After standing outside the mansion in the cold wind for a while, Li Qingchi’s thoughts had cleared considerably. Stripped of alcohol’s numbing effect, he let out a breath and gazed at the bustling street scene not far away. Once his mind was fully sober, he drove back to the hospital, found that string of numbers, and dialed.
After a few rings, the call connected, a straight-laced, slightly youthful male voice answered: “Hello.”
Li Qingchi didn’t beat around the bush: “Where’s Wen Zhiyu?”
“He’s right next to me. Do you need something? I’ll let him take the call…”
Li Qingchi hung up without hesitation. It seemed Wen Zhiyu had already found someone to replace him, quite quickly, too.
He raised his hand to check the time on his wristwatch. At this hour, Wen Zhiyu should already be in the throes of an episode, and that alpha who answered the phone was probably treating him right now.
Otherwise, given Wen Zhiyu’s personality, he would have already gone back to the hospital to find him. And he’d just asked the nurse on duty, no patients had come looking for him after his shift ended.
The moment he heard that answer, Li Qingchi didn’t know whether to be glad he’d rid himself of that insufferable beta or worried about the retaliation that might follow once the other party’s anger flared.
He’d initially planned to go straight home, but his mind wouldn’t stop churning out new thoughts about Wen Zhiyu.
After mulling it over for a moment, he set aside the idea of going home directly.
He had personally agreed to Wen Zhiyu’s coercion before. If they were to part ways, both sides needed to consent, otherwise, the man might keep pestering him and show up at his door. Besides, the other party still held that incriminating document as leverage, and he was the one who had broken his word first. It was hard to say whether Wen Zhiyu wouldn’t fly into a rage and seek revenge.
He decided to go see Wen Zhiyu one last time and lay everything out clearly. Whether the man wanted money, medical resources, or anything else, he would do his best to accommodate.
The only reason the other party had held onto that leverage all this time was for exactly those things. If it could be resolved in a more direct way, so much the better. He didn’t like dragging things out or leaving loose ends, and he certainly didn’t want any further contact with that detestable beta.
Using that phone number, Li Qingchi quickly tracked down the other party’s address. He got in his car immediately and drove to the man’s residence.
It was a very old residential complex, clearly built many years ago. The white ceramic tiles on the exterior had yellowed to a beige hue, with black specks stuck to them. Each building was at most six stories tall, with virtually no greenery, it looked utterly oppressive.
Li Qingchi found the specific building and went upstairs. The stairwell was extremely narrow, barely enough for two people to pass side by side, and each floor had a single sound-activated light on the ceiling.
When he reached the second floor, Li Qingchi heard faint muffled groans and heavy footsteps. He stopped.
The sound-activated lights in the old residential building were dim, flickering on and off to illuminate two entangled figures in the stairwell. Wen Zhiyu was being half-supported, half-dragged downstairs by a young police officer, the hem of his shirt rolled up to reveal a sliver of lean, pale waist.
Li Qingchi’s gaze landed on the face of the person before him.
The man’s face was flushed, his mind hazy, he didn’t seem to recognize Li Qingchi, or perhaps he did but couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge him.
This scene wasn’t the treatment scenario he’d imagined. In fact, Wen Zhiyu didn’t even seem familiar with this alpha.
Following him? Taking advantage of someone in distress?
Li Qingchi’s gaze shifted from Wen Zhiyu to the alpha in the police uniform. The alpha was trembling as he supported Wen Zhiyu, visibly struggling.
“A police officer can’t act alone.” Li Qingchi blocked their path, his eyes sweeping over the insignia on the young officer’s shoulder. “In what capacity are you holding him right now?”
The question was deliberately cutting.
The officer’s face flushed crimson instantly: “He collapsed from his episode… I was just…”
“Just taking advantage of the situation?” Li Qingchi pulled Wen Zhiyu over, supporting him by the waist, and lightly pressed his palm against the back of the man’s neck. The scorching heat transferred directly to his hand, burning hot. “His temperature is extremely high right now, and his pupils are dilated. This is stage three of pheromone resistance syndrome. Where exactly were you planning to take him?”
“I was going to take him to the hospital.” the young officer said cautiously.
“No need.”
“But…”
“I’m his attending physician.”
Wen Zhiyu’s thoughts were a mess, everything before his eyes a blur he couldn’t make out. But his nose caught a familiar scent, and he instinctively wound his arms around the alpha’s neck: “I… it hurts…”
Li Qingchi’s hand on his waist paused. The beta’s hands were causing mischief at his neck, so he could only tighten his grip around the man’s waist to keep him steady.
Ignoring the person behind him, Li Qingchi carried the blackmailer back into the room. The door wasn’t locked, wasn’t even closed, just left ajar, so he entered easily.
He tossed the man onto the bed and looked down at the beta, who was like a lump of mud.
Every time an episode struck, that bone-piercing pain would transform this ill-behaved beta into a completely different person, a pitiful little thing who couldn’t speak a word and could only cry.
In the pitch-black room, only Wen Zhiyu’s heavy breathing could be heard. “…Dr. Li, you must be tired today, getting off work so late.”
Li Qingchi was somewhat surprised. Once again, this differed from his expectations, this beta hadn’t assumed the worst of him, hadn’t accused him of going back on his word, hadn’t blamed him for the mess he’d made during his episode, and hadn’t flown into a rage out of embarrassment. Instead, he was making excuses for Li Qingchi’s failure to keep his promise.
It was strange. These words didn’t seem like something this selfish man in front of him would say.
“You’re not in good condition right now. Let’s start the treatment,” Li Qingchi said.
No matter why this insufferable beta’s attitude had changed so drastically, and no matter what this man thought of him, since he was already here, what he needed to do now was treat this beta.
For the pheromone treatment to be more effective, the two of them had to find a suitable position, at the very least, staying separated by the edge of the bed like this wouldn’t work.
Wen Zhiyu couldn’t even stand on his own right now, and hugging was out of the question either.
In the end, Li Qingchi simply pulled Wen Zhiyu up to stand face-to-face with him, supporting the other man entirely with his own strength. Then, like manipulating a puppet, he guided Wen Zhiyu’s arms to wrap around him while holding onto the other’s arms himself. After that, he let go and embraced the other man in return.
Unexpectedly, the moment Wen Zhiyu made contact with his body, he shoved him away with force. Due to inertia, Wen Zhiyu’s body tipped backward, and it looked like he was about to faceplant just like last time. At the critical moment, Li Qingchi yanked him back.
“What are you doing? Are you losing your mind again?” There was a hint of anger in Li Qingchi’s voice.
Wen Zhiyu frowned. “You have the scent of so many other alphas and omegas on you… It makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like it…”
Li Qingchi raised his hand and sniffed. Although more than an hour had passed since he’d left Yulin Mansion, there was indeed still a bit of residual scent clinging to his clothes, and Wen Zhiyu, currently in the throes of his episode, was especially sensitive to those smells.
He’d come in a hurry and hadn’t brought any scent-masking cologne, but if he didn’t get rid of these odors quickly, and kept stalling, Wen Zhiyu might not hold out much longer.
Li Qingchi’s gaze drifted upward, landing on the beta’s tear-soaked face.
He thought for a moment, as if making a decision. Having worked at the War Chain Department for so long, he’d developed a habit of weighing the pros and cons before doing anything, and that was exactly what he was doing now.
Wen Zhiyu was still crying, tears streaming without pause. He wasn’t crying out loud on purpose; it was just that one of the symptoms of his episode was involuntary tearing, compounded by his clouded consciousness. He couldn’t stop it even if he wanted to.
His eyes were nearly swollen from being soaked in tears, puffy and red-rimmed. The man had reached his breaking point. Without timely treatment, he could either be left with permanent aftereffects or die on the spot.
For Li Qingchi, neither outcome was good. If it was the former, then Wen Zhiyu would inevitably take his anger out on him, and in the end, it would be mutual destruction, the secret of the Li family’s genetic defect would be completely exposed. That was the worst-case scenario.
If it was the latter, and Wen Zhiyu died from his episode, then Li Qingchi himself wouldn’t be able to escape blame either. Moreover, while Wen Zhiyu’s use of his secret to coerce him into treatment was indeed infuriating, as a doctor, Li Qingchi had seen too many people driven to desperation by illness. He could feel their suffering, including this insufferable beta’s.
Annoying as he was, there was no getting rid of him.
Wanting to be free of Wen Zhiyu, yet not wanting his secret exposed, this seemed to be a deadlock.
For now, the best choice was to release his pheromones promptly to soothe this insufferable beta.
Li Qingchi let out a breath. For the first time, he felt that his method of weighing pros and cons had failed him. Not everything could be weighed on a scale. Sometimes, he simply didn’t have that much room to deliberate.
He stared at Wen Zhiyu for a moment, assessing that his symptoms hadn’t yet reached the final stage. Once his assessment was complete, he approached Wen Zhiyu, bent at the waist, hooked an arm around him, and with a surge of strength, hoisted this man, whose body was as limp as putty, onto his shoulder.
“What… are you doing?” Wen Zhiyu struggled.
“Move again and I’ll leave you here. After that, whether you live or die is none of my business.” Li Qingchi’s hand steadied the beta’s back.
The moment those words left his mouth, the man slung over his shoulder stopped struggling, stopped moving entirely. So he hadn’t completely lost consciousness after all.
Li Qingchi carried Wen Zhiyu downstairs and stuffed him into the back seat of the car.
The young police officer was still standing guard downstairs, watching Li Qingchi from a distance.
Li Qingchi swept a glance at him, then walked to the driver’s seat, shut the door, and drove off.
Twenty minutes later, the car pulled into the underground garage of the War Chain Department’s senior housing complex.
Li Qingchi carried the unconscious beta into the dormitory and dumped him onto the sofa.
Once inside the dorm, Wen Zhiyu seemed to feel a bit better, perhaps the residual pheromones in the room were soothing him. He’d stopped crying, though there were still faint traces of tears on his face.
Li Qingchi took off his jacket and laid it on the sofa, then walked into the bathroom and took a hot shower, thoroughly washing away the lingering traces of other omegas’ and alphas’ pheromones on his body. After that, he took out the injection Li Siyu had sent over earlier, pressed it into the back of his neck, and injected the medication into his gland.
After showering, Li Qingchi changed into clean clothes and walked out of the bathroom, only to see Wen Zhiyu on the sofa clutching his discarded jacket in his arms, as if treating it as a comfort object.
The jacket was saturated with the pheromones of many different alphas, picked up at the mansion a few hours earlier.
Among them were pheromones Wen Zhiyu resisted and disliked, and, of course, some he liked.
“Smelling the scent of an alpha you like on the jacket?”
Wen Zhiyu nodded.
“Seems my pheromones aren’t all that necessary to you after all.” Li Qingchi pulled the jacket out of Wen Zhiyu’s arms and tossed it aside, then carried Wen Zhiyu into the bedroom.