Study.
Bo Chengjing looked at the practice problems displayed on the tablet. They were all answered correctly.
They must have been written down while the class was ongoing.
Bo Chengjing asked, “Is it okay if I sign?”
“Mhm,” Bo Jue said obediently. “My mother already coordinated with the teacher.”
“Mhm,” Bo Chengjing nodded, picked up the pen, and signed his name.
Then, Bo Jue stood beside him, tapped the tablet a few times, and asked, “Brother, do you work like this every day?”
Bo Chengjing replied, “Pretty much.”
“That’s so boring,” Bo Jue said. “Dad still knows how to date, go on dates, and meet up with friends.”
Bo Chengjing chuckled. “He was busier than me when he was young, or else why would Mom have divorced him.”
“Oh,” Bo Jue said. “So what? Is this why you’ve stayed single?”
“What on earth are you trying to say, little undercover agent?” Bo Chengjing asked with a smile.
Shen Zhinian listened to Bo Chengjing’s voice, which was both gentle and laced with a smile.
Whether someone was a younger brother or not, he treated everyone this gently.
It turned out he wasn’t special after all.
As long as it was a younger brother, he acted this way toward them.
Shen Zhinian’s face grew colder and colder.
Realizing his cover was blown, Bo Jue glanced at Bo Chengjing, turned to leave, but after taking a few steps, he turned back and laid his cards on the table. “Fine, I’ll just tell you.”
“Mhm,” Bo Chengjing prompted him to continue.
“Dad gave me a mission this time,” Bo Jue said. “He’s worried the Bo family line will die out, so he sent me to investigate why you’re still single.”
“Aren’t you still around?” Bo Chengjing asked.
“But I’m an Omega,” Bo Jue said.
A subtle stiffness flashed deep within Bo Chengjing’s eyes before he quickly recovered and said, “He values Alphas over Omegas.”
“Brother, are you trying to drive a wedge between Dad and me?” Bo Jue asked.
“Mhm,” Bo Chengjing said. “Then, taking advantage of your father-son fallout, I’ll monopolize the family fortune.”
Bo Jue narrowed his eyes, and after two seconds, declared, “I don’t believe it.”
Shen Zhinian closed his computer, stood up, and walked straight out.
He didn’t want to listen to their brotherly affection here.
Watching him leave the study, Bo Chengjing lightly squeezed his fingertips.
Looking at the closed door, Bo Jue paused for a moment and said, “Brother, you aren’t single because of him, are you?”
Bo Chengjing lifted his gaze to look at him.
Withdrawing his gaze to meet his, Bo Jue said, “Isn’t his possessiveness over you a bit too strong? Does he stop you from dating?”
Bo Chengjing smiled. “I just haven’t met the right person yet.”
“Is that so?” Bo Jue asked.
“Yes,” Bo Chengjing said. “He’s not that old, yet he worries about plenty of things. Did you finish your class?”
“No,” Bo Jue sighed, walking toward the sofa. As he walked, he muttered, “One more lesson left. Those two went out to play and insisted on dragging me along. I took a leave of absence from school, but they forced me to take online classes. Now they find me in the way and dumped me here. So annoying.”
Bo Chengjing watched him sit back down on the sofa.
Leaning back in his seat, he thought of Shen Zhinian’s retreating figure just moments ago, and also of the “oh” with which Shen Zhinian had replied to Ye Qinghe.
“Oh” meant he agreed, right?
Bo Chengjing pressed his brow. Looking at that email on his computer that he had stared at for a long time, he read it through once more and replied with a couple of sentences.
Closing the email, he took out his phone and sent a text message to a number not saved in his contacts.
[When are you coming back? The medication is almost running out.]
After a moment, the other party replied: [Two weeks from now. Is the medication still enough?]
Bo Chengjing replied: [Yes.]
The other party replied again: [I’ll say it again. Although the side effects of the medicine are minor, they still exist. You’ve been using it for too long, and I don’t advise continuing.]
[Mhm, got it.]
Bo Chengjing waited for a moment, and seeing no further reply, he deleted their chat history.
After returning to his room, Shen Zhinian kept waiting for Bo Chengjing to come find him.
Yet midnight was approaching, and Bo Chengjing still hadn’t appeared.
Shen Zhinian paced back and forth in his room until he started feeling dizzy.
He opened the door, intending to go question Bo Chengjing.
The moment he opened it, however, he saw Bo Jue walking out of Bo Chengjing’s bedroom.
Annoyed, he slammed his door shut.
The sound was quite loud.
Startled, Bo Jue reached out to steady himself against the wall.
He had merely gone to borrow a charger, was that really not allowed?
With a temper this bad, how on earth did his older brother manage to live with him?
Shen Zhinian was convinced that Bo Chengjing had acquired a new younger brother and abandoned the old one.
Thus, two hours after the old younger brother slammed his door and retreated to his room, he ran away from home.
Bo Chengjing found out bright and early the next morning.
He immediately called Shen Zhinian, but the phone was turned off.
Then he called the bodyguard who usually followed Shen Zhinian.
Learning of Shen Zhinian’s whereabouts, he skipped breakfast and drove straight to find him.
Yet upon arriving downstairs at the hotel, he didn’t go upstairs.
During these past two months of business trips, he had been doing a lot of thinking.
Had he perhaps taken care of Shen Zhinian too much?
Was that why Shen Zhinian relied on him so heavily and harbored such intense possessiveness toward him?
Had this excessive care caused Shen Zhinian to deviate from his original path?
He inevitably harbored selfish motives, especially living together day in and day out; sometimes he truly couldn’t help guiding him.
Yet Shen Zhinian deserved to have his own life, his own judgment, and his own choices.
While he preached about letting Shen Zhinian go out and interact with more people, whenever Shen Zhinian actually built his own social circle, he couldn’t help feeling a sense of loss.
He even felt a sense of crisis.
Sitting downstairs at the hotel, Bo Chengjing looked up at the floor where Shen Zhinian was staying, and ultimately chose to drive away.
For the next two days, Shen Zhinian and Bo Chengjing did not see each other.
They met again on Saturday.
Bo Chengjing had lunch with a business partner, had a free afternoon, and headed straight home afterward.
Upon returning, the housekeeper told him that Shen Zhinian was back and currently in the upstairs study, along with Bo Jue.
The two of them had been inside for over half an hour.
Curious that they had actually managed to coexist peacefully for so long, Bo Chengjing was startled when a sound of something shattering suddenly echoed from the study.
He hurried upstairs.
Pushing open the study door, the first thing he caught was a faint scent of jasmine.
Bo Jue was clutching his gland with one hand while propping himself against the edge of the desk with the other.
On the other side of the desk, Shen Zhinian had extended a hand, wanting to steady him. But having caught the scent of pheromones as well, his hand froze mid-motion, and he stood there dumbfounded.
Bo Chengjing stepped rapidly into the study and caught Bo Jue.
As strength gradually drained from Bo Jue’s arms, he looked up at him. “Brother, I…”
Shen Zhinian looked at Bo Chengjing.
Bo Chengjing looked back at him as well. “Get out.”
“I…” Shen Zhinian stood motionless, about to say something.
Bo Chengjing cast another glance at him.
Meeting that tense, stern gaze, Shen Zhinian felt a violent tremor deep within his pupils. Uttering not another word, he walked straight out of the study.