Shen Zhinian led Bo Chengjing out of the room.
Just as they opened the door, a doctor happened to walk up to their doorway.
Startled by the sudden opening of the door, the doctor widened his eyes and stared at the two of them.
Soon, he caught the scent of pheromones.
The doctor was also an Alpha, and the moment he smelled this fiercely aggressive pheromone, his blood surged through his entire body.
The hairs on his body stood on end, as if every single one of them was bracing for battle.
He frowned, instinctively wanting to suppress it with his own pheromones.
However, noticing Bo Chengjing’s painful expression, he managed to restrain himself in time.
“What is wrong? Are you in your rut again?” Luo Shang asked in shock.
The last time Shen Zhinian was in his rut, Luo Shang had stayed here guarding him the entire time.
“No, it’s my brother,” Shen Zhinian said anxiously.
“Not a rut? The two of you in a room in broad daylight, kicking up pheromones this thick.” Luo Shang’s brain short-circuited for a second. Fortunately, Bo Chengjing still retained a shred of sanity; he mustered all his strength to grab Luo Shang’s arm, cutting him off.
“Oh, oh.” Luo Shang snapped back to reality and gave Shen Zhinian a push. When Shen Zhinian didn’t budge, he said, “Help him back to his room.”
Shen Zhinian directly picked Bo Chengjing up horizontally, kicked open the door to his bedroom, and laid him on the bed.
Luo Shang squatted by the bedside, hurriedly rummaging through the very bottom of his medical kit for an injection. He quickly sterilized a spot on Bo Chengjing’s arm and tore open the ampoule to inject it.
Once the injection was done, he let out a sigh of relief and started to pack up the medical waste.
Bo Chengjing grabbed his wrist once more.
“Hmm?” Luo Shang looked down at him.
“Give him another shot.” Most of Bo Chengjing’s face was buried in the pillow, his damp bangs clinging to his forehead. He looked at Luo Shang with his single visible eye.
Luo Shang saw his tear-rimmed, reddened eyes, glistening with moisture, and instinctively swallowed. “No.”
Shen Zhinian watched the two of them.
“Stop wasting time, just give it to him,” Bo Chengjing said.
Luo Shang didn’t move.
Bo Chengjing tightened his grip on Luo Shang’s wrist. “Hurry up.”
“You…” Luo Shang began.
“Inject it,” Bo Chengjing insisted stubbornly.
With no other choice, Luo Shang grabbed another dose and injected it into him.
Watching the medicine enter his body, Bo Chengjing closed his eyes as if drained of all strength, his hand falling limply to the side of the bed.
Luo Shang packed up the medical wrappers and closed the kit.
Shen Zhinian watched as he put away the two unlabelled ampoule packages.
“There’s another one in the study,” Bo Chengjing muttered with his eyes closed.
“Got it,” Luo Shang said irritably. “Go to sleep, stop worrying. The earth will keep spinning even without you.”
Bo Chengjing said nothing more.
Luo Shang pulled the blanket up to cover him, gave him one last look, and walked out.
Shen Zhinian looked at Bo Chengjing as well, then followed Luo Shang out.
Once the bedroom door closed, Shen Zhinian asked, “What is going on with my brother?”
Luo Shang looked at him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Shen Zhinian frowned.
“Did your pheromones spiral out of control?” Luo Shang asked. “No? Otherwise, how did you manage to control them the moment you stepped out of your room?”
“What are you trying to say?” Shen Zhinian demanded.
“His constitution is special; he is allergic to many kinds of pheromones,” Luo Shang said.
“What?” Shen Zhinian was both surprised and confused.
“Did you not understand?” Luo Shang took a deep breath, maintaining his professional composure as a doctor. “If you have a shred of conscience, kid, stop attacking him with your pheromones.”
Shen Zhinian looked at Luo Shang, pausing for a moment before saying, “Why didn’t I know about this?”
“How would you know anything if he doesn’t tell you?” Luo Shang retorted. “Does he ever talk about his troubles with anyone else? Doesn’t he always handle everything on his own?”
Shen Zhinian fell silent.
Luo Shang couldn’t be bothered with him either. “Keep your own pheromones under control.”
With that, he walked toward the study.
Shen Zhinian stood in place for a moment, then caught up with him. “What kind of medicine did you give him? Is it legitimate? Why was there nothing written on the packaging?”
Luo Shang stopped and looked at him.
Shen Zhinian stopped as well.
“Are you questioning the medicine I research?” Luo Shang asked.
“You researched it?” Shen Zhinian hadn’t been that suspicious at first, but hearing that it was self-researched made him even more worried.
“Don’t force me to fight you right now,” Luo Shang warned.
Completely ignoring the threat, Shen Zhinian pressed on, “Is it safe?”
“How much of my medicine have you used over the years? Tell me if it’s safe!” Luo Shang looked like he wanted to bite him.
“Leave mine out of this. My brother’s has to be safe,” Shen Zhinian said gravely.
Driven to the absolute limit of his patience, Luo Shang actually laughed. “Let me remind you: every medicine has its side effects. No matter how minor they are, he cannot keep taking medication indefinitely, especially when he’s taking a double dose. Figure it out yourself.”
Without another word, he walked straight into the study.
Shen Zhinian watched his back. After a long moment, he moved, turning back toward Bo Chengjing’s room.
He stood outside the door for another while before returning to his own room.
He opened the windows to air out his bedroom, grabbed a change of clothes, and went to a guest room to shower, washing away the lingering scent of his pheromones.
While he was in the shower, Luo Shang went to check on Bo Boyu in the study’s lounge. Finding him none the worse for wear, Luo Shang returned to Bo Chengjing’s room.
Bo Chengjing lay on the bed, seemingly having not moved at all, sleeping quietly.
His bangs fell across his forehead, concealing his eyebrows and revealing only a tiny fraction of his face.
The flush on his skin had yet to fade.
Luo Shang stood by the bedside, watching him.
Only at moments like this would Bo Chengjing shed his thorny exterior and drop his guard against the surroundings.
After watching for a moment, Luo Shang leaned down and touched Bo Chengjing’s forehead with the back of his hand.
The moment he made contact, Bo Chengjing caught his wrist.
Luo Shang was startled. He watched as Bo Chengjing slowly opened his eyes and gave a faint smile. “I thought you were asleep?”
“If I were asleep, what would you be planning to do?” Bo Chengjing’s voice was hoarse and very low.
“Am I a pervert? What could I possibly do?” Luo Shang replied.
Bo Chengjing rolled over onto his back, resting the back of his hand over his eyes, and said nothing.
Luo Shang remarked, “You weren’t waiting for me to come back, were you?”
“Mm,” Bo Chengjing murmured. “What did you tell Zhinian?”
Luo Shang let out a deep sigh. “Zhinian, Zhinian. Is there anyone else in your head besides him? It’s not like you don’t like him. Besides, the world is at peace now, and we are back home under the protection of state law. The laboratory has been eradicated, and your business is massive, so there’s no need to keep using medication to suppress your rut and your pheromones anymore. You could just tell him directly.”
“I don’t want to trap him by my side using pheromones,” Bo Chengjing said in a low, sluggish voice, his speech slow as he forced himself to speak through the lingering discomfort.
If not for Luo Shang’s timely double injection of medication earlier, his pheromones would have leaked out.
Now that his pheromones were suppressed, the forced sleep induced by the medicine didn’t feel pleasant either, and the body-softening lethargy caused by the Alpha pheromones hadn’t completely faded away.
“All these years, I’ve interfered with his life enough. Whoever he wants to love, I want him to choose for himself,” Bo Chengjing said weakly, “instead of me taking advantage of our extremely high pheromone compatibility to trick him into staying by my side, disrupting his judgment and his true feelings.”
“So, based on all these years of observation, you think he doesn’t like you?” Luo Shang asked.
Bo Chengjing remained silent.
At least for now, Shen Zhinian felt nothing more for him than brotherly affection.