Chapter 13

There were no missed calls or unread messages on his Mobile Phone — Chen Shuhui apparently couldn't care less that he'd stayed out all night. When he got home, Aunt Fang heard the door and hurried out of her room, anxious. 'Ranran's back! I was worried sick all night. I asked Madam to call you, but she said it was fine. Oh, thank goodness you're okay.'

'Something came up yesterday and it ran late, so I didn't come home,' Wen Ran said. 'Next time I'll definitely call. Sorry to make you worry.'

'It's fine, it's fine. Have you eaten breakfast? I'll go make you some.'

'I brought breakfast back with me, no need to cook. Thank you, Aunt Fang. I'm going upstairs to shower first — you go rest.'

'Okay, okay, just tell me if there's anything you'd like to eat.'

'Mm.'

He washed himself head to toe, wiped the steam off the mirror, and looked at his neck. No Neck Ring on. He sniffed hard, again and again — still couldn't smell his own Pheromone.

After drying his hair he sat down at his desk and opened the paper bag. He'd felt too awkward to eat in the car, and by the time he got home the bread had gone cold — but it still smelled great, crisp and soft. Wen Ran polished off five of them; each Croissant went down easy. He couldn't manage the sandwiches, so he took them downstairs and put them in the fridge.

Chen Shuhui happened to come back just then, so Wen Ran took the sandwiches out of the fridge again. 'Mom.' He called to her. 'Have you eaten breakfast?'

'Yes.' Chen Shuhui set her bag on the sofa. 'You spent the night at Gu Yunchi's Residence?'

'Mm, I fell asleep by accident. Nothing happened.'

Two people with a 97.5% AO Test compatibility rate spending a whole night in the same room and nothing happening — Chen Shuhui found that perfectly believable. 'Of course. Someone like you, who doesn't know how to climb up in the world — I never expected you'd manage anything with him.'

Truth was, even if he'd wanted to climb up, Gu Yunchi would've kicked him right back down... Wen Ran said, 'I can smell Gu Yunchi's Pheromone now, and he can smell mine. And my Pheromone seems to help him recover faster when he's sick.'

'Oh?' For once Chen Shuhui looked pleasantly surprised, even satisfied. 'Does Chairman Gu's side know?'

'They do. What they mean is... that from now on I should try to stay with Gu Yunchi whenever he's sick.'

Chen Shuhui let out a rather surprised laugh. 'Looks like a custom-built high compatibility really is worth something.' She walked over to Wen Ran and tapped his cheek with a finger. 'Same as always — you just keep your grip on Gu Yunchi. Best if you make him unable to do without you, make the Gu Family see you're the omega that suits him most. Understand?'

She went to pour herself some water as she spoke. Wen Ran pressed the back of his hand to the cheek she'd touched. It tingled. He said, 'I understand.'

The weekend passed, and early Monday morning the Preparatory School posted results. Wen Ran had passed the written exam and earned a place. He could start classes Tuesday — so today was probably his last day tutoring at Gu Yunchi's Residence.

Spending Friday night sleeping in the same room seemed to have deeply unsettled Gu Yunchi. After the morning lesson he just got up and left, instead of staying in the study to work problems like before. At noon Wen Ran came downstairs and found he'd already eaten and gone off to play games. Same in the afternoon. In short, he avoided sharing any space with Wen Ran, disgust written all over his face.

It almost made Wen Ran wonder if he'd robbed this hyper-promiscuous pervert of his virtue in his sleep that night.

'Don't take it to heart. You're not the only one he hates — honestly, he hates the whole world, you're just too close to him so you catch the worst of it...' BDH-339 comforted Wen Ran.

Wen Ran knelt on the floor, bent over, carefully pressing the tail fin into place, tightening the nut. He looked up and gave BDH-339 a happy little smile. 'It's assembled.'

'Wow... you're really amazing. Such a big plane, and you can take it all apart and put it back together.'

Wen Ran found a cloth in the toolbox and carefully wiped the dust and fingerprints off the model's shell. At sunset, orange-gold light spilled in through the floor-to-ceiling window and settled over him, a glow soft and gentle as porcelain. BDH-339 watched the side of his face, and as it watched it searched up dozens of pictures of pretty porcelain dolls to compare — the conclusion was that none of them looked as good as Wen Ran.

The model gleamed like new. Wen Ran picked up his Mobile Phone to take pictures, a little reluctant to be done. Even though Gu Yunchi couldn't stand him, on this one thing he'd been unexpectedly generous. It let Wen Ran briefly peel himself out of that small back bedroom at the Wen Family's that the sun never reached, gave him a chance to study mechanics courses and drawings without hiding from Chen Shuhui — relying on a small patch of territory Gu Yunchi tossed him offhand, he had a safe room of his own and could finish a project that others would find dull and pointless but that meant the world to him.

He took so many photos that Wen Ran even had a rather absurd thought — to print them out, make a copy of the hand-drawn diagrams too, and burn them all as an offering for Wen Ningyuan to see.

'Will you be an engineer someday?' BDH-339 asked suddenly.

Wen Ran was gathering up the scraps of paper on the floor. He paused. 'Probably not.'

'Why not? I think you've got real talent, and you love this stuff.'

'No reason,' Wen Ran answered. No reason — he could only do what Chen Shuhui told him to do. It had always been that way.

'Okay! But I still hope all your dreams come true,' BDH-339 said. 'Security brought a delivery — I'll go scan and check it.'

'Mm.'

With everything tidied up, Wen Ran stood and looked down at the model for a few seconds. After a moment's thought, he walked toward the Toy Room and saw that the glass case was still empty — nothing new had been put in it.

Wen Ran wasn't sure whether Gu Yunchi would have someone put the Helicopter Model back. Then he remembered Gu Yunchi saying that liking the same toy as him made his taste look terrible — so, no, he wouldn't.

One glance and he should've left, but his eyes landed on the turn at the far end. Last time he hadn't had a chance to finish looking around. Wen Ran hesitated, then walked forward, rounding the display case in front. He tilted his head to look — it was a tiny room with no door.

As he got closer the lights came on automatically. Wen Ran stopped. One wall was a huge glass case holding lots of toys and keepsakes that looked rather old; another was covered with photos — different countries, different seasons, each one labeled below with a place and date in Gu Yunchi's handwriting.

A bay and a Snow Mountain, jungle and grassland — some were just scenery, others were keepsake shots of Gu Yunchi skiing, climbing, or holding animals. The photos had no order, just pinned up at random, but by the dates you could tell the outer ones were the newest and the time stretched further back the closer you got to the center, the landscapes and solo shots of Gu Yunchi giving way to pictures of a couple together and family portraits.

At the very center of countless photos was a family portrait about fourteen inches across: a small young Alpha standing in front of a handsome Alpha and a delicate, lovely omega — Gu Yunchi and his parents.

The wooden frame had gone old, hanging on its nail by a thin, frayed piece of hemp cord — clearly never replaced or remade, kept in its most original form.

In the warm yellow light, Wen Ran looked at it intently. This corner felt far too special compared to the rest of the house, like a slowly beating heart — and it was Gu Yunchi who'd built it himself. Unbelievable.

Wen Ran remembered BDH-339 saying once that Gu Yunchi hated being photographed, yet a man who hated being photographed would still leave photos of himself from his travels — as if he'd collected countless toys, keepsakes, and pictures all so the parents in that portrait could witness everything he'd experienced of the world.

Leaning in a little, Wen Ran looked at the family portrait — so clean and clear it could've been taken yesterday. In it Gu Yunchi held his mother's hand, his body pressed against his father's leg, a faint smile on his face.

It was so quiet he could hear only his own breathing. Wen Ran's gaze moved up from the photo to that taut hemp cord, and for some reason he started to worry — he just felt it really should be reinforced to be safe. As he was thinking that, he heard a very, very faint 'click,' like something out of a ghost story, out of nowhere: one end of the cord suddenly tore free of the frame, and the family portrait dropped straight down, face-first, the sound of shattering glass piercing and sickening.

Such a precious, important photo — caught completely off guard, Wen Ran was still staring blankly at the wall. Only after a moment did he stiffly lower his head, brain unable to think, nothing left but instinct pushing him to crouch down and try to pick the photo up.

A pair of feet appeared at the doorway. Wen Ran looked up, dazed and frightened — why had the lights suddenly turned glaring? He looked at Gu Yunchi. 'I'm sorry, it... it just fell all of a sudden.' He could hear every word, but had no idea what he'd actually said. Just a blank.

He saw Gu Yunchi reach out toward him, and thought he was about to be slapped — even so he didn't flinch. But Gu Yunchi's fingers only hooked precisely through his Neck Ring and yanked his whole body upward.

The Neck Ring was custom-made to each omega's neck circumference, fitting close to the throat. One finger, two — Gu Yunchi forced three fingers in under the Neck Ring against Wen Ran's throat, knuckles jammed against his Adam's apple. His Gland flared with pain, his temples throbbed, and Wen Ran couldn't even scream — only a few hoarse, choked whimpers squeezed out of his throat. His legs gave way, and he couldn't stay standing — he crumpled to his knees.

Gu Yunchi let him collapse at his feet, hauling him up by the Neck Ring to force his head back and meet his eyes. His expression was calmer than ever before, no anger, no twisted snarl, his tone utterly flat. 'They don't want to see you.'

Subjected to too much force, the Neck Ring began beeping out a warning. His back was soaked with sweat. Wen Ran wept as he gripped Gu Yunchi's arm, mouth gaping like a fish out of water, struggling for breath, ears ringing and buzzing. In his daze he half-believed blood had already burst from his Gland and was running down the back of his neck.

'I'm sorry...' Hoarse, Wen Ran could only push out a thread of breath.

'Second time now.' Gu Yunchi looked down at him, voice still calm even over the alarm, and asked mildly, 'Does offending them give you a real thrill?'

Second time... where was there a second time? Wen Ran didn't understand at all — he could only shake his head hard to say no.

Gu Yunchi looked at him for a few seconds, then pulled his hand free. Air rushed into his throat. Wen Ran sank down onto his knees, one hand braced on the floor, the other clutching the back of his neck, coughing without stop. His Gland throbbed agonizingly, and before he could recover Gu Yunchi clamped a hand around the back of his head — an Alpha's hand was big, the web of his thumb catching Wen Ran's cheek, his thumb pressing just below his eye, forcing his head back up again.

He crouched in front of Wen Ran, level with those red, tearful eyes. 'Every time you play dumb and innocent it makes you so detestable. I don't want to watch you act, so I can't be bothered to argue with you. Is it really so hard to quit while you're ahead?'

So the cold words had actually been him holding back. So the plane model hadn't been generosity at all — just handing a despised person some worthless toy to keep busy, to keep him quiet and in line. Wen Ran's throat moved, and the last of his tears slid off his fingertips onto the back of Gu Yunchi's hand.

'Pleased with yourself, finding out your Pheromone works on me?' Gu Yunchi let go and stood, wiping the tears off the back of his hand, looking down from above. 'Next time you release your Pheromone while I'm sick, it won't be as simple as getting tossed out of the room.'

Wen Ran wiped his eyes and gave a hoarse 'Mm.' What could he argue? All he could do was own it, all of it. He climbed up off the floor and said, head bowed, 'I'll head back now.'

He walked past Gu Yunchi and out of the little room. The sun hadn't set yet. Wen Ran picked up his Backpack. The Helicopter Model still sat quietly on the carpet — the thing he'd never tired of looking at, he now only dared to glance at in passing.

He pushed open the front door, and BDH-339's voice came from behind. 'You're leaving? What's wrong with you?'

Wen Ran didn't turn around, just said, 'I'm going home.'

BDH-339 called after him, worried, but Wen Ran just kept walking forward. Soon a car caught up — BDH-339 had contacted the driver. The door opened, and Wen Ran wiped his face with his arm, said thanks, and bent to climb inside.