Chapter 14: Restless Thoughts
After leaving the kitchen, Fu Rangyi calmed his emotions.
He asked a passing servant and learned that Zhu Zhixi was on the lawn in the backyard. For some reason, he let out a breath of relief and walked that way.
The night was deep. Golden star lights adorned the pines and cypresses. The gardener had trimmed the backyard plants not long ago, and the broken branches had only been cleared away that morning. He pushed open the glass door, and the cold wave rushed toward him, wrapped in the very unseasonal scent of green grass.
Following the cobblestone path, Fu Rangyi passed through the garden. Two lush evergreen trees blocked his view. Before he even reached the large lawn, he heard Zhu Zhixi’s laughter.
“No, I’m tired. I need to sit for a bit.” Zhu Zhixi’s voice drew closer, and his figure also appeared through the gaps in the branches and leaves.
He gave up on the chasing game with the dog and walked over to sit on the bench.
But Ruby still enthusiastically chased after him with the ball in its mouth. Fu Liaoxing also walked over and sat down on the same bench with him.
Fu Rangyi heard his younger brother’s long sigh. This was usually the prelude to him starting a topic.
“Although Ruby is already very old, she still has a lot of energy,” Fu Liaoxing said. “But this is the first time she’s liked a stranger this much. She’s usually very selective.”
“Really?” Zhu Zhixi’s voice carried a smile.
The layers of leaves separated out a small, clear field of vision. In the dim light, Zhu Zhixi bent down and rubbed Ruby’s head again, stroking her long fur.
“I like you a lot too, Ruby. How can there be a creature as cute as a little dog?”
The voices grew closer and closer. Fu Rangyi’s footsteps also became lighter, stopping and starting. His mind felt a little blank, his hands were numb from the cold, as if only his hearing were still operating.
“Eh? You’re not wearing a wedding ring?”
“Ah.” Zhu Zhixi glanced at his own hand. “We haven’t bought them yet.”
“Still haven’t bought them?” Fu Liaoxing laughed. “That shouldn’t be. My brother plans even very small things in advance and absolutely never procrastinates, let alone something this important.”
Zhu Zhixi was silent for a few seconds, seeming to think about how to cover for him.
In the end, he smiled and said, “I’m just too picky. I didn’t like any of the ones he chose, so we haven’t settled on one yet.”
“Really?” Fu Liaoxing kept his head tilted. “He’s not such a democratic person. I thought he would decide by himself. How strange. So far, everything related to the marriage doesn’t seem like something he would do.”
Zhu Zhixi’s tone carried a smile, still casual and light. “That’s exactly why it shouldn’t seem like him.”
“What do you mean?”
“A person who always follows the rules and is used to planning everything suddenly breaks his principles and plans one day, then gets married eagerly without preparing anything. That’s very romantic.”
Fu Rangyi slowly blinked.
He even admired Zhu Zhixi a little. Zhu Zhixi rounded out the lie so naturally and confidently, as if they had truly gotten together that way.
But after hearing all this, Fu Liaoxing silently watched him for a long time.
A sense of insecurity surged up, making Fu Rangyi uncomfortable. He decided to step forward and stop this overstepping conversation before the lie was exposed.
However, his younger brother spoke first.
“If I had known earlier that you were so…” Fu Liaoxing struggled for a moment over his wording before finally choosing a neutral word, “…fun, I would have gone on the blind date myself.”
Fu Rangyi’s footsteps stopped.
The entire garden, along with the lawn, became very quiet. Only the faint sound of wind brushing through leaves remained, along with the dog’s continuous panting.
Out of an instinctive reaction of prey being coveted, the Alpha pheromones inside his body fluctuated violently. In that instant, he became sensitive and violent.
Fu Rangyi utterly loathed this animalistic instinct. For the first half of his life, he had done everything he could to wrestle against it.
So he worked hard to suppress it all, frowning as he forced himself to turn around.
The strawberries were very heavy. Holding them was tiring. They could be eaten anywhere. There was not much meaning to it.
Making jam really was the better choice.
However, Zhu Zhixi’s laugh broke the silence surging with undercurrents.
“There is no ‘if I had known earlier.’”
Zhu Zhixi’s voice was unexpectedly calm. The childishness that often accompanied every sentence of his had vanished entirely, making Fu Rangyi think of how he had looked in the car.
Clearly, Fu Liaoxing was also somewhat surprised and could not answer for a moment.
But Zhu Zhixi did not intend to stop there.
“Besides, if it really had been you, I probably wouldn’t have appeared here today.”
When he said this, he carried a gentle smile, making the words sound less hurtful.
After listening, Fu Liaoxing smiled and asked, “Is that so?”
“Yes.” That bit of smile disappeared too. Zhu Zhixi was so serious that he seemed like a different person, cold and clear-sighted.
“Little brother, our relationship is really not suitable for this kind of joke.”
Fu Liaoxing froze completely.
In those few quiet seconds, Fu Rangyi badly wanted to see Zhu Zhixi’s face, to know what kind of expression he had now. But he could only see his thin shoulders.
Very soon, he heard Zhu Zhixi’s bright laughter.
“Was I too serious? Did I scare you?”
“Sorry. It’s because I really like your brother. Hearing that kind of joke makes me feel a little offended.” He spoke the lie naturally and beautifully, so sincere it almost sounded real.
“No, no, I was too abrupt. I didn’t expect your relationship to be this good. Love at first sight happening to my brother really is magical. He… He’s indifferent toward everything.”
“Indifferent… You all think that.” Zhu Zhixi muttered softly. “He’s not like that with me.”
Only this final sentence sounded most like his usual self.
In the darkness, Fu Rangyi felt that something was glowing. After a few seconds, he suddenly realized that the source of the light was his suppressor bracelet. It had been lit for a long time.
He raised his hand and touched it, canceling the abnormal data fluctuation alert. Only then did the firefly-like glow gradually dim and disappear.
Fu Rangyi frowned and directly left this place of trouble.
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the bedroom door. Just from the rhythm, he knew who it was. At home, he had already been disturbed by this knocking sound enough times to develop recognition ability.
“Come in.”
Sure enough, the knocker opened a small crack, squeezed inside, and closed the door.
Fu Rangyi had his back to the door, sitting at the desk and checking a model. He did not turn around. Even so, it was still difficult to ignore the intruder’s footsteps.
Although he had stopped watching long ago, he casually closed the video website page anyway.
“Fu Rangyi.” Zhu Zhixi came to his side and lowered his voice. “What do we do? Your mom wants us to stay here tonight.”
A hand naturally grabbed the collar of his pajamas, sliding back and forth along the edge as if playing with a toy.
“Mm. I don’t have Alpha virtue, but I do have mysophobia.”
“Then after I sleep in it, just throw away the bedsheets and duvet cover.” Zhu Zhixi was not very polite either. “If that’s not enough, replace the whole bed. Burn it.”
Fu Rangyi had his back to him and did not answer. He was still typing away.
“Hey, Fu Rangyi.”
“What?” He was busy replying to a student’s message.
“Nothing. Turn around for a second.”
Fu Rangyi really did not want to move, but after two seconds of silence, he still turned his chair around.
He turned back and was just about to ask, “What exactly do you want?” But in the next second, he saw Zhu Zhixi directly sitting on his bed, raising his brows very smugly.
“Oh no.” Zhu Zhixi deliberately placed his hand on the edge of Fu Rangyi’s bed, stroked it, then patted it. His movements were slow and leisurely, his tone sticky and soft.
“Poor bed. You’re about to be replaced.”
Fu Rangyi closed his eyes, took a deep breath, turned back around, and rubbed his temple.
The student’s chat window lit up. For the moment, he ignored the bad thing occupying his bed and clicked open the message.
[Teacher Fu, the message you just sent—did you make a typo? I didn’t quite understand it, and I’m afraid there might be ambiguity. Could you please take another look and reply again?]
He scrolled up to what he had just sent, and his vision darkened even more.
What kind of mess was this?
It was all Zhu Zhixi’s fault for interrupting him from the side.
After correcting the typos and the jumbled word order, Fu Rangyi sent it again.
[Sorry. The little dog at home was making trouble just now.]
“You still have to work?”
Fu Rangyi found it somewhat inexplicable, both toward Zhu Zhixi and toward himself.
“What do you want to do?”
“Nothing.” Zhu Zhixi’s tone floated lightly. “Just shower, get in bed, and sleep. I’m too tired. I can barely keep my eyes open.”
Fu Rangyi asked back, “So? Do you want me to wash you?”
“That won’t be necessary. The great professor is so busy.” Zhu Zhixi smiled cheerfully. “I just wanted to borrow a set of pajamas from you. I didn’t think we’d have to stay the night after dinner, so I didn’t bring anything.”
Fu Rangyi was made somewhat restless and irritated by him.
He stood up directly, opened the wardrobe, took out a brand-new set of pajamas he had never worn, along with new toiletries, and stuffed them all into the young master’s arms.
“Is that enough?”
Zhu Zhixi lifted his face, nodded repeatedly, blinked, and smiled at him.
Rabbit.
A cunning rabbit.
Fu Rangyi returned to the desk and listened to Zhu Zhixi’s sticky footsteps as he wore slippers, opened the door, closed the door, the sound of running water, and the strange song he hummed.
He removed his glasses and breathed out. His eyes drifted to the fruit plate at the corner of the desk. There were still a few scattered strawberries left on it. He picked one up, hesitated for a moment, and still ate it.
Too sour.
So sour that he frowned and drank water to wash it down.
No wonder they could only be used for jam. How did he eat them? And he finished them all.
Since he finished them all, he probably did not think they tasted bad.
By the time Fu Rangyi finished dealing with his student’s messages, the bathroom door opened again. He smelled a clear scent of body wash, along with damp moisture, approaching bit by bit.
Just when he thought Zhu Zhixi would say something like “I’m done washing,” he instead heard the person behind him suddenly make a questioning sound, a little noise that came from his nose.
“You took off your bracelet?”
Fu Rangyi frowned and turned back, only to see Zhu Zhixi picking up the bracelet he had just placed beside the desk and examining it seriously.
His gaze also moved down from the bracelet.
Wrist, cuff, a small stretch of fair forearm.
This set of pajamas was too big on him, loose and baggy. Coupled with his damp hair, he looked very improper.
Especially the collar. It was simply far too wide, exposing all of his collarbones.
“It’s quite pretty. The craftsmanship is really good.” Zhu Zhixi had not noticed Fu Rangyi’s gaze at all and was focused on playing with the bracelet. Because he had no authorization and had never connected to it, the suppressor bracelet showed no reaction in his hands.
He lowered his eyes. The red mole on his eyelid was as conspicuous as the teeth-achingly sour strawberries on the desk.
“You really can’t tell it’s a suppressor at all. It looks like a platinum bangle…” The bracelet was very large for him and could be slipped directly onto his hand without unlocking. He tried it on with absolutely no sense of boundaries, and Fu Rangyi did not stop him either.
“So you don’t wear it when you’re at your own home? Is it because you feel safer at home?”
Because this damned thing kept alarming for no reason.
Once it alarmed, there would be a faint electric current sensation, making the wearer uncomfortable. Of course, that was not the most troublesome part.
Fu Rangyi did not plan to tell the truth and casually made up an excuse. “Because I’m about to shower too.”
Zhu Zhixi was shocked. “This thing is so expensive and it isn’t waterproof? What a scam.”
Fu Rangyi fell silent.
“Next time it’s your birthday, I’ll give you a waterproof one.” Zhu Zhixi generously said this and took it off. “So you won’t have to take it off just to shower.”
Fu Rangyi became even less willing to speak.
Because of the keyword “shower,” certain inappropriate images inexplicably appeared before his eyes, and he also thought of a certain special mark he had yet to truly see.
The mole.
The lower abdomen hidden beneath his pajamas.
His phone vibrated several times in a row.
His curiosity shifting, Zhu Zhixi put down the bracelet and tapped Fu Rangyi’s shoulder with his damp fingertip.
“Hey, your phone is ringing.”
Fu Rangyi came back to himself but did not move. Perhaps thinking he had not heard, Zhu Zhixi called him in a questioning tone, “Teacher Fu?” Then he reached out again, attempting to poke him a few more times, but Fu Rangyi grabbed his finger.
He only held it for one second before letting go.
“I’m not deaf.”
Fu Rangyi picked up his phone, took a deep breath, unlocked it, and opened it.
[Li Qiao: Your wife is really an internet celebrity??]
[Li Qiao: I couldn’t find him. Would it be faster to search by face? Send me a photo.]
[Li Qiao: Wait, no. If you want to watch his videos, can’t you just ask him for his account? What’s wrong? I know you two have rules about sleeping in separate rooms at home, but don’t tell me you also made a rule forbidding conversation?]
He quickly locked the screen and threw the phone aside.
Zhu Zhixi glanced at the phone that had been taken out on, pouted, and spotted the glass plate at the corner of the desk. So he moved over and picked up a candy wrapped in cellophane.
“Is this good?”
“Are you never full?” Fu Rangyi felt a little dizzy and propped his temple with his hand. He suspected it was because he had been overwhelmed by the scent of shampoo on Zhu Zhixi.
Zhu Zhixi clicked his tongue and rebelliously unwrapped the candy and ate it directly. Like every time, when he ate something delicious, his eyes widened, shining far too brightly.
“So good!”
[Li Qiao: No, why are your pheromones so unstable? They even sent me an alert text. Are you okay? Who provoked you?]
[Li Qiao: Eh? Why is your bracelet offline too??]
After praising it, Zhu Zhixi moved a few degrees closer, almost leaning against him, speaking indistinctly, “Fu Rangyi, what candy is this?”
Fu Rangyi finally lifted his head and looked at him, his expression somewhat lifeless.
“Our wedding candy.”
Author’s Note:
—Mini Theater: The Bracelet Guardian—
When Fu Rangyi first bought a suppressor bracelet, he had not yet turned seventeen. At the time, he did not even know bracelets could be used. Before that, he had always used suppressor patches and suppressants. He only found out after Li Qiao told him, so he immediately bought one for himself.
The customer service staff told Fu Rangyi that he needed to fill in a guardian. When his pheromones showed abnormal fluctuations or even disorder, the guardian would be notified first. During susceptible periods, the other party could also monitor the pheromone data in real time and provide timely help. Family was best, followed by a private doctor.
Fu Rangyi found Li Qiao: I’ll give you authorization for my bracelet. Monitor my pheromone values.
Li Qiao: Huh? I’m not your dad.
Fu Rangyi: But you study medicine, satisfying the second condition. And you’re an Alpha. During my susceptible period, you can control me.
Li Qiao: You’re an SA. I don’t think I can…
But he still became Fu Rangyi’s guardian. From adolescence to entering the workforce, for over ten whole years, until a certain someone became a married man.
Li Qiao: Fu Rangyi, you bastard, be human! Who watched your susceptible periods from childhood to adulthood? Who always rushed to your place immediately to give you suppressants every time? And you freaking deleted my authorization this quickly???
Fu Rangyi: Because there’s now someone who satisfies the first condition.
Ruthlessly deleted it a second time to confirm.
