An issue arose at the hospital yesterday afternoon, so Dr. Liu filled in for Zhong Yu for half the day.
Consequently, they swapped their work schedules this morning, and by the time Shi Jing arrived, Zhong Yu was already seated in the consulting room.
Taking advantage of the moment before the next pet owner walked in, Shi Jing asked him about the marking.
Zhong Yu quickly checked his gland and said, “It’s much better than yesterday, and it has faded a lot.”
Shi Jing let out a sigh of relief. “That’s fine then. It would be even better if the mark could fade until it’s completely invisible.”
Zhong Yu asked him, “Since you two are marked, have you developed any dependence on your boyfriend’s pheromones? Like a strong urge to smell his pheromones or anything like that?”
Shi Jing thought back carefully. “No.”
Zhong Yu did not know that Wei Qinan had been comforting Shi Jing last night, so hearing him say this, he remarked, “I see. Then your compatibility might be very low, which would also make the mark disappear completely much faster.”
“That works.”
Zhong Yu said, “By the way, that man compensated me 100,000, and he also wrote an apology letter to Xiao Jiu.”
Shi Jing nodded.
The two exchanged a few more words before the next pet owner, holding a small dog, walked in. Shi Jing stopped talking and went upstairs to the inpatient department.
Their clinic even accepted exotic pets, so quite a few people chose to bring their pets here for treatment.
Shi Jing still remembered what he had intended to do yesterday. Making sure no one was in the inpatient department, he walked over to an isolation pen in the corner.
Inside was a pure white lop-eared rabbit.
When it was brought in, the owner said it had been frightened by a dog at home while coming out of its cage, resulting in a fractured foot, and it had stayed at the clinic for postoperative recovery ever since.
The owner was coming to pick it up tomorrow. Unable to restrain the feeling in his heart, Shi Jing stared at the rabbit for a long while before finally reaching out to gently touch the glass.
A smile hung on his face, an expression he would never show when other living people were around.
“Niu Niu, oh, are you looking at me? So cute.” Shi Jing smiled at it for a moment before the sound of footsteps came from the stairs.
When Xiao Jiu came upstairs, she saw Shi Jing with his eyelids drooping, casting a casual glance at the lop-eared rabbit inside with a cold and indifferent expression.
Shi Jing looked toward her. “Here to clean up? Did you go to the hospital for a checkup yesterday?”
Shi Jing had backed her up yesterday, so Xiao Jiu nodded, said “Thank you, Boss,” and added, “I’m fine. Look, aren’t I here for work today?”
She raised her arm. “If we hadn’t been in a confined room yesterday where I was afraid of being affected by his pheromones, I definitely would have slapped him across the face. Actually, I signed up for classes at a combat club, though I haven’t done any real sparring yet.”
Shi Jing raised an eyebrow, a trace of an imperceptible smile hiding at the corners of his mouth. “I heard from Zhong Yu that the guy wrote you an apology letter. Did he apologize to you face to face?”
“Not yet. Under the ABO Public Safety Law, he has to spend ten days inside,” Xiao Jiu said. “His family members said that once he gets out, they will come to the hospital to apologize in person.”
Shi Jing calculated the time. “Mhm.”
That topic ended right there. Under Xiao Jiu’s startled gaze, Shi Jing went to the utility room himself to grab a set of cleaning tools and followed her to clean the hygiene of the isolation compartment.
Everyone working at the clinic knew their boss was a young master who had never lifted a finger in his life, yet Shi Jing was not afraid of getting dirty. He efficiently replaced the pads soiled with waste and then headed downstairs.
As he was leaving, Zhong Yu poked his head out and asked if he wanted to have lunch together.
Shi Jing waved a hand. “I’m going to the university to eat with him.”
Zhong Yu hadn’t expected his casual suggestion to actually be adopted, and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Remember to post it on Moments!”
Shi Jing ignored him.
Wei Qinan attended University A, which used four-person dormitories. By the time Shi Jing arrived, several college students were already seated around the table.
Shi Jing spotted Wei Qinan by the window instantly, adjusted the expression on his face, walked over, and said, “Sorry to keep you waiting, traffic was jammed.”
He thought he had pulled the corners of his mouth upward, but to a few outsiders, his expression still looked pretty much like the Grim Reaper.
The other three roommates looked at each other, not daring to speak for a moment.
Wei Qinan stood up and let Shi Jing sit in the innermost seat.
“Are we heading straight over after eating?” Wei Qinan asked.
Shi Jing gave a soft assent.
Wei Qinan leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “Did you drink the porridge from this morning?”
“I drank it,” Shi Jing nodded. “It was pretty good, except I couldn’t find the pickled mustard greens.”
“They’re in the compartment of the fridge on the left. I’ll point them out to you when we get home tonight.”
Listening to them murmur in whispers, the roommates didn’t dare glance at Shi Jing’s face more than once while sizing him up.
He was far too striking, the kind of person who would get relentlessly hit on just walking down the street.
When Wei Qinan announced in the dorm chat that morning that he was in a relationship, none of them had believed it.
They had been roommates with Wei Qinan for three years, and he always maintained a polite attitude, friendly to everyone, yet no one could ever truly get close to him.
This was the first time they had ever seen Wei Qinan stand this close to anyone.
The roommate who had shared a class with Wei Qinan had already seen Shi Jing once. He gave a dry cough and took the lead in speaking up. “Uh, so you’re Wei Qinan’s boyfriend? Were you guys arguing yesterday?”
Shi Jing remembered him. Not knowing how to smooth things over, he simply nodded.
The conversation hit a dead end just like that, and the group fell back into silence.
The boyfriend Wei Qinan found might, perhaps, should, or maybe not be very easy to get along with.
Fortunately, they were all hot-blooded college students. Once this topic fell flat, there were plenty of other things to talk about.
They were currently discussing a certain fiercely popular brand of designer sneakers. One of the roommates couldn’t help complaining, “Holy shit, you have no idea how many times I joined the raffle. I simply couldn’t win a pair; you can’t even buy them with money.”
“I saw a female Alpha wearing a pair on my way to class today. She looked so cool!”
Wei Qinan ordered a light and easily digestible bowl of noodles for Shi Jing.
Slurping his noodles while listening to his roommates chat, Shi Jing knew he needed to establish good relations with these people, so he took the initiative to speak up, “The limited edition released last month?”
Unexpecting him to speak up suddenly, the roommates paused and nodded. “Yeah, that white pair.”
Shi Jing pulled out his phone, opened a group chat, and tapped on an image. “This one?”
These shoes were quite popular, though he had no personal interest in them.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s the one!”
“Cool, right? Damn it, playing basketball wearing those, imagine how many Omegas you’d charm.”
“Give me a break. As if any Omega watches you play basketball. Have you even made five three-pointers in three years?”
“Go to hell!”
Hearing them exchange bantering jokes, a hint of a smile crept into the corners of Shi Jing’s eyes.
He quickly concealed the emotion and said, “If you guys want to buy a pair, you can find me. I know people.”
The roommates’ eyes lit up instantly, shouting out requests to add Shi Jing as a friend.
In an instant, the distance between their relationships closed by a large margin.
Noticing Shi Jing and Wei Qinan glued together, a roommate grew bold enough to ask, “Hey, speaking of which, how long have you two been together? How come Wei Qinan never mentioned it before?”
Wei Qinan curled his lips. “What can I do? I’m henpecked; this one wouldn’t let me go public. Now that he’s allowing it, didn’t I bring him over right away?”
Shi Jing’s internal reaction was clear.
He pinched Wei Qinan’s thigh under the table and said, “Things weren’t stable before. Now that it’s basically settled, we went public.”
Building friendships was actually quite simple. The group, who had initially been somewhat afraid of Shi Jing, now even dared to join in letting out playful hoots and jeers together.
Wei Qinan reached out, interlacing his fingers with Shi Jing’s, his eyes seemingly filled with stars. “Yeah, now I have official status.”