Perhaps because his mind had finally relaxed, or perhaps because he was no longer under the influence of caffeine, Xiao Shuqing slept incredibly well that night.
He took the large dog out for a walk at six in the morning as usual, returning around seven with breakfast in hand.
The kid sleeping in the second bedroom walked out upon hearing the noise. Still completely dazed, he was sporting a head of messy, bird’s-nest hair, his eyes barely able to open.
Xiao Shuqing first placed a shredded pancake onto his plate, then reached out to ruffle his explosive hair. “If you’re this tired, why don’t you call in sick and take a day off? Tomorrow is the May Day holiday anyway, so you might as well connect them for a longer break.”
The kid nodded repeatedly while chewing. “I already requested time off last night, Professor Xiao. I’ll go right back to sleep after I finish eating.”
With that, he buried his face back into his food.
Halfway through his meal, he suddenly paused, raising his groggy head. “Thank you for the breakfast, Professor Xiao. Sorry to trouble you.”
“You’re very welcome.”
After breakfast, Xiao Shuqing gathered the household trash and headed out. The kid—who had presumably spent another near-sleepless night—mumbled a sleepy “Good luck at work, Professor Xiao” before shuffling back into his bedroom in his slippers.
With the May Day holiday just around the corner, everywhere was bustling with festive energy.
Along the plane tree avenues of City H, groups of out-of-town tourists could be seen everywhere, strolling down the streets in twos and threes while dragging their luggage behind them.
It wasn’t just outside; even on campus, crowds of students were hauling suitcases into the academic buildings for their morning lectures, clearly planning to head straight to the airport or train station the moment class dismissed.
The moment Xiao Shuqing stepped into the office, he found several of his colleagues chatting and laughing.
“I heard we get to leave early today. Anyone without an afternoon class can head out right after lunch.”
“Really? By the way, have you guys picked up your holiday gifts yet? It seems they gave out a lot of stuff this year.”
“Two jugs of cooking oil, a bag of rice, a box of blood oranges per person, a box of kiwis, and some frozen shrimp.”
Noticing Xiao Shuqing walk in, they immediately greeted him. “Ah, Professor Xiao is here! How are you spending the May Day holiday this year? Since you’re married now, are you taking your significant other on a trip?”
“If you ask me, what’s the point of traveling? The crowds during May Day are insane. It’s much better for a young couple to just stay home in domestic bliss. Why go out just to look at crowds of people and bumper-to-bumper traffic?”
“I wouldn’t be so sure, haha. When you’re newly wed, the novelty is still fresh, so you definitely want to go out. Back when my wife and I first got married, it coincided with National Day, and we went to Q Capital to watch the flag-raising ceremony. We lined up in the freezing cold since midnight, stayed up the entire night, and barely saw anything—but we were still incredibly happy.”
After trading stories, they all turned their eyes simultaneously toward the long-haired Omega who had just entered. “Professor Xiao?”
The man smiled subtly. “No travel plans for May Day. Our families are gathering for a meal to discuss the wedding arrangements. We plan to go on our honeymoon after the wedding ceremony is out of the way.”
“That’s a very sensible arrangement. When is the big day? The department will definitely pitch in for a wedding gift, haha. Don’t forget to hand out wedding candies!”
Xiao Shuqing replied, “The date hasn’t been finalized yet. If there’s any specific kind of wedding candy you all prefer, I can take it into consideration.”
“Wow, really? Haha! I heard there are chocolate options! Ferrero Rocher, Dove! Throw in some fruit candies too!”
“Let’s get something practical for us Professors—maybe some throat lozenges like Nin Jiom or Golden Throat, hahaha.”
An older professor holding an insulated thermos stepped in to join the fun. “Young Liu’s idea is excellent. We could also just package some traditional herbs like dwarf lilyturf, balloon flower root, and malva nut. The pharmacy next door can put it together, and we can even swipe our medical insurance for it.”
“Hahaha, you’re going to make people think Professor Xiao is being stingy with his wedding!”
“We’re all family here, who would dare say that?”
“True, true, haha! Professor Xiao, let us know once the date is set. We’ll be waiting for our throat lozenges and herbal teas.”
The morning hours were short to begin with. Arriving at the office at nine-thirty and listening to everyone banter for a bit caused an hour to slip away in the blink of an eye.
By ten-thirty, the professors who didn’t have classes began heading out in small groups to the administrative office to collect their holiday gifts.
Sure enough, an official notice arrived at eleven o’clock: Faculty members without remaining classes are permitted to begin their holiday early.
With that, the professors happily headed home.
Xiao Shuqing also loaded his items into his car and drove back. While waiting at a red light, he sent the kid a voice message: “Siyuan, are you awake? Come down and help me carry some things.”
However, even after he had driven all the way into the underground garage, he received no reply.
Assuming the kid was still fast asleep, he had no choice but to lug everything up himself in two separate trips.
With two boxes of fruit cradled in one arm and the frozen shrimp in the other, he made his way upstairs.
The electronic lock beeped open.
The moment the door opened, he didn’t notice anything amiss, but the second the door clicked shut behind him, he realized something was profoundly wrong.
The scent of fresh grass was so thick and overwhelming it felt as though hundreds of pounds of lawn clippings had been shoved into a massive industrial shredder.
Mixed within that dense, green aroma was the crisp, clean scent of fresh bamboo.
The moment Xiao Shuqing—an Omega—stepped through the threshold, this suffocating blanket of pheromones instantly detected his presence, rushing forward to envelop him from all sides.
Is Yu Siyuan in heat? But how is that possible? An Alpha can’t trigger their own rut voluntarily.
Xiao Shuqing dropped the items and hurried toward the second bedroom. “Yu Siyuan!”
He discovered the door to the secondary bedroom was slightly ajar, opening completely with a gentle nudge.
The kid inside was leaning back against the headboard. The collar of his pajamas was thrown wide open, and a pale, flushed pink crept from his cheeks all the way down his neck.
His forehead was slick with sweat, his messy bangs clinging to his skin, and the tiny birthmark between his brows was so vibrant it looked as though it might bleed.
The nesting little rabbit stared at the intruder, his dark eyes wide with utter shock. “Professor, Professor Xiao?”
Xiao Shuqing froze right where he stood.
But it took only a split second for him to realize exactly what was going on. Hurriedly uttering a quick “I’m sorry,” he shut the bedroom door, turned around, and immediately switched on the apartment’s ventilation system.
The mechanical hum of the ventilation system whirred to life, and the heavy, intoxicating pheromones that made his blood run hot gradually began to thin out under the steady draft.
Looking down, the large dog—completely oblivious to what had just happened—was staring up at him with its head tilted. “Woof, woof?”
“It’s nothing,” Xiao Shuqing murmured, leaning down to stroke the thick fur on the dog’s neck. “Don’t worry.”
Remembering the groceries he had abruptly dropped in the entryway, he hurried back to the front door.
He stocked the blood oranges and kiwis into the refrigerator and placed the frozen shrimp into the lower freezer drawer.
Once everything was put away, he noticed that in his haste to enter, he had forgotten to change his shoes, leaving a trail of dusty footprints across the floor.
So, he activated the robot vacuum to clean up the obvious marks on the hardwood.
As he tidied up, the sheer absurdity of the situation caught up to him, and he couldn’t help but let out a muffled laugh.
So, the kid was simply “following doctor’s orders.” Taking advantage of the fact that he wasn’t home, Siyuan had tried to secretly take care of his physical needs.
It was a complete stroke of coincidence. The boy had deliberately waited until he was gone, but he hadn’t anticipated Xiao Shuqing returning so early, resulting in him getting caught red-handed.
What an absolute comedy of errors, he thought, the situation growing funnier the more he dwelled on it.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, the bedroom door slowly creaked open.
The first thing to appear was a hesitant, bare little foot, inching its way out of the room.
The kid had clearly spent some time alone in his room trying to compose himself. The beauty mark centered on his forehead was no longer as vivid as before, but his cheeks were still brightly flushed, and his bangs remained damp with sweat.
Xiao Shuqing glanced at the wall clock, then raised an eyebrow at him. “I didn’t realize you were quite that durable.”
The kid, who had just spent the last twenty minutes building up his psychological defense, instantly petrified.
A deep crimson rushed to his face at lightning speed.
“I’m, I’m not that durable!”
“No, that’s not what I mean! What I mean is, it already ended a little while ago, but it had also been going on for a while before you came back.”
“So, it’s not like I’m completely lacking in stamina either.”
The awkwardness in the room was almost tangible.
The topic itself was so mortifying that Xiao Shuqing honestly wanted to dig a hole right there just so the boy could hide inside it.
He himself had felt a lingering touch of awkwardness initially, but seeing the young Alpha standing there, anxiously clutching the seams of his trousers, that minor discomfort instantly vanished.
“Mm-hmm, I understand,” the man said, his lips curling into an amused smile.
Seeing that the boy’s ears were on the verge of literally emitting steam, he quickly brought the topic to a close. “Alright, I’ll stop teasing you. My department distributed some holiday gifts today. There was too much stuff to bring up in one go, so I need to head back down to the garage. Take a look at your phone and see what you want for takeout; we’ll just order delivery for lunch.”
With that, he directly placed his own phone into the Alpha’s hand. Leaving the boy standing there in a daze, he changed back into his shoes and headed downstairs.
Lunch proceeded in an atmosphere that was quiet to the point of being eerie.
In truth, they rarely spoke during meals anyway, only occasionally exchanging a few words like What did you do today? or Are you tired? or discussing their upcoming schedules and overtime.
They usually minded their own business while eating, which felt perfectly comfortable and had never felt awkward before.
But because of what had transpired earlier, this sudden “silence” felt somewhat excruciating.
“Um, Professor Xiao, I’m really sorry about today. Dad talked to me last night about your gland condition, and I also read through the precautions for your marking therapy. It said you can’t be exposed to the stimulation of an Alpha’s courtship pheromones right now.”
The kid’s voice finally shattered the silence, the tips of his ears burning red as he spoke.
The man waved it off dismissively. “I didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. I’m highly desensitized to pheromones anyway. Besides, I didn’t inhale that much of it.”
Furthermore, this sensation of being pursued by a male’s courtship scent, if it had come from a muscular, six-foot-three Alpha bursting with raw testosterone, he would have found it deeply repulsive, even nauseating.
But coming from the delicate, sweet-tempered young Alpha in front of him—who stood at barely five-foot-eight and looked as exquisite as a porcelain doll—he found it rather endearing instead.
After all, no matter how fierce a little rabbit tried to be, or how proudly it bared its tiny teeth, it was ultimately just nibbling on a carrot.
Even though he knew perfectly well that Yu Siyuan was a top-tier Alpha, Xiao Shuqing didn’t feel even a shred of intimidation.
“Oh, okay then,” the boy murmured upon hearing his reply, returning to his food with a slightly subdued expression.
A few moments passed before he peeked up again. “Did you really not feel anything at all?”
His hesitant, overly anxious expression finally made Xiao Shuqing break into a laugh.
He set his chopsticks down across his bowl. “What kind of reaction were you hoping I’d have, hmm? To fall into heat right along with you? Then the two of us would be like dry kindling meeting a raging fire. Is that what you wanted?”
The young Alpha’s face turned a violent shade of red. “I absolutely did not think that!”
He immediately executed a tactical retreat, burying his face so deeply into his rice bowl that it looked as though he wanted to submerge himself in it entirely.
Xiao Shuqing placed a piece of braised rib onto his plate. “Why do you always duck your head so low when you eat? Should I get you a feeding bowl just like Saisa’s next time so you can really dive in?”
The kid looked completely overwhelmed by the gesture. “Thank you, Professor Xiao!”
Xiao Shuqing continued smoothly, “Don’t mention it. You just expended a lot of physical energy; you need some protein to replenish yourself. After all, sperm is made of protein—you have to restock whatever you lose.”
The Alpha looked up in absolute horror. “Professor Xiao, I’m not running low!”
It took Xiao Shuqing a solid few seconds to process what the boy meant by “I’m not running low.”
A sudden laugh burst from his lips.
“Ah, my mistake. A slip of the tongue. I meant you need to replenish the energy you expended.”
He then cast a casual, teasing glance at the boy. “You’re still so young—why are you so sensitive about this kind of thing?”
“I’m not young, Professor Xiao! I’m already twenty-four years old!”
“Mm-hmm, not young at all.”
The little midday interlude concluded just like that. Once the initial awkwardness dissolved, the two fell back into their comfortable, familiar rhythm.
After finishing their meal, Xiao Shuqing grabbed some toys to play with the large dog, while Yu Siyuan sat down at the dining table in the living room to work.
He must have accumulated a massive backlog of tasks, because the moment his laptop booted up, the notification chimes from DingTalk and WeChat enterprise began ringing incessantly.
The kid immediately locked into focus, immersing himself deeply in his work.
The rapid, rhythmic sound of typing echoed through the apartment.
With May just around the corner, the weather was growing increasingly warm. Saisa, being a thick-coated Alaskan Malamute, began panting and lolling his tongue out after only a few minutes of play.
Xiao Shuqing stood up and wheeled out the evaporative cooling fan to lower the temperature for the big dog. Then, he opened a food delivery app on his phone and began selecting some dog-friendly fruits.
Blueberries, half a seedless watermelon, and apples.
Glancing over at the busy young Alpha, he called out, “Siyuan, do you want any fruit? I’m placing a delivery order.”
Hearing his voice, the boy turned around. “Ah? Professor Xiao, don’t we already have two whole boxes of fruit in the fridge?”
“The ones in the fridge are too cold; Saisa can’t eat them right away. It’s time for his apples and blueberries—they’re good for his health.”
“Oh, right! I want some strawberries, Professor Xiao.”
“Mm.”
With a slight curve of his lips, Xiao Shuqing added the strawberries to the shopping cart.
As they were speaking, the ringtone for a voice call suddenly blared from Yu Siyuan’s phone.
“Oh, it’s Dad calling,” he said.
He pressed answer. “Hello, Dad.”
The apartment was exceptionally quiet, so even without speakerphone, the voice from the receiver was perfectly audible from a distance. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“Dad.”
“Mm-hmm, what are you up to? Daddy sent you several messages this morning and you didn’t reply to a single one. Did you lose track of time working again and forget to check your phone?”
Presumably remembering his activities from earlier that morning, the kid scratched his hair guiltily. “I, no. I was just too exhausted from working overtime these past few days, so I took the morning off. I was home sleeping.”
“Oh, taking a day off to get some proper sleep? Then did you make lunch for Shuqing? The school cafeteria definitely isn’t as good as home-cooked food. You’re his Alpha; you need to take good care of him, you hear me?”
At the mention of Xiao Shuqing, the kid’s foot under the table began nervously grinding against the floorboards. “Professor Xiao’s department let them off early. He came back at noon.”
“Ah, is that so. Well, Daddy forgot his house keys. Sweetheart, do you think you could take Daddy in for the night?”
“Huh? Dad, you didn’t bring your keys? I have the spare set! I’ll come over and give them to you. Are you at the house?”
“Ah, haha. Actually, I accidentally snapped the key off inside the lock cylinder, so the spare won’t really do much.”
“Ah, then don’t we need to call a locksmith? Hold on a second, Dad, let me ask Professor Xiao.”