Chapter 45: Surprise Delivery
While Fu Rangyi was asleep, his phone vibrated many times. Zhu Zhixi was startled several times, afraid it would wake him, so he quietly took the phone away and sat up against the bed.
Better turn on Do Not Disturb.
Do Not Disturb…
Suddenly, a text message popped up on the screen. Zhu Zhixi grew a little nervous and did not dare to read the content. After all, this was Fu Rangyi’s privacy. But with just an accidental glance, he frowned.
The contents were filthy, full of gender-based humiliation and personal attacks.
Something was wrong. Zhu Zhixi’s intuition had always been accurate. He wrote down the number on his own phone, then thought of the calls that had been coming in nonstop just now.
He would have to unlock it to see the call history. But he did not know the password.
And it was rude…
Zhu Zhixi looked at Fu Rangyi, who was sleeping soundly. He was still curled up, but facing him, very quiet. With one glance, Zhu Zhixi’s thoughts suddenly wandered. He instinctively bent down and kissed Fu Rangyi’s hair.
No. He quickly dragged himself back.
Stealing a kiss and snooping through someone’s phone both seemed rather rude, to about the same degree. Zhu Zhixi raised a hand and touched his sinful mouth. A tiny spark suddenly flashed through his mind.
Wait. Fu Rangyi had secretly unlocked his phone before, too, and even knocked him to the ground, bit his neck, and chewed on his lips. That was way too rude.
With that comparison, he suddenly felt justified, as if the phone had already been unlocked. He completely forgot that he still needed to enter the password. After happily entertaining himself for a while, he frowned again and began thinking about possible passwords.
Birthday?
Zhu Zhixi recalled the fake-marriage questionnaire from before. August 25. He tried entering it.
Incorrect password.
That made sense. How could Fu Rangyi possibly use such a simple password? He was such a cautious person.
But Zhu Zhixi truly could not think of any other password.
Having given up completely, he entered their wedding anniversary: 1214.
It actually unlocked?
In the dark room, Zhu Zhixi widened his eyes and sat frozen for a long time. His mouth and his brain seemed to have split into two separate systems. Before he had even reacted, the corners of his mouth were already impossible to suppress.
So he stole another kiss.
But he did not forget the serious matter either. He went straight to the point and opened the call history. Sure enough, several calls in a row had come from the same number. And it was indeed the sender of the harassment text.
While cooking chicken soup, he tried calling the number with his own phone. No one answered. After thinking for a moment, he sent the number to Zhu Zeran.
Little Piglet: Bro, help me check this number, please please.
Big Zhu: When you need something, I’m “brother,” and when you don’t, I’m Big Zhu, right? Why should I help you check it? Am I your private detective or your personal assistant? Do you know how much your brother is worth per hour?
Little Piglet: This person is harassing me.
The chicken soup had just come to a boil when Zhu Zeran’s call came in.
“This is a virtual number. Probably bought specifically for this kind of thing. I’m having someone look into the purchase channel now to see if we can trace it. How is he harassing you? Has he followed you? When did you receive it? How many times has he called? Is there anything else…”
“Ah, actually, it’s not me. Hehe.” Zhu Zhixi smiled, scooped a spoonful of soup, blew on it a few times, and took a sip.
So awful. The salt really had not come out earlier. He picked up the magic-wand shaker and cast a furious spell.
“Zhu Zhixi, are you sick? Are you messing with me? Wait, are you afraid I’ll worry…”
Zhu Zhixi said, “Yep, yep. Tell me when you find the person, okay? The most expensive Alpha in the world. Bye-bye, I’m cooking.”
“You’re cooking?! Who are you cooking for—”
He hung up.
Buying a number to harass someone. This was premeditated. The more Zhu Zhixi thought about it, the more wrong it felt. Could it be one of Fu Rangyi’s extreme pursuers? Yu Heng, for example?
But he had dealt with Yu Heng before, and based on instinct, it did not feel like him.
After thinking it over, the next day, before going to work, Zhu Zhixi went to the company first.
He rarely went there, and he had no appointment, so naturally he was stopped. Still, he obediently filled out the visitor registration form. Just as he had written halfway, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.
“Zhu… Young Master?”
He looked up and cheerfully waved the pen in his hand. “Hey, Little Lin! Good morning. I’m registering.”
Little Lin nearly had to pinch his own philtrum. He immediately brought Zhu Zhixi to the top floor. If his brother-con boss found out he had been blocked by reception downstairs, Little Lin would get scolded again.
“Well, well. What a rare guest.”
“You come to work this early every day?” Zhu Zhixi wandered up to the desk, glanced at the documents on top, and picked one up. “Real estate? Last time Little Lin said you were in a meeting over some unfinished property project. Are you really getting into real estate now?”
At the mention of this, Zhu Zeran irritably pinched the bridge of his nose. “Purely taking over a mess. To get a certain resource, I took on a rotten pile. Not even took. Fought for it.”
Zhu Zhixi was not interested in these things. He sat down and got straight to the point, asking Zhu Zeran for the documents he had previously investigated on the high school violence incident.
“You even came here in person for that?”
“You’re an expensive Alpha, while my hourly rate is cheap. Of course I’m the one who should come.” Actually, making a trip in person showed sincerity and made it easier to ask him for more favors.
The moment he opened the document, Zhu Zhixi felt a physical wave of disgust.
Little Xiang. The name of that physics teacher.
“You know him?” Zhu Zeran sat in his office chair, studying his own younger brother. What was that expression? It was the first time he had seen that on Zhu Zhixi’s face, someone who spent all day grinning like sunshine.
Zhu Zhixi finished reading. There was not much useful information. He put it back and said, “I don’t.”
“Then you…”
Zhu Zhixi revealed an innocent smile. “I just want to chop off his hands and castrate him, that’s all.”
Now Zhu Zeran could not smile either.
“What’s wrong with you? Where’s my sunny, cheerful little brother? Why did you suddenly become so dark and violent?”
Zhu Zhixi folded his hands on the desk and rested his chin on them, smiling. “This makes me more like you.”
After a round of bickering, he still asked Zhu Zeran to help him check Little Xiang’s current situation. Unlike his father, Zhu Zeran acted boldly, had ambition, and was willing to use whatever means necessary to achieve his goals. Because of that, he had accumulated quite a few gray-area connections. Asking him would be faster than asking anyone else.
Of course, Zhu Zhixi hoped it was just an ordinary harassment text and had nothing to do with anyone else.
If things really were as Fu Rangyi’s adoptive father had said, and Little Xiang had gone back to his hometown to settle down, then there was no reason for him to do something illegal like this. Besides, fifteen years had already passed. If he wanted to do something, why wait until now?
But Zhu Zhixi still felt uneasy.
After realizing he had fallen in love with Fu Rangyi, a powerful emotion he had never felt before grew inside him. He wanted nothing more than to dig out everything he had and give it to Fu Rangyi, yet he was afraid of frightening him, as if he had instantly returned to the age of first love.
He had almost confessed directly. But after learning about Fu Rangyi’s past, that light, uncontrollable cloud of love suddenly sank down.
He realized that he, too, carried great weight in Fu Rangyi’s heart. Very great weight. So much so that in the final second before falling asleep, Fu Rangyi had asked him not to mention the word “death.”
Death was a shadow lying between them.
Worse still, based on what he could feel, the countdown had been moving very quickly these past few days. Clearly, there had been enough hugs, even kisses, but none of them had slowed it by much.
He, who had gradually adapted to the countdown, seemed to have returned to the very first day. Looking at those flickering numbers, Zhu Zhixi felt terrified. He wanted to solve this trouble. He wanted to stay with the person he loved forever.
Zhu Zhixi had never been the type to pity himself or give up on himself. If there was something he wanted to do, he had to act immediately.
Zhixi Senior: Xiao’En, Xiao’En, has Little Yu recovered any new memories?
Not long after, Liang Yien replied. The moment Zhu Zhixi saw the crying-face emoji, he knew things were not good.
Xiao’En: Sigh. After we parted ways that day, he’s been sleeping almost the whole time.
Zhixi Senior: Still a little hamster pancake?
Xiao’En: He turned into human form once in the middle, but only for one day. The rest of the time, he’s been a little hamster.
Zhixi Senior: ? But I ran into him the day before yesterday. It was the little white dog form I first picked up. In an alley near You’an Street. I even called him, but he ignored me and disappeared while running.
Soon, Liang Yien called.
“The day before yesterday?”
“Yeah,” Zhu Zhixi said. “That night, I went to the dinner gathering.”
Liang Yien’s tone was extremely certain. “That’s impossible, senior. That day, I was with Little Yu the whole time. We never separated.”
“Are you sure? Around four or five in the afternoon. I really saw him. I chased him for an entire street!”
“Really,” Liang Yien said. “That time period makes it even more impossible.”
Zhu Zhixi blinked. “Why? What were you two doing during that time?”
Liang Yien stopped talking. After half a minute of silence from both ends, he emphasized soullessly, “…Anyway, there’s no way he could have appeared on You’an Street.”
Zhu Zhixi was a little lost. “Then doesn’t that mean the little white dog isn’t Little Yu? What about my countdown?”
On the other end of the phone, Liang Yien comforted him. “You can’t think that way, senior. Whether or not they’re the same person, we can at least confirm that Little Yu can sense the countdown. Once he recovers, he’ll definitely be able to help you.”
“All right.” Zhu Zhixi sighed.
“I’ll work hard to help you,” Liang Yien said.
“But you don’t have to sell your body for me,” Zhu Zhixi said solemnly.
“…Thank you for the reminder.”
“No problem. I’ve been there. Hehe.”
Although the harassment calls and the countdown were both not going smoothly, luck was conserved. Work on the exhibition was progressing very well, and Zhu Zhixi left the museum earlier than expected.
He missed Fu Rangyi terribly. Because he had rushed to the company that morning, their routine “check-in” had only been a quick hand-hold.
Why hadn’t Fu Rangyi’s susceptible period come yet?
How long was the interval between Alpha susceptible periods?
Would he have a susceptible period during winter break?
In the office, Fu Rangyi, who was grading final exam papers, sneezed three times in a row.
“Oh my, Professor Fu, is someone thinking about you?” Teacher Zhang at the opposite workstation teased.
Without changing his expression, Fu Rangyi opened WeChat, tapped into the pinned chat, saw no new messages, exited, and slid his finger over the mouse wheel.
“I caught a cold,” he said lightly.
“Then you should wear more,” Teacher Zhang said with a smile. “Otherwise Little Zhu will feel sorry for you.”
Fu Rangyi: “…”
“Hey, Professor Fu, why did you change your Moments background?” another teacher asked. “Is that luffa? So cute.”
Teacher Zhang continued teasing him. “That doesn’t seem like your style, Little Fu. You weren’t forced to change it, were you?”
“How could he be? He definitely changed it voluntarily. Was it cut by Little Zhu?”
Fu Rangyi was finding it rather difficult to deal with them. Should he take his laptop and go grade papers in the library?
Just as he was thinking this, a knock suddenly came from the door. All three teachers looked toward the doorway at the same time.
“Hi!”
Speak of the devil, and the devil bounced right in front of them.
Zhu Zhixi was wearing a light brown duffle coat and a large smog-blue scarf, carrying a huge pile of things in his hands. His whole body gave off the scent of butter and cream.
“Teachers, thank you for your hard work! I’m here to deliver afternoon tea.”
From that second on, Fu Rangyi’s gaze locked onto him. He watched him walk in with a beaming smile, open the bags, and take out cakes, cookies, and palmiers to share with his colleagues.
“We were just talking about you two. What a coincidence.”
“Talking about me?” Zhu Zhixi pointed at himself.
Fu Rangyi immediately coughed to interrupt. He felt that Zhu Zhixi probably would not take the initiative to look at his Moments background, and he did not want to be publicly executed.
“Is your throat uncomfortable?” Sure enough, Zhu Zhixi’s attention was diverted. “Drink water. Drink more warm water.”
Teacher Zhang opened the palmier packaging. “Haha, thanks to Professor Fu, we get afternoon tea too.”
“Don’t be polite. The pastries from this place are super good. Try them.” Zhu Zhixi smiled brightly even when being teased and responded generously, but his ears had turned red. The corners of his mouth lifted, then pressed down, then lifted again.
“Marriage really does make a difference. Professor Fu is so lucky.”
When Zhu Zhixi heard this, he quickly turned his head and silently mouthed to Fu Rangyi, “Professor Fu is so lucky.”
Fu Rangyi felt rather helpless. After Zhu Zhixi turned away, he quietly pressed down the corner of his mouth with his finger.
The dessert deliveryman wandered over to his workstation, placed a small cake in front of him, and rubbed his hand back and forth over the top of his chair back. In a low voice, he said, “This one is reduced sugar.”
Fu Rangyi glanced at the strawberry on the small cake, then looked up at him. “Why did you suddenly come?”
“Suddenly?” Zhu Zhixi pretended to be unhappy and pouted. His expression was simply the human version of the luffa emoji. “Got it. So you don’t want to see me. I was flattering myself. I’ll leave.”
Fu Rangyi immediately reached out and grabbed the bad guy who was always full of drama. His voice was very low. “I didn’t say that.”
Zhu Zhixi immediately smiled. He held Fu Rangyi’s wrist in return, stopped rubbing the chair back, and started touching the wristband instead.
“Little Zhu, sit down. I have a chair here.”
“It’s fine. I have one too.” Fu Rangyi brought him a chair and placed his own lumbar cushion and seat cushion on it. “Sit.”
Zhu Zhixi picked up the cushion again. “No need. You lean on this.”
“It’s too soft. I like a hard backrest.”
A chorus of teasing tsk-tsk sounds rose in the office, making both of them a little embarrassed.
“You work. Don’t mind me.” As Zhu Zhixi spoke, he sat down, lay on the desk, tilted his head, and stayed completely still, simply staring at Fu Rangyi. He did not make a sound, only blinked his big eyes quietly.
How was he supposed to work like this?
The answers were already a mess.
Fu Rangyi stared at the screen, but his mind was not on the students’ answers at all. For the first time, he discovered that concentrating was actually a very difficult thing.
Zhu Zhixi’s fingers even secretly crawled onto his knee, moving around. Two fingers performed a little silent play beneath the table.
A little more than ten minutes later, Fu Rangyi sighed helplessly, lowered his head, leaned close to Zhu Zhixi’s ear, and whispered, “Can you help me return two books to the library?”
“Hm?” Zhu Zhixi blinked. “Of course.”
To let him wander around a little longer and give himself more time to work, Fu Rangyi wrote down several more book titles. “Help me borrow these books too.” Books that were very troublesome to find.
“No problem. Leave it to me.” The little rabbit deliveryman, who had not been sitting for long, accepted a new order, happily hugged the books, and went to the library.
Then he disappeared.
Fu Rangyi graded the papers as quickly as possible, ate the small cake he had brought, opened WeChat, and sent a message.
Nian Nian: Where are you?
Still had not found them? If he had known, he would have written down different books.
After receiving no reply, Fu Rangyi felt uneasy. Under his colleagues’ teasing, he shut down his computer and called Zhu Zhixi as soon as he left the office.
“Where are you?”
On the other end of the call, Zhu Zhixi sounded breathless. He shouted, “Ceasefire, ceasefire!” Then asked, “Classmate, where is this?” A few seconds later, he laughed and answered loudly, “The small square behind Mingde Building!”
Why had he run over there?
When Fu Rangyi arrived at the small square, he spotted Zhu Zhixi at once. He was running wildly across the square, which was full of snow and students, holding a huge snowball in his hand, smiling brightly, and shouting, “Come on—” before throwing the snow with all his might. The snowball flew out of his palm and exploded into a scattering white firework.
He was actually having a snowball fight with a group of college students.
Fu Rangyi stood frozen in place for a long time. In the end, he took out his phone, opened the camera, and tapped record.
The person in the frame seemed to suddenly sense something and turned his head. His eyes were brighter than the diamond earring swaying on his earlobe. He stretched his arm straight out and waved toward this side until his glove left the frame. He tilted his face up and shouted, “Professor Fu—come here—”
There were many of his students here. Fu Rangyi could even name a few of them. He did not want to go straight over and even used his phone to block his face.
However, in the next second, the only protagonist in the frame was ambushed. In an intense battle, being distracted was a fatal mistake. A huge lump of snow was thrown over and smashed right into his face. Zhu Zhixi immediately squatted down and covered his face.
The camera suddenly dropped. The footage became shaky, capturing only the snowy ground and footsteps moving quickly through the snow. One step, two steps, faster and faster. Soon, a brown coat and a gray-blue scarf also entered the frame.
“Professor Fu?” A student recognized him, sounding uncertain and very quiet.
Fu Rangyi did not hear it. He squatted down and lowered his head to look at Zhu Zhixi. “Are you okay?” He held Zhu Zhixi’s hands that were covering his face, put his phone into his pocket, freed his hands, and brushed the snow out of Zhu Zhixi’s hair and off his face.
“It got into my eyes…”
“Let me see?”
Just as Fu Rangyi leaned closer, an icy hand reached over and quickly stuffed a small ball of snow into his collar. Fu Rangyi was stunned cold and immediately stood up, narrowing his eyes as he reached in to dig out the snowball.
“Hahahaha!” Zhu Zhixi stood up.
“You lied again.”
“This is called all is fair in war!”
After a long while, Fu Rangyi finally pulled out that lump of snow. It was actually heart-shaped, solid and firm. Who knew how long he had spent shaping it? Fu Rangyi originally wanted to throw it straight at Zhu Zhixi, but after seeing the shape, he decided against it.
But Zhu Zhixi did not get to be smug for long. He was ambushed by the others again, chased all over the field, then slipped and fell into the snow pile. His hair was covered in snow, and the snowy light made his cheeks look translucent, flushed with a thin layer of red. He was clearly in a sorry state, yet he was still laughing, revealing his little rabbit teeth, just like a child.
Suddenly, a student shouted, “Professor Fu! Come join the snowball fight too!” Then greetings rose one after another.
“Professor Fu, have you graded our papers yet?”
“Professor Fu, save us…”
“Professor Fu, if you don’t save me now, in a few days you’ll only be able to fish me out of Huanxin Lake!”
“Save us, Professor!”
In all his years as a teacher, this was the first time Fu Rangyi had been this embarrassed. It was all someone’s fault.
The culprit was laughing happily. He even stretched out both hands and copied them. “Professor Fu, I can’t get up. Save me too.”
Author’s Note:
—Mini Theater: Campus Forum—
[Come to the small square for a snowball fight!! Anyone from the archaeology department? Hurry, hurry!]
[You can recruit people like this?]
[Computer science is coming too!]
[I’m coming!!! Wait for me to bring my equipment. I’m bringing a big bag to hold snow.]
[Hey, who’s that handsome guy in brown? Seems like a Beta. He’s so good-looking, like an idol.]
[Any pictures?]
[A recruiting post turning into a missing-person post, huh?]
[Holy crap, he really is gorgeous. That face is insane.]
[That outfit stands out way too much among a bunch of male college students in black down jackets. Everyone else is having a snowball fight, but he looks like he’s shooting an MV. Is he from the art school?]
[His ruby ring is so pretty. It looks expensive as hell.]
[Don’t be fooled by how he’s dressed. He fights really hard. Every sneak attack lands.]
[That’s called tactics! Face-cons have no principles.]
[Wait, why do I feel like this handsome guy looks familiar… I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere.]
[Holy crap, guess who’s here?]
[Who who who? Report the name immediately!]
[fry from the archaeology department… so handsome, holy crap. He’s standing there like an idol-drama male lead. Nearly scared me with how handsome he is.]
[What’s going on with this snowball fight? Did someone put handsome-guy bait in today’s snow?]
[Ah… I remember now. That rabbit-toothed handsome guy from just now is fry’s wife.]
[!!!! What!? Help.]
[No wonder he kept recording! The moment Beta handsome guy got hit, Professor Fu immediately ran over. Oh my god, I ship it again.]
[Professor Fu’s married-man aura is insane… Is this still the fry who teaches class expressionlessly every day?]
[Bad news: Professor Fu got ambushed. Good news: his wife did it.]
[All right, I’m going over to watch too. If I’d known, I would’ve gone down earlier!]
[Everyone is asking Professor Fu to save them hahahaha.]
[His wife fell into the snow and wouldn’t get up, then reached out to Professor Fu and said “save me.” How is he this cute! Are you two like this in private too?]
[I can’t believe it… Professor Fu, you’re usually not like this… Was everything misplaced after all?]
[Professor, stop looking at your wife. Look at your students. We’re seriously begging to be saved. I can’t retake this exam again orz.]
[How about we go beg his wife instead! lightbulb moment]
[Do you really have to provoke a top Alpha… I don’t dare. You go.]
[They hugged in public. Help…]
[Before opening the photo: What did they do to our ice-cold professor? Tutorial, please. After opening the photo: The tutorial is having that face. I withdraw.]
