Nie Wencheng didn’t know?
Nie Wencheng didn’t know he had turned his younger brother into this state?
Wan Ting froze for a moment. After realizing that Nie Wencheng had never met Wan Xu, he felt that his evaluation of the eldest young master Nie needed an update.
Someone who was completely airtight in the business world could be this careless in private matters?
However, Lu Jiangwan occasionally talked nonsense, so Wan Ting still maintained a skeptical attitude toward this.
Watching Wan Xu sleeping soundly on the hospital bed, he simply pulled Lu Jiangwan into the emergency exit stairwell and asked him, “What do you mean by that?”
Seeing the serious expression on Wan Ting’s face, Lu Jiangwan also dropped his usual flippant demeanor and explained, “I heard the young master was back, so I wanted to come see him. The first day I saw him, I smelled Wencheng’s pheromones on him.”
Wan Ting frowned.
“But when I brought up the fiancé matter with him these past two days, he didn’t seem interested at all. In fact, today I even brought Wan Xu to Nie Wencheng’s office building. Even with just a wall between them, he was unwilling to go see him, which I found strange. That’s why I said it was just a guess.”
Lu Jiangwan and Nie Wencheng had grown up together; he wouldn’t mess around with something like this.
Yet the fact that Lu Jiangwan hadn’t immediately tipped off Nie Wencheng after noticing it meant he also didn’t know that Nie Wencheng had spent that night in the hotel with a “stranger” Omega.
Wan Ting’s frown tightened further.
Nie Wencheng genuinely seemed unaware.
He had originally planned to use that night’s events as leverage, forcing a fait accompli so that pulling out of the arranged marriage wouldn’t be so easy.
Wan Xu was keeping the temporary mark on him a secret, and Nie Wencheng had no idea who he had marked, yet both were stubbornly determined to break off the engagement.
“Aren’t you even going to ask your brother how he feels about the marriage?” Lu Jiangwan asked, crossing his arms with an intrigued expression. “Wencheng has set his mind on calling off this engagement, and no matter how I try to persuade him, I can’t budge him. If only he knew that he had already marked his own fiancé.”
Wan Ting didn’t take up the thread of conversation, likely lost in thought.
From Lu Jiangwan’s perspective, Wan Ting certainly wouldn’t be willing to let such a prime arranged marriage opportunity slip away.
First, both elders placed great value on this union, so they couldn’t afford to disrespect the elders’ wishes. Second, as the heir, Wan Ting undoubtedly coveted the company shares the Nie family intended to offer as a betrothal gift, especially since their own enterprise couldn’t match the scale of the Nie corporation.
Therefore, even though the Wan family was also sending away a portion of share dividends as a dowry, the Wan family ultimately came out ahead.
Among Wan Ting’s generation in the Wan family, Wan Xu was the only Omega. Meanwhile, the Nie family’s branch in this generation was equally sparse, leaving only Nie Wencheng as a single young man of marriageable age.
Wan Ting held no decision-making power. No matter how much he doted on his younger brother, he wouldn’t pick a fight with the elders on Wan Xu’s behalf.
He began looking forward to Wan Ting’s reaction.
When Wan Xu slowly drifted back to consciousness, a dozing Wan Ting was sitting beside the hospital bed.
“Brother.” Wan Xu’s eyes instantly turned red. “I’m sorry.”
Knowing how busy Wan Ting was yet still taking time out to take care of him filled him with guilt.
He had never despised his own body so much. Differentiating into the weaker gender made him feel as though he had been born guilty. Every month he had to endure an agonizing estrus period, and at its worst, he ended up lying in a hospital bed just like this.
Waking up to find him crying, Wan Ting realized the kid had once again entered the hypersensitive period following estrus, and his mind was probably drafting a full page of self-incrimination.
He pulled Wan Xu into his arms, patting his younger brother’s fluffy head just like petting a small cat, and coaxed him gently, “It’s fine. Everything’s okay now.”
Wan Xu cried even harder.
He had messed everything up.
He had been thinking about the lease application he hadn’t yet managed to review with Lu Shen, thinking about how to start the next phase of production with Yu Dong, yet he himself had collapsed right before the damn estrus period.
In Wan Ting’s embrace, he completely failed to notice when Wan Grantian had appeared at the doorway with a dark expression.
Hearing the sound of steady footsteps, Wan Ting’s body stiffened instinctively. He gently pushed Wan Xu away, stood up, turned to greet Wan Grantian, and stepped outside.
Aunt Hao had originally followed behind Wan Grantian. Seeing Wan Ting about to leave, she carefully grabbed his sleeve and whispered, “Eldest Young Master, wait a moment before leaving.”
Before her voice faded, a sharp crack rang out, followed by Wan Grantian’s furious roar: “Shameless wretch!”
“Have all these years of education been crammed down a dog’s throat? Do you even know how to write the four characters for propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame? How on earth did I give birth to someone like you?”
As a junior, how could he possibly butt into an elder’s reprimand, but Wan Grantian was cursing so foully that Wan Ting couldn’t bear to listen either.
Wan Xu hadn’t even wiped away his tears yet. His left cheek burned with a fiery pain, and his ears rang continuously.
“Do you care what I do!” he roared back, his voice hoarse.
“Did you care about me for even a single day after my mom died? Every day you just plot to sell me off to that guy surnamed Nie, and you have the nerve to say you’re my father? Wan Grantian, in your heart, am I worth even a fraction of the livestock you keep at the racecourse?”
Wan Grantian struck him across the face with another slap, leaving one side of his face heavily swollen.
Aunt Hao wanted to step forward and pull them apart, but Wan Ting stopped her with a shake of his head, his gaze locked on Wan Xu.
Clutching his heavily swollen left cheek, the kid unhesitatingly delivered a punch straight to his old man’s face.
“Since it’s already happened anyway, beating me to death here won’t do you any good,” Wan Xu retorted viciously. “As long as you dare force me to marry Nie Wencheng, I dare air all this dirty laundry out so everyone can see what a base, filthy, and disgusting piece of trash you really are.”
Wan Xu didn’t hold back an ounce of strength in that punch. Wan Grantian’s vision went dark as warm fluid gushed from his nasal cavity.
He wiped his face, his hand coming away stained with striking red.
Seeing that Wan Grantian was about to haul Wan Xu up from the bed, Wan Ting hurriedly stepped forward to intervene: “Second Uncle, don’t act on impulse. The kid is just talking nonsense out of anger.” With that, he dragged Wan Grantian out of the hospital ward.
“Wan Xu, you’ve grown bold enough to hit your own father! Marry him or don’t marry him, I don’t care. If you have the guts, run off with that wild man and never come back!” Wan Grantian ranted as Wan Ting propped him up and pushed him outward. “I’ll pretend I never had a son like you!”
“Don’t expect me back! You act like I owe you something, and I don’t want to look at you either, you shameless old bastard!” Wan Xu refused to yield an inch, his tongue as sharp as ever.
Once Wan Ting had hauled Wan Grantian away, the hospital bed area grew much quieter, leaving only Aunt Hao standing awkwardly with the insulated lunch bucket.
Wan Xu sat quietly for a moment, breathing heavily, before suddenly burying his face in his hands and sobbing aloud.
His left cheek was swollen high. Aunt Hao called a nurse to bring an ice pack for him while gently patting his back to help him catch his breath.
After crying enough, the young master grew tired and sat there quietly, his eyes staring blankly into space.
Aunt Hao felt a pang of heartache and anxiety, unsure how to comfort him until Wan Xu unconsciously muttered, “So fragrant.”
He turned his gaze toward the insulated lunch bucket Aunt Hao had brought.
The food inside was still warm. Wan Xu shoveled down a large bowl of rice mixed with his tears, while Aunt Hao sat beside him, softly urging him to eat slowly and not rush.
“No matter what is said, you shouldn’t abuse your own body like this,” Aunt Hao’s voice was gentle. “Don’t rush, eat slowly, there’s bone soup here too.”
With tear-blurred eyes and a pitiful expression, Wan Xu murmured a response: “Okay.”
Wan Grantian was still fuming, his phone ringing incessantly, leaving Wan Ting zero opportunity to interject.
His second uncle was simply an arbitrary and autocratic person. Wan Ting sighed, idly fiddling with his phone.
Lu Jiangwan must have arrived at his destination already, as he began pestering him: [Well, did you find out your brother’s attitude?]
Annoying.
[He doesn’t know either,] Wan Ting replied.
Lu Jiangwan: [Doesn’t know what?]
Wan Ting: [He doesn’t know that the one who marked him is Nie Wencheng.]
On the chat interface, Lu Jiangwan’s name changed to Typing…, then reverted after a moment, but no new message appeared.
Lu Jiangwan stared at his phone screen, then looked up across the conference table at Nie Wencheng, who was carefully examining a lease application form.
“Wencheng.”
Hearing his name, Nie Wencheng looked up.
“The night before last, at the banquet, you left midway and didn’t return all night. Where did you go?” Lu Jiangwan asked.
Nie Wencheng remained silent.
“Is there something you’re hiding from me?” Lu Jiangwan continued pressing, “Why is there the scent of another Omega’s pheromones on you?”
Nie Wencheng’s expression flickered, yet he still kept his mouth shut.
Even if Nie Wencheng refused to speak, Lu Jiangwan had already guessed most of it.
“Nie Wencheng, tell me the truth.” Lu Jiangwan felt his voice trembling. “That night you…?”
“I was taking care of an Omega in estrus.” Annoyed by the badgering, Nie Wencheng decided to lay it all out.
“I knew it,” Lu Jiangwan stood up and then sat back down. “No wonder you were so resistant to the arranged marriage.”
“I told you, my personal matters don’t require your meddling.” Nie Wencheng closed his folder. “You were right about one thing, he has great ideas, so working together as business partners is fine.”
“Then do you even know who that Omega with you that night was?” Lu Jiangwan looked at him with a very strange expression.
He was well aware of Nie Wencheng’s pheromone identification disorder. Without knowing the other person was his fiancé, why on earth would he suddenly grow a sudden urge out of nowhere to play the savior and take care of a stranger’s Omega?
Strange, utterly strange. He couldn’t even bother pondering whether this was the optimal moment to drop the secret; he just wanted to know Nie Wencheng’s thoughts.
Nie Wencheng was equally baffled as to why Lu Jiangwan was being so relentlessly persistent today, determined to dig to the bottom of it.
“Listen to me.”
Since Lu Jiangwan already knew, revealing it didn’t hurt, and Nie Wencheng lost his previous impatience.
“It wasn’t like that, I didn’t do that kind of thing. It’s just… I somehow seemed to be able to smell his pheromone scent, so I followed it there.”
He took out his phone and played the voice recording left behind from that night’s liability disclaimer for Lu Jiangwan to hear.
Rustling sounds accompanied static, but Lu Jiangwan could still tell that the opposing voice sounded very similar to Wan Xu’s.
The expression on Lu Jiangwan’s face grew even more colorful, his finger itching to poke Nie Wencheng right between the eyebrows: “Are you made of wood, may I ask?”
“Did you think you were being all noble, doing a good deed without leaving your name? Thank goodness the other party isn’t holding it against you. If they turned around and sued you for rape, do you have any idea how catastrophic the impact on the company would be?”
Lu Jiangwan wasn’t wrong; the safest course of action would have been calling a doctor for that Omega.
At this, Nie Wencheng felt a grievance of his own: “What could I do at the time? He grabbed onto me and wouldn’t let go, and my rut was almost triggered early because of him.”
Lu Jiangwan didn’t continue berating him: “Is that why you’ve been so persistent about canceling the engagement?”
Nie Wencheng nodded, saying, “I know this is unfaithful to a partner, and I’ve wronged Wan Xu. He has every justification to demand calling off the engagement.”
“Suddenly you’ve grown a conscience?” Lu Jiangwan tapped him lightly on the cheek. “My dear brother, after sleeping with him, didn’t you even bother checking who that Omega was?”
“I didn’t do it.”
“I don’t care whether you did it or not, you should have gone looking for that Omega,” Lu Jiangwan said crossly. “The fact that you could smell his pheromones means he’s the one who can cure your condition.”
Nie Wencheng felt there was logic in that. He picked up his phone, intending to dial a number, only for Lu Jiangwan to push his hand back down: “No need to look.”
Tapping the closed folder, Lu Jiangwan said, “Your temporary mark partner is right here.”
Nie Wencheng still looked distinctly dazed.
“You.” Lu Jiangwan flipped open the folder, pointing Nie Wencheng’s finger toward the name at the bottom of the application form. “You temporarily marked your fiancé.”