When he naturally woke up the next morning, Xu Yiwen’s head felt like it was about to split open, and his body ached terribly.
He stretched out a bare arm to grope for his phone on the bedside table.
After squinting to make out the time displayed on the screen, Xu Yiwen dragged his battered body out of bed.
It was Thursday today, and though he had no morning classes, it was already nearly eleven o’clock. He needed to get up and tidy himself.
The dirty clothes on the floor and the pajamas that had been soaked the previous night had already been cleaned up by He Xihuan.
Vaguely, he remembered that after things ended last night, He Xihuan had also carried him to the bathroom to clean him up.
Xu Yiwen rubbed his forehead and casually found a pair of pajamas to put on.
Then he opened the drawer of the bedside table to check if any condoms had been used.
Seeing a newly opened box, Xu Yiwen let out a sigh of relief.
Although he vaguely remembered being cleaned out last night, under the drive of pheromones, Alphas were prone to getting hot-headed, so it was still better to be cautious.
His marriage with He Xihuan would end sooner or later, and there was no need to leave behind an innocent child.
Closing the drawer, Xu Yiwen slowly walked into the bathroom to wash up.
Looking at himself in the wall-mounted mirror above the vanity, Xu Yiwen’s face turned ashen.
It was bad enough that He Xihuan was like a dog, biting bruises all over his body, but he had actually given him a temporary mark as well.
They had agreed on a temporary mark once a month, but He Xihuan had completely broken his promise. This was already the third time he had marked him this month.
Once he settled matters with the Xu family and the school, he would grant He Xihuan his wish, sign the divorce papers, and return this foul-tempered, biting, and untrustworthy little dog of a man back to He Xihuan’s first love.
Come to think of it, a full year had passed, and Xu Yiwen still did not know what He Xihuan’s first love was called or what he looked like.
He did not want to know, and he did not care anymore. The only things he cared about now were himself and Qiu Yao.
Pushing through the aches all over his body to finish washing up, Xu Yiwen prepared to go downstairs to make something to eat.
The housekeeper had taken a day off, and He Xihuan was not coming home for lunch, so he planned to just whip up a simple plate of fried rice.
Just as he stepped down the stairs into the living room and spotted He Xihuan dressed in casual loungewear, Xu Yiwen’s eyelids twitched a few times.
Could it be that He Xihuan had been home this entire time since morning?
“Yeah, alright, let’s leave it at that,” He Xihuan said before hanging up the phone, adding indifferently, “Awake?”
“Yeah,” Xu Yiwen replied with equal indifference, “you did not go to headquarters this morning?”
“No.” He Xihuan did not explain why, getting up and walking toward the dining room.
Xu Yiwen looked toward the dining room, catching the fragrant scent of food wafting through the air, and also lifted his steps to walk that way.
The housekeeper, Chang Jun, had previously worked as a chef and cooked exceptionally well, so he was in charge of all the household meals.
During his time off, He Xihuan ate at the corporate headquarters and Xu Yiwen ate at school, so they had not hired a temporary cook.
Looking at the spread of steaming dishes covering the table, Xu Yiwen guessed that Housekeeper Chang had already returned.
At the dining table, the two ate their own meals in silence, ignoring each other. They looked less like a married couple who had shared an intimate encounter just last night and more like diners sharing a table at a restaurant.
During his student days, Xu Yiwen had developed the habit of eating fast.
In the Xu family, he was often criticized for this.
After marrying He Xihuan, however, this flaw that the Xu family had tried to correct turned out to be an advantage.
He Xihuan probably wished he could eat even faster and then cleanly vanish from sight.
Putting down his chopsticks, Xu Yiwen had just stood up when He Xihuan called out to him.
“Eating so fast, are you in a rush to be reincarnated? Are you not going to explain what happened last night?” He Xihuan also put down his chopsticks, crossing his arms with the air of an inquisitor.
Xu Yiwen’s dense eyelashes fluttered slightly. He lowered his gaze and sat back down.
Explain what? Tell him that he was ignored at the Xu family yesterday and went to a bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
He had no obligation to tell He Xihuan any of that.
“A colleague gathering. I got too happy and drank a bit much.”
“Colleagues? Happy?” He Xihuan raised a skeptical brow in disdain. “Was Wen Yuhang your only colleague there? And you were happy after finding out you are an adopted son?”
He Xihuan’s blunt questions did not leave Xu Yiwen an ounce of face.
Xu Yiwen knew that the outside world would eventually find out about the Xu family finding Xu Baoan, but he had not expected the He family to learn of it so quickly.
He bit down on his back molars and let out a soft laugh, lifting his gaze to meet He Xihuan’s. A flash of anger and humiliation flickered across the cool, detached corners of his eyes. “My parents finally found their biological son, and I have gained a younger brother. Of course I am happy.”
He Xihuan let out a matching laugh.
He hated Xu Yiwen’s act of pretending to be breezy and casually spouting hypocritical, polite nonsense.
How utterly boring.
He stood up, tossed out a casual “Clear your schedule for Saturday, Mom and Dad want us to come over,” and left the dining room.
Xu Yiwen sat alone in the dining room for a while longer. Only after seeing He Xihuan, now changed into a business suit, leave the house did he return to the master bedroom on the second floor.
He gathered his belongings and moved them into the guest room farthest from the master bedroom.
That guest room was one He Xihuan had prepared for him before their wedding.
Though before the wedding, Wang Congmeng had discovered it, so it had not ended up being used.
When they had first gotten married, Wang Congmeng worried that the two of them would sleep in separate rooms behind her back and frequently conducted unannounced spot-checks.
A year had passed, and Wang Congmeng no longer made surprise visits. Now that Xu Yiwen was moving over there, he had nothing left to worry about.
Having lived in the master bedroom for a year, despite their deliberate efforts to keep things separate, many of his and He Xihuan’s belongings had inevitably gotten mixed together.
Things like the pajamas, body wash, perfume, and room fragrances chosen according to the preferences of He Xihuan’s first love.
Aside from his bizarre dietary habits, the taste of He Xihuan’s first love in other areas was actually quite decent.
The pajamas were simple, basic styles, and the body wash and perfume were fresh and light, making them easy for Xu Yiwen to accept.
Still, these things, much like the Xu family, were ultimately not his, so he did not take a single one of them.
Once he finished moving his things, Xu Yiwen drove to the university.
On the passenger seat lay the documents Xu Xiangchuan had told him to hand over to He Xihuan.
He had no intention of showing them to He Xihuan now; instead, he brought them straight to the classroom himself.
With final exams approaching, the lectures were already finished, and class time this week was dedicated to student review.
As soon as the class bell rang, the students began clamoring with questions about exam focuses and when classes would officially stop.
“If you pay attention during regular classes, the exam will be no problem. Just review the PPT slides from class,” Xu Yiwen paused, giving a light cough for emphasis, “especially the ones from the final few lectures.”
“As for when classes stop, we still have to wait for instructions from the school and the department.”
Having offered this tactful reminder, Xu Yiwen told everyone to quiet down for independent study.
He sat at the podium, tore open the seal of the document envelope, and pulled out the materials to study.
Xu Xiangchuan’s investments lacked any sort of system. Regardless of the industry, whenever he saw others making money, he wanted a cut.
In the past, He Xihuan would act as a gatekeeper. If something was unsuitable, He Xihuan would recommend businesses with higher returns in the same sector to Xu Xiangchuan.
Because of this, over the past year, Xu Xiangchuan had not suffered any major losses in investments and had basically turned a steady profit.
At the same time, however, He Xihuan guarded against the Xu family, refusing to let them touch the He family’s core industries.
Every time Xu Xiangchuan claimed he wanted to take the easy route and simply follow the He family’s investments, He Xihuan would brush him off with a few smooth words.
On this particular matter, Xu Yiwen entirely agreed with He Xihuan’s approach.
The documents in his hands were as thick as a textbook, and after two class periods, Xu Yiwen had not even flipped through a few pages.
To give his parents and Xu Baoning peace of mind, he had never once set foot in the Xu family’s company, nor had he ever studied these subjects.
Looking at these materials for the very first time, he was a total layman who understood nothing at all.
He recognized all the words, but when strung together, why did they make no sense to him?
Right now, he looked even more bewildered than the students sitting below the podium.
After the shift of students changed, Xu Yiwen repeated his spiel from the previous class and went back to studying the documents.
When afternoon classes ended, he had not even gotten through half of the materials, so he brought them home to continue reading in the study.
Bang.
The study door was practically smashed open, startling a deeply engrossed Xu Yiwen out of his wits.