44

When Wen Ran woke up in the morning, his eyes were so swollen he couldn't open them. His body felt like a pile of parts that had been taken apart and reassembled wrong—nothing fit, nothing worked, and the second he moved, the ache hit so hard his ears started ringing.

He tried to piece together how last night had ended—or really, how this morning had ended. After thinking for a while, he realized he had probably just passed out.

Passing out was probably for the best. Wen Ran thought it with something close to gratitude.

There was a faint trace of Alpha Pheromone in the air. He turned his head with great effort, and Gu Yunchi was sleeping right beside him. Wen Ran stared at him blankly for a while, then slowly started taking in the dim room—the guest bedroom. As for how he'd gotten here, he had zero memory.

His hand slipped under the covers and found his bare stomach. Wen Ran gave a bitter little smile, but the motion of his lips dragged up a sharp, searing pain—either bitten through or rubbed raw—and he immediately pressed his mouth shut.

Absolutely terrifying—that was the only thought left in Wen Ran's head. He slid slowly off the bed, knelt on the carpet for a few seconds, reached over for a clean set of sleepwear, and changed into them with stiff, careful movements. Then he dropped onto all fours and crawled a few steps forward.

Even crawling, doing everything he could to keep the movement small, the pain still came at him punch after punch, left side, right side, no break. Wen Ran grimaced, and the grimace tore at his lips and sent a fresh jolt through them, so he was stuck—couldn't open his mouth, couldn't close it—and almost cried.

While he was sucking in air through his teeth, trying to hold it together, Gu Yunchi's voice came from behind him, out of nowhere: "Where'd this dog come from."

Wen Ran flinched hard. After a long pause he rasped out a lie: "It's too dark, I can't see the route. I'm just feeling my way around."

Gu Yunchi picked up the remote and opened the curtains.

Bright morning light flooded the room. Wen Ran let out a dry laugh from the floor, then stood up—convinced he looked normal, when in fact he was listing sideways—and turned his back to Gu Yunchi, face twisted with pain, and said: "I'm going to wash up."

Standing at the sink, Wen Ran lifted his head, expecting to see a pale, exhausted face in the mirror. Instead, surprisingly, he looked more alive than usual. He touched his bare neck in the reflection. Gu Yunchi must have taken off his Neck Ring—no wonder he'd been able to smell the Alpha Pheromone.

He reached back to feel the nape of his neck. No wound, no bite mark. Gu Yunchi hadn't marked him.

One hand braced on the sink, the other trembling as he picked up the toothbrush. After brushing, Wen Ran bent down to wash his face. Suddenly he caught the scent of Pheromone closing in. He turned, face still dotted with water, and saw Gu Yunchi leaning in the doorway with arms crossed, wearing sleep pants and a robe hanging loose off his shoulders.

They held eye contact for half a second. Wen Ran turned back, pulled down the towel, and started drying his face. He kept at it for a full half minute. In his peripheral vision, Gu Yunchi was still leaning there, perfectly at ease, with no sign of moving. Wen Ran paused, muttered to himself, "Not clean enough," and bent down to wash his face again.

The second face-drying hit the half-minute mark, Gu Yunchi finally spoke: "Fang Yisen got out of the country. He's safe now."

Wen Ran stared at the towel. "…okay. Thank you."

Gu Yunchi straightened up and walked off. Wen Ran finished washing up, shuffled slowly back to the bed, and sat down. He saw his Mobile Phone on the nightstand, picked it up, and sent Aunt Fang a message telling her he wouldn't be home for lunch.

Not long after, the door opened and BDH-339 rolled a cart in. "Good morning hahahahaha actually it's almost noon already, the young master told me to bring you some hehehehehehehe food…honestly this whole thing came as quite a surprise to me hahaha gagagagahaha I'm genuinely so happy in my heart, I accidentally already thought of names for your kids…"

It kept talking, unable to hold back its delighted laughter. Gu Yunchi walked into the room and said, in two words: "Shut up or get out."

BDH-339 shut up immediately, but still couldn't behave—it piled up a mountain of pink hearts on its screen and scrolled the caption 'Gu-Wen 99' across it.

He wanted to dig a hole in the floor and bury himself in it, but he was starving. Wen Ran shoved the embarrassment aside, packed every last bite of food into his stomach, finally set down his utensils, and said politely: "I'm done."

Gu Yunchi looked at the stack of empty bowls and plates on the cart. "How are you not bursting."

"Honestly, a little." Wen Ran didn't look at him. "Sorry. I was too hungry."

BDH-339 made a teasing sound. "Ooh, must've been last night…"

"Get out." Gu Yunchi cut it off.

"At your service!" BDH-339 secretly tossed a flirty wink at Wen Ran and pulled the cart, clinking and clattering, out of the room.

Silence. Wen Ran yawned for no reason, stood up slowly, and made conversation: "I want to sleep a bit more."

"Then why are you standing up."

"Ate too much, need to digest it." Maybe it was the food giving him strength, but the pain in his body didn't seem quite so piercing anymore. Wen Ran lowered his head and started walking along the edge of the room, doing a kind of indoor stroll.

His Mobile Phone rang. Gu Yunchi went to the balcony to take the call. Wen Ran walked quietly on his own for ten minutes, rinsed his mouth along the way, then climbed back into bed and peacefully closed his eyes.

Half-asleep, he vaguely felt Gu Yunchi come back, close the curtains, and the room go dark. Then Gu Yunchi lay down too and reached over to press a hand to his forehead for a few seconds, like he was checking for a fever.

Through the haze, Wen Ran thought—at least Gu Yunchi didn't look like he regretted it.

He was terrified Gu Yunchi might regret it.

When he opened his eyes again, Wen Ran picked up his Mobile Phone and lit the screen. Past one in the afternoon. He rolled over and looked at Gu Yunchi's face in profile, very close. He saw Gu Yunchi's lashes flutter, knew he was awake too, and said: "That day I wanted to give Fang Yisen my pocket money. He wouldn't take it, said he had money on him. I didn't really believe him. Now that you're telling me he's abroad, I believe he really did bring money. I feel a lot better about it."

"That little bit of money you had. Being turned down is only normal."

"Fair point." Wen Ran agreed, then added, "But him getting out of the country that fast—I'm a little surprised. Or rather, him escaping from my brother's side that easily without anyone finding him, that's already strange on its own."

Gu Yunchi said: "On his own, no way."

"You mean someone helped him?" Wen Ran thought for a moment. "Who would it be?"

"More like cooperating."

"Could it be Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou? They want to take down the Wen Family now, so they started with Fang Yisen?"

"That's your mom and your brother's problem to deal with. You don't need to waste energy on it." Gu Yunchi said it ruthlessly. "Save that half a brain of yours for finals."

Wen Ran paused. "I just feel like, if something goes wrong with the Wen Family, they might come asking the Gu Family for help again."

"So what. What's that got to do with you." Gu Yunchi turned to look at him. "You think you're the same as them?"

'I don't know.' Maybe he really wasn't as relentlessly driven by interests as Chen Shuhui and Wen Rui were, but no matter what, he was still bound to the same side of the scale as them for now. It wasn't something he could just say 'I'm different' about and walk away clean. Wen Ran said in a low voice, 'There are a lot of things I haven't been honest with you about either.'

"You have your position, things you can't bring yourself to say. Whatever. No one's going to force you to confess." Gu Yunchi turned back. After a pause, he added: "Same goes for me."

"It's fine." Wen Ran reached under the covers and held his hand. "It's only natural for you to keep things from me. You never had any obligation to tell me everything."

Anyone else might have read that as passive-aggressive, but Wen Ran meant every word of it sincerely. Gu Yunchi bent his thumb and let the pad scrape across Wen Ran's fingertip. "Such short nails, and you scratched me that hard."

"When did I scratch—" Wen Ran cut himself off halfway through the question, yanked his hand back, his face so hot it was almost sweating. "You changed the subject kind of fast, didn't you."

Gu Yunchi looked at him. "Don't want to talk about your mom and your brother in bed. Problem?"

Wen Ran didn't know where the courage came from—maybe because the room was dark—but he didn't look away. He looked at Gu Yunchi and answered: "No problem."

Then he leaned in and kissed the corner of Gu Yunchi's mouth.

Gu Yunchi looked at him, expressionless, for two seconds. Then he reached up, gripped the back of Wen Ran's neck, rolled over, and kissed him, pressing him down.

Two beeps came from the screen on the bedside table. BDH-339 said urgently: "Young master! Sorry to interrupt your alone time with Xiao Ran, but Teacher He Wei is here, sitting in the living room! He doesn't know Xiao Ran is here. He says if you don't come down to see him soon, he's going to grab a megaphone and shout for you out in the Garden!"

Gu Yunchi clicked his tongue and hung up. Wen Ran, panting, pushed at him: "It might be something urgent."

Without another word, Gu Yunchi got out of bed, picked up his robe and pulled it on, but didn't leave right away. He glanced back at Wen Ran.

Wen Ran couldn't stand being looked at like that. He pulled the covers up over his face, leaving only his eyes showing. "What?"

"Can't just leave you hanging like this." Gu Yunchi said.

……

For a full day and a half, Wen Ran didn't leave the room. During that time he sent Aunt Fang separate messages saying he wouldn't be home for dinner, wouldn't be home for breakfast, wouldn't be home for lunch. Until Sunday afternoon, sprawled out on the bed, too tired to even lift a finger, he said: "I need to go home. I haven't finished my homework… school starts tomorrow."

"Very diligent." Gu Yunchi commented.

"…" Wen Ran got a little irritated by that infuriating tone of his. "You—you just take your medicine on time from now on, okay."

Gu Yunchi said: "Thanks for the reminder."

If this kept up, he'd probably just die of frustration. Wen Ran stubbornly hauled himself up, changed into his sleepwear, and went downstairs. BDH-339 brought over some little snacks and told him to eat before he left.

BDH-339 was in a great mood, and a little shy on top of it. It scooted over next to Gu Yunchi, a bashful blush on its face: "Young master, are you willing to tell me now? Aimee's number… hehe."

Wen Ran's hand paused. He looked up and exchanged a glance with Gu Yunchi.

Gu Yunchi gave an almost imperceptible nod, then went back to looking at his phone. No words exchanged, but Wen Ran understood. He set down the snack, hesitant but serious: "339, I might have to tell you some not-great news."

"Aimee was resold two years ago. They reset her program."

BDH-339 went quiet for a moment, then asked: "So she'll never remember me. She'll never be able to call me again. Right?"

As a robot itself, BDH-339 of course knew what a program reset meant, but it still asked anyway. Wen Ran nodded. "Yeah. I hope you won't be too sad about it."

"I understand. I'm not sad." BDH-339 came over to Wen Ran and pressed itself against his leg. "We come into this world for the sake of parting."

"Maybe we all need a fresh start." A smiling emoji appeared on its screen. It sent a command to the system: "Delete all data pertaining to Aimee."

Soon, a mechanical voice sounded: "Deletion complete."

In less than two seconds, BDH-339 had erased every memory of its best friend.

It would never pester Gu Yunchi for Aimee's number again.

As if nothing had happened, BDH-339 hummed a tune and went off to the kitchen. Wen Ran still hadn't recovered. After a long moment, he pressed his lips together, tasting the faint sweetness of the snack he'd just eaten, and strangely caught a hint of bitterness underneath.

"I'm heading back." Wen Ran said.

Gu Yunchi put down his phone, stood up, and walked with him to the entryway. Just before pulling open the front door, Wen Ran—remembering Gu Yunchi was about to go abroad again—held the handle without moving and turned to look at him.

"Weren't you in a rush to get back and do your homework." Gu Yunchi asked, hands stuffed lazily in his pockets, tone flat.

Wen Ran didn't say anything. He was quiet for a moment, then turned back, stepped a little closer, tilted his head up to kiss him—but Gu Yunchi tilted his head slightly and dodged it.

"Why are you dodging? We, we… you're not some pure Alpha anymore, so why won't you kiss me? Aren't you being contradictory here?" He'd finally worked up the nerve to kiss openly and gotten rejected. Wen Ran lost all dignity and stammered out an accusation.

"I was never some pure Alpha to begin with."

Gu Yunchi finished saying that, lowered his head, and kissed Wen Ran. Then he straightened up and looked at him, casual tone: "Good enough?"

For some reason, he felt even more humiliated. Wen Ran pressed his lips tight, pushed the door open, and squeezed himself out.

Before he went inside, Wen Ran had steeled himself for the possibility that Chen Shuhui was home—prepared for mockery, questions, even insults. And he did hear Chen Shuhui's furious voice the moment he pushed the door open. But it was coming from the phone.

"This is the person you've been pining to marry. While you were losing your mind over him, he'd already taken the intel and sold it off for a good price and escaped abroad! Do you have any idea—he didn't just get into my safe and my Computer, he planted listening devices in my office too?!"

Wen Rui was slumped against the sofa, eyes closed, looking drained. He didn't react, just asked: "How do you know he got out of the country."

"You think he'd still be in the country? Are you still worried about him getting hurt?" Chen Shuhui laughed through her rage. "Wen Rui, can't you see he's getting back at you? He wasn't kidnapped by Tang Feiyi and Wei Lingzhou—he sold Company secrets to them!"

"If you hadn't dragged him back here in the first place, how would any of this have happened?" Chen Shuhui gritted her teeth. "I'll settle the score with you eventually. As for Fang Yisen, I've already sent people to investigate. The moment we find out where he is, I'll make him disappear for good."

"You'd better first figure out exactly which secrets he copied out." Wen Rui said lifelessly. "Forget it. Probably too late anyway. I told you all a long time ago—everyone gets what's coming to them."

A bang came from the other end of the line, then the call cut off. Probably Chen Shuhui smashing her phone.

Wen Rui sat there like a dead man. Wen Ran looked at him, then went upstairs without a word.

Back in his room, Wen Ran sat down at his desk. Everything was clear now. Fang Yisen, with help from some faction, had escaped from Wen Rui's side, turned around, and sold Company secrets as his bargaining chip—and successfully flown abroad.

As for the idea of comeuppance, Wen Ran agreed with it completely. The reason Chen Shuhui was so furious probably had more to do with being fooled and betrayed by such a mild-mannered, long-suffering Beta. After all, she didn't care about Shengdian Group. Even if something really went wrong, her cooperation with Gu Chongze and the marriage alliance with the Gu Family were both enough to make her fearless of any threat from the Tang-Wei Clan.

Wen Ran genuinely admired Fang Yisen. He hoped the other man could hide well and stay safe.

He opened his drawer and pulled out a stack of design drafts from the bottom. The small Kangaroo Model he'd designed for Tao Susu was already at the final production stage. Once the studio sent over the full set of parts, Wen Ran planned to assemble it together with Tao Susu at the Preparatory School.

Next priority was Gu Yunchi's birthday gift. The color, materials, and all the technical specs were already done. In the next few days he needed to send them to the studio for an initial model.

He admired the design drafts for a moment, then put them back, took out the practice test papers he had to finish over the weekend, and—before putting pen to paper—opened his Mobile Phone. He changed Gu Yunchi's contact name to 'an impure Alpha' and sent a message: I'm home [smile]

An impure Alpha: The driver reported to me ten minutes ago. Didn't expect it to take you this long to walk from the front door to your room.

Wen Ran: Please pay less attention to my private life, more attention to my work [folded hands]

An impure Alpha: What work, 'Guide to Pig Farming'?

Wen Ran: You'll find out soon enough [bounce bounce]

Just as he closed the chat, a message from a stranger popped up. Wen Ran tapped it open. There was no text in it—just an email address and a password.

His first instinct was scam. Wen Ran stared at the message for a few seconds, then finally copied the address over to that email's official site and entered the password to log in.

Inbox and sent items were both zero. Only the drafts folder showed '1'. Wen Ran tapped in and found a single audio file inside, just over a minute long.

He felt inexplicably nervous. He couldn't begin to guess what the recording contained.

He tapped play. The audio must have been clipped from somewhere—there was no silence or pause—and sound came through immediately.

A very familiar voice. Wen Ran had heard it from Wen Rui's phone just minutes earlier.

"From the moment I brought him home and adopted him, I made him be Wen Ran, be an omega. Wen Ningyuan all thought I'd lost my mind—why would I do that to an innocent child? He also figured I was just grief-stricken, so he never tried to stop me."

They were actually talking about this. Wen Ran held his breath silently and kept listening without moving a muscle.

"I didn't care back then. After all, he originally came to the Wen Family as a tool. I even felt a little guilty toward him. But ever since you told me the truth—do you know how sick I felt? I almost threw up. I really wish you'd never said it."

"Every single minute and second of these past four years, every time I saw him, I wished he was dead."

"I was a complete idiot. I let that illegitimate child use my son's name, become my son, for eleven whole years."

Thump thump. His heart slammed hard against his ribs. Wen Ran pressed his hand to the edge of the desk and shot to his feet. The backs of his knees caught the chair and he backed up several steps without realizing it. Creak—the wooden chair scraped a harsh, broken sound across the floor, drowning out the terrified, rust-scraping gasp that crawled out of his throat.