Watching Shen Zhinian walk out of the study, Bo Chengjing turned to Bo Jue and asked, “Do you have your suppressants?”
“In my bag,” Bo Jue replied, gesturing toward the bag resting on the sofa.
Supporting him over to a seat, Bo Chengjing retrieved the suppressants from the bag, grabbed an alcohol swab from the coffee table to sterilize his arm, and administered the injection.
Leaning his head back against the sofa, Bo Jue felt moisture uncontrollably gather in the corners of his eyes as he desperately tried to regulate his breathing.
Once the injection was finished, Bo Chengjing asked, “Did it come early?”
“Mhm,” Bo Jue acknowledged softly. Sounding somewhat aggrieved and physically distressed, his voice trembled slightly. “It came about ten days early. I thought I’d already be home by then, but luckily I brought it with me.”
“The body can be affected by changes in the environment,” Bo Chengjing said. “There’s a rest room inside. Want to go lie down for a bit?”
Bo Jue gave a soft affirmation, but made no move to get up.
Bo Chengjing asked, “Can’t move?”
“No strength,” Bo Jue’s voice trembled even more.
Pheromones continually flooded the study, growing thicker and heavier by the second.
“Older brother, why don’t you head outside first,” Bo Jue suggested.
Bo Chengjing replied, “Let me help you to the rest room first.”
Bo Jue didn’t object.
Taking him by the arm, Bo Chengjing hoisted him straight up, guided him into the rest room, helped him lie down on the bed, and pulled the covers over him.
“Older brother, how wonderful it would be if the two of us had grown up together. You’re so good at taking care of people,” Bo Jue murmured, closing his eyes as his eyelashes grew damp.
Bo Chengjing said, “It comes from practice.”
A faint smile touched Bo Jue’s lips, and he said no more.
Bo Chengjing instructed, “Lie down and rest for a bit. I’ll call a doctor over.”
“Okay.”
Stepping out of the study, Bo Chengjing first called a doctor, gave brief instructions to the housekeeper, and then returned to his room to change his clothes.
His clothes were saturated with the scent of Bo Jue’s pheromones—a heavy aroma of jasmine.
Though he would have preferred to take a shower straight away, he feared that in the time it took to wash up, Shen Zhinian might practically dismantle the villa.
He needed to go check on him immediately.
Arriving at Shen Zhinian’s bedroom door, Bo Chengjing raised a hand and knocked.
There was no response.
Waiting a moment, Bo Chengjing turned the door handle.
Finding it unlocked, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Walking further in, he spotted Shen Zhinian standing by the floor-to-ceiling window.
Knowing someone had entered, Shen Zhinian didn’t move. He simply withdrew his gaze from the scenery outside the window when Bo Chengjing stepped up beside him, lowering his eyelids.
“Are you angry?” Bo Chengjing asked.
Shen Zhinian remained silent.
“I wasn’t yelling at you. His pheromones were just too strong, and I panicked,” Bo Chengjing explained. “I couldn’t control the volume of my voice.”
Still, Shen Zhinian said nothing.
Seeing him persist in his silence, Bo Chengjing called out softly, “Zhinian…”
“I’m planning to move out and rent a place,” Shen Zhinian cut him off.
Bo Chengjing’s expression froze. A fleeting flash of panic swept through his eyes, and his throat worked as he swallowed hard.
Yet by the time Shen Zhinian raised his eyes to look at him, he had already reined in his emotions, his expression returning to the gentle warmth he always reserved for Shen Zhinian.
Meeting that entirely normal expression, the chill in Shen Zhinian’s eyes piled up even higher. “The apartment is already rented. I came back today just to pick up some things, and I only exchanged a couple of words with Bo Jue in the study.”
Bo Chengjing nodded. Though he looked normal on the outside, his mind was actually blank. Having no idea what he ought to say, he could only nod in acknowledgment.
“I didn’t do anything to your precious little brother,” Shen Zhinian said coldly.
Bo Chengjing frowned slightly.
“If I had known he was about to go into heat, I wouldn’t have even set foot in that study,” Shen Zhinian continued icily.
“I know you didn’t, and you wouldn’t,” Bo Chengjing said. “I was just worried you’d be affected by his pheromones.”
Shen Zhinian didn’t speak.
After a brief silence, Bo Chengjing asked, “Where did you rent the place?”
“Near the school,” Shen Zhinian lowered his gaze again, a bellyful of suppressed fury burning inside him.
He was just that eager to get him to move out.
“I’m leaving,” Shen Zhinian dropped those three cold words.
Yet he didn’t move.
“Should I drive you?” Bo Chengjing offered.
Shen Zhinian felt like an inflated balloon on the verge of popping.
He was in that much of a rush to send him away!
Send him off so he could go dote on his real younger brother, right?
Slowly, Shen Zhinian clenched his fingertips.
Noticing his lack of response, Bo Chengjing instinctively raised a hand as if to ruffle his hair, but stopped midway, his hand freezing in mid-air.
Pausing for two seconds, he lowered his hand back down.
Seeing him raise and then drop his hand, Shen Zhinian strode forward, grabbed his wrist directly, and hauled his hand upward to press it flat against his own cheek.
Bo Chengjing’s pupils trembled slightly.
Pressing Bo Chengjing’s hand firmly against his skin so he could feel the warmth of his palm, Shen Zhinian said, “That day in the car, I wasn’t dodging your hand.”
Noticing the sudden redness in Shen Zhinian’s eyes, Bo Chengjing tried to pull his hand back.
He couldn’t yank it free.
“Zhinian…”
Turning his head while keeping a firm grip on Bo Chengjing’s hand, Shen Zhinian leaned over and bit down hard right into the web of Bo Chengjing’s thumb.
The brief moment of obedience and grievance vanished instantly, replaced by a fierce, raw hostility and a suffocating sense of aggression filling his eyes.
Bo Chengjing tugged his hand back with all his might once more.
This time, Shen Zhinian let go, but immediately replaced it by grabbing both of his wrists, planting his other hand firmly against Bo Chengjing’s shoulder, and shoving him backward until he pinned him straight against the wall.
“Zhinian,” Bo Chengjing called out to him again.
The moment the words left his mouth, Shen Zhinian’s pheromones suddenly burst outward into the room.
A thick, chillingly cold wave of scent slammed forward like a tidal wave, saturating every single inch of skin.
Bo Chengjing’s eyes widened sharply as his mind went blank for a fraction of a second.
With one hand holding Bo Chengjing’s shoulder and the other pinning his wrists against the wall, Shen Zhinian stared at Bo Chengjing’s shocked expression. Then, lowering his head, he buried his face into the crook of Bo Chengjing’s neck and growled in a low voice, “I don’t like having anyone else’s pheromones on you.”
Bo Chengjing’s hands gripped Shen Zhinian’s arms.
Yet the oppressive chill of the pheromones was far too invasive, rolling over him like an enormous breaker and soaking into his pores.
Unable to withstand it, Bo Chengjing’s breathing grew ragged and rushed.
“Zhinian…”
Consumed by anger, Shen Zhinian’s rationality had eroded entirely, leaving him completely oblivious to Bo Chengjing’s sudden change in state.
“Brother, do you not want me anymore?” Shen Zhinian’s voice was cold—terrifyingly cold.
With his face buried against Bo Chengjing’s shoulder, that low, chilling voice hammered relentlessly against Bo Chengjing’s heart.
Enveloped deeper and deeper by the pheromones, Bo Chengjing took a good long while before managing to reply, “No.”
He tried to shake off Shen Zhinian’s grip.
He lacked the strength.
Fearing that the moment he moved he would simply collapse to the floor, he didn’t dare thrash around.
He could only rely on a sliver of willpower to keep himself conscious.
“Then why are you distancing yourself from me?” Shen Zhinian demanded.
The chilling scent grew even heavier. Bo Chengjing’s heart raced wildly as his breathing began to spiral out of control.
“Zhinian, let go of me first. I’m not feeling well,” Bo Chengjing said.
Hearing his heavy, labored breathing, Shen Zhinian pulled back to look at him.
At the sight of Bo Chengjing’s flushed face and the tears welling up in the corners of his eyes,
the inflated balloon that was Shen Zhinian instantly deflated. Cupping Bo Chengjing’s face, he asked in a panic, “What’s wrong?”
Released from his grip, Bo Chengjing could no longer spare the energy to answer his question; he simply took two steps forward, only for his legs to turn to jelly and buckle beneath him.
Shen Zhinian hurriedly caught him.
Sensing his consciousness slipping away, Bo Chengjing gasped out, “Get me out of here, quickly…”