headed toward the lounge, though he added with a rare hint of uncertainty, “Is the venue’s air conditioning broken?”
“Huh? No?” The president and the others looked bewildered.
Yan Jiu asked if none of them felt like it was a bit humid.
The president and his companions grew even more confused. When was Qinghai not humid? Humidity had been at 100% since the start of summer, and dehumidifiers alone practically drove half the local GDP.
Yan Jiu said nothing further. Upon entering the auditorium, he distinctly sensed an unusual dampness, like the moisture when a snow-capped mountain first begins to thaw, very faint, yet very cold, carrying a trace of raw, sweetish scent.
Linger-like and elusive, it annoyed him somewhat.
It was only after Yan Jiu’s retreating figure completely vanished into the lounge that Shen Hui’s tense shoulders slowly relaxed. He massaged his temples with a mild headache.
“What is wrong?” Uncle Yang asked immediately upon noticing something was amiss. Hearing the commotion, the girl beside him dropped her attention on the senior and leaned over, pulling out a mint candy to hand to Shen Hui. “Do you feel stuffy? I have some mints here, want to try one?”
Shen Hui paused in silence, accepted the candy, and merely held it in his palm without eating it. “Thank you.”
He felt a bit warm, his heart tinged with a numbing heat, as if brushed by a stray flame.
He gripped the mint candy tighter, his damp palm sealing in the burning warmth.