Jiang Ruobai lay in the hospital for a full week before the doctor finally allowed his discharge. During this period, the doctor explicitly warned Pei Sichen that they must refrain from any strenuous physical activity for at least the next month.
“Young man, you need to learn some restraint; otherwise, you will suffer the consequences in your old age.” The elderly doctor, having likely seen his fair share of life’s complications, gave Pei Sichen a stern lecture.
Pei Sichen kept a sullen expression throughout the entire lesson. He then sent his assistant to collect the medication while he went to the hospital room to pick up Jiang Ruobai and take him home.
In the room, Jiang Ruobai lay on the hospital bed with his eyes closed, his back turned to Pei Sichen as he entered. He made it clear that he had no intention of acknowledging him.
Unexpectedly, in the next second, he was grabbed by the wrist and pulled into an embrace. The perpetrator felt no shred of guilt for his actions; the smile curling at his lips caused a nameless anger to boil inside Jiang Ruobai, yet he dared not lash out.
His wrist stung from the tight grip, and his eyes instantly welled up with redness. “Let go.”
Pei Sichen hugged the quiet figure in his arms. Seeing Jiang Ruobai, who had been bullied so thoroughly by him that he dared not fight back and could only resist softly with red-rimmed eyes, Pei Sichen found him strangely intriguing.
To Pei Sichen, Jiang Ruobai looked like a rabbit with bristling fur. As he held him, inhaling the scent of his pheromones dulled by the antiseptic medicine, he rested his head on Jiang Ruobai’s shoulder. His medium-length black hair fell against the other’s neck; from a distance, they looked just like two lovers nestled together.
He forcefully pried open Jiang Ruobai’s fingers to interlock their hands.
Even though this Beta was so disobedient, Pei Sichen felt a strange sense of peace whenever he was near him.
It was like fireworks appearing in a desolate wasteland, sparking a glimmer of vitality into the long, lonely night.
Although Pei Sichen arguably did not need such fireworks, he was uncontrollably drawn to them. He wanted to keep these fireworks in his long night, yet he always felt they might vanish in an instant.
“Pei Sichen, I will not get pregnant, right?” Jiang Ruobai asked in a hoarse, quiet voice. He had already been tortured to the point of losing his dignity. If he were to become a monster, he would truly be driven to his death by Pei Sichen.
“If you were to become pregnant with my child, would you keep it?” Pei Sichen asked, testing him.
Silence is sometimes the best answer.
“Even if it were you, you would not keep it, would you?” Jiang Ruobai, who had remained silent, said with a touch of sarcasm.
“Baby, you know very well. With your status, you are not qualified to bear a Pei family heir.” Pei Sichen took Jiang Ruobai’s hand and slid it down to his lower abdomen, speaking each word slowly.
“Is that so? Then that is truly wonderful,” Jiang Ruobai murmured to himself, eyes lowered.
Upon hearing Pei Sichen’s definitive answer, he felt a sense of relief. This had been his primary concern since waking up.
Although it is difficult for a Beta to conceive, it is not entirely impossible.
That day, Pei Sichen had broken into that untouched territory like a wild beast. The memory of the pain from the forced knotting still felt suffocating and agonizing.
A Beta’s reproductive canal is narrow and dry, usually located very deep inside. The fact that Pei Sichen had been able to reach it left Jiang Ruobai feeling both horrified and shattered.
But what truly devastated him was that one-in-ten-thousand possibility. Just thinking that such a possibility existed made him feel as though his sanity was crumbling.
His dignity had already been ground to dust by Pei Sichen bit by bit. He really wanted to just die and put an end to it all.
However, he was not resigned to it.
He still had a wife to support and elderly parents to care for. If he died, he might find relief, but what would happen to his family? Who would take care of them?
That kind of desperate, radical behavior had vanished the moment he returned home to his family.
“Mr. Pei, when are we leaving? I am tired,” Jiang Ruobai asked weakly.
Being held by Pei Sichen all this time, smelling his pheromones, made him feel sick.
“As soon as Xiao Xu retrieves your medication, we will go home.”
“Mm.” Jiang Ruobai gently closed his eyes and said nothing more.
In the quiet room, Pei Sichen held that increasingly frail body. Looking at Jiang Ruobai, whose demeanor remained consistently cold, a sudden, intense feeling of unease welled up inside him.
He realized with a start that in this entanglement between him and Jiang Ruobai, it appeared that he was the one forcing Jiang Ruobai, yet it was actually Jiang Ruobai who was pulling his strings.
In this unequal drama, he had somehow ended up in the inferior position.
The young master, who had always acted as the victor high-handedly announcing the end of his affairs, had crashed his car over such a simple Beta. This made him feel frustrated while simultaneously feeling an uncontrollable sense of mania.
Perhaps, he could play a different game with Jiang Ruobai?
Driven by a surge of intense competitiveness fueled by his own excitement, a bold and crazy plan suddenly exploded in his mind.
He gripped Jiang Ruobai’s hand tightly, and with the fervor and madness of an addict, he uttered the words that shocked Jiang Ruobai to his core: “Jiang Ruobai, fall in love with me.”