Chapter 54: Second Follow-up Examination
Love.
It was a word Fu Rangyi had always avoided. For years, he had disciplined himself, convincing himself not to crave such a thing. Even when he had clearly fallen for Zhu Zhixi long ago and knew it himself, in every moment he spent with Zhu Zhixi, whenever he dissected his own feelings in his heart, he consciously avoided that word. Like a person who would even lie in his diary.
In his eyes, love and promises were the most fragile fortresses in the world. The moment they were spoken, they would collapse, turn into ruins, and vanish.
But hearing that word from Zhu Zhixi’s mouth still made his mind go blank, still made his heart stir, still made him yearn. If it was Zhu Zhixi, then even if everything turned into ruins, stones, and dust in the next second, it seemed to be fine. He could take his hand shovel and dig them open little by little, spending a very, very long time excavating the fragments and slowly restoring them.
Fu Rangyi hugged the little god of love who had said love for the first time and kissed the top of his hair.
“I really like this truth.” He took Zhu Zhixi’s left hand, turned his palm upward, and gently stroked the spot where the countdown was with his index finger. In a tender voice, he said, “Thank you, little dog. You really understand me.”
For some reason, Zhu Zhixi felt his heart move. It was as if his heart had truly become a fluffy, snow-white little dog, and at that moment, Fu Rangyi had patted its head.
“Understand what about you?” he deliberately asked.
Fu Rangyi lifted his eyes and tilted his head ever so slightly. “What do you think?”
Another counterquestion. A seductive counterquestion. Zhu Zhixi’s teeth itched, so he stood on tiptoe and bit Fu Rangyi’s lip.
Fu Rangyi looked shocked. He pinched Zhu Zhixi’s chin. “Why did you bite me?”
“What do you think?” Zhu Zhixi imitated him, tilting his head with a smile.
Although the shop was no longer there, they still got the landlord’s contact information from the new clothing store owner and tried to contact the former pet shop owner through the landlord.
That night, the landlord finally replied and gave them the pet shop owner’s WeChat.
[Pet Shop Owner: I think there was a little white puppy that stayed with us for a week. It was brought in by a handsome boy in a high school uniform. I remember him very clearly. He was wearing a bite guard at the time, so I think he was in his susceptible period. He didn’t look very well. He didn’t talk much either. From his expression, you could tell he really didn’t want to part with it. After handing it over to us, he stayed outside the door for a long time.]
Just imagining that scene made Zhu Zhixi feel so sad his heart nearly broke.
[Pet Shop Owner: If I remember correctly, the puppy should have been adopted by a young couple. But I really don’t have their contact information anymore. It’s been far too long.]
[Zhu Zhixi: Thank you. If you find this little dog, or if anything unusual comes up, please contact me.]
The clue broke off again. Zhu Zhixi looked at his palm.
[28 days, 02 hours, 16 minutes, 30 seconds]
There was less and less time, and Fu Rangyi insisted that every morning when he woke up, Zhu Zhixi had to report the countdown time to him. Zhu Zhixi was under immense pressure.
“Ah!” He yelled, tilting his head back against the sofa, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths. Before long, he heard footsteps approaching. Just as he was about to open his eyes, his forehead was kissed.
It was Fu Rangyi. He bent over, both hands braced on the top of the sofa back, just enough to circle Zhu Zhixi’s shoulders. Then he lowered his head a little and kissed Zhu Zhixi’s lips in that upside-down position.
After kissing him, he even smiled and straightened up. “Little boiling kettle.”
“Who are you calling a boiling kettle?” Zhu Zhixi flipped over and lay on the back of the sofa to argue with him. “Have you ever seen such a pretty boiling kettle?”
Fu Rangyi stroked his hair, his tone serious. “Yes. Many ancient kettles were very beautiful. I’ll take you to see them next time.”
“You really do have an occupational disease anytime, anywhere. You’re on vacation, but your heart is still full of work.” Zhu Zhixi lifted his head and pressed his face into Fu Rangyi’s palm.
“But I really do have to start working.” Fu Rangyi’s fingers slid over his brow bone, his soft eye socket, then his nose bridge and lips, before covering them again with excessive reluctance. He only parted his fingers and looked at Zhu Zhixi’s eyes through the gaps.
Zhu Zhixi opened his eyes, looking slightly stunned. He pulled Fu Rangyi’s hand down. “So soon? Didn’t you say school only starts after the Lantern Festival?”
Fu Rangyi explained, “City C is building a subway line, and something was unearthed. Preliminary estimates suggest there may be a fairly large archaeological site. That side has a cooperation agreement with our school and needs to borrow experts. Many teachers are going over. The leadership also called me. I already didn’t go to the field archaeology practice last time, so I can’t decline this time. I could only say there’s something going on at home and that I’ll go a few days late.”
“Huh? What should I do…” Zhu Zhixi began acting pitiful, grabbing Fu Rangyi’s hand with both hands and refusing to let go. He lowered his face, pressing his forehead against Fu Rangyi’s wrist bone, knocking against it again and again.
“What are you doing?” Fu Rangyi asked.
Zhu Zhixi’s tone was devout. “Kowtowing to my life-saving straw, begging him not to leave me.”
Fu Rangyi laughed. He turned his hand over and scratched Zhu Zhixi’s chin, saying the thought that had been circling in his mind ever since he received the call.
“Come with me?”
Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi lifted his head. “What can I do if I go?”
Fu Rangyi said, “Aren’t you very good at plowing land?”
“You really are treating me like an ox.” I don’t have long to live, you know. He could not say that.
Zhu Zhixi let go and sighed, then said seriously, “Forget it. You should go. Work matters. My exhibition is also at the critical final stage, and I still have to find the dog…”
The smile on Fu Rangyi’s face faded as well. He said, “I’m only going for preliminary on-site research. It shouldn’t take many days. I’ll come back as soon as possible.”
Zhu Zhixi nodded. “Okay, husband. I’ll leave the house to me.” Then he made a request. “I want to go back to the room. Carry me there.” After saying that, he stood up and stretched out his arms.
Fu Rangyi looked at Zhu Zhixi, who was standing on the sofa and now much taller than him, and thought of an Arctic hare. He did not immediately carry him, only said, “Say that sentence from just now again.”
“Mm?” Zhu Zhixi rewound his thoughts. “I’ll leave the house to me!”
Fu Rangyi: “…The sentence before that.”
After thinking for a while, Zhu Zhixi spoke again. “And I still have to find the dog.”
Fu Rangyi suspected he was doing it on purpose. Helplessly, he crossed his arms and stared at him.
Only then did Zhu Zhixi crack and laugh, wrapping his arms around Fu Rangyi’s neck. “Okay, husband.”
And so they completed the koala transfer mission together, though the destination shifted. In the end, Zhu Zhixi did not return to his own room but to Fu Rangyi’s, where he was pressed onto that large bed and kissed stickily.
Zhu Zhixi’s hand was buried in the hair at the back of Fu Rangyi’s head, rubbing as they kissed. Between kisses, he asked, “Who said I was coming to the master bedroom?”
“Isn’t the master bedroom a room?” Fu Rangyi’s scheming was completely undisguised. “The bed here is bigger.”
Zhu Zhixi suspected he was hinting at something. The day before yesterday, he had taken the initiative to invite Fu Rangyi to sleep in his room. He had said it was for sleeping, but in reality, he was seducing him. After the lights were turned off, he started touching him restlessly. But because he had mentioned during dinner that his lower belly felt uncomfortable, Fu Rangyi refused to take the bait no matter what.
Fu Rangyi said they could only use hands. Zhu Zhixi was so angry he nearly fainted. He loudly said, Who wants to negotiate with you? Then he flipped over and straddled him, saying he wanted to extend the countdown quickly. But the room was too dark, and his prediction was wrong. With that one straddle, half his body nearly fell off the bed. He was scared out of his wits and reached out to grab his life-saving straw. Who knew that he would drag the dazed Mr. Straw down with him too?
The two of them fell onto the carpet together, and the culprit’s head had even been protected by the victim’s large hand. He burrowed against Fu Rangyi’s chest and whined, and Fu Rangyi could not hold back his laughter. The two laughed for a long time before returning to that small bed.
“What do you need such a big bed for?” Zhu Zhixi had not finished speaking when a hand reached the back of his neck and tore off the waterproof bandage stuck there, as if peeling off a suppression patch.
Fu Rangyi: “Marking.”
For a moment, he seemed to truly feel Fu Rangyi’s overflowing pheromones and very much needed a suppressant injection.
What Fu Rangyi wanted to do was not just marking. Marking, to Zhu Zhixi, meant being bitten. It hurt and was not comfortable. But what Fu Rangyi wanted to do was refused again.
“Tomorrow you have to go for a physical examination.” Fu Rangyi said this, but he kissed every inch of Zhu Zhixi’s body.
“Then stop kissing me…” The last word of Zhu Zhixi’s sentence trembled and changed pitch. His whole body was sweating, and even his ears were hot.
Kissing this indecently, this improperly.
“Kissing doesn’t matter.” Fu Rangyi’s voice was a little hoarse.
What a cruel thing to say.
“Fu Rangyi, what is wrong with you…”
Fu Rangyi seemed not to hear him. He held him down, licked and kissed that dark mole, then bit lightly at the thin skin there. Slowly and calmly, with complete ease, he kissed from the side to the center, then caught the edge of the fabric between his teeth and pulled it down.
Fine. There were other services too, so never mind. Zhu Zhixi’s mind was foggy, and his hand tightened in Fu Rangyi’s hair. Short bristly strands. He used to have long hair, and he had tied it into a little ponytail before.
He even began imagining Fu Rangyi leaning over him, using a thin black elastic band to tie up his own hair first. Not a husbandly fox spirit, but an innocent doggy undergraduate.
“Mm…”
What happened afterward became a little dreamlike. Zhu Zhixi, not entirely clear-headed, lifted his legs, crossing and locking them tight. Fu Rangyi’s short hair brushed against the skin of his inner thighs, making him itch.
He lifted his body and, in a daze, gripped Fu Rangyi’s hand tightly, interlacing their fingers. Not long after, he fell heavily back onto the large bed, panting, letting Fu Rangyi return and kiss him even more stickily.
“Pervert…” He was kissed until his words blurred, and even his scolding sounded improper.
“So?” Fu Rangyi smiled at him with that aloof, pure, high-mountain-flower face of his, then lowered his head and carefully kissed away the mess he had made.
Zhu Zhixi was dazzled by that smile. Very quickly, he felt that he was too hopeless, always bewitched by this face. So he deliberately said, “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
After hearing this, Fu Rangyi gave a low laugh. “Don’t want to talk to me again?”
Before long, he held Zhu Zhixi by the shoulders, flipped him over, and wrapped an arm tightly around him.
“No need to talk. Just make sounds.”
Zhu Zhixi had originally wanted to hold back, but when Fu Rangyi marked him, he still let out a whimper.
In the end, although he preserved his dignity for the moment, neither his thighs nor the back of his neck escaped unscathed.
He lay there, damp with sweat, his mind starting to replay everything again. So, while Fu Rangyi was buried in the hollow of his neck, catching his breath, he suddenly let out a completely inexplicable sigh.
“Alphas really should have long hair after all.”
Fu Rangyi lifted his face. “?”
As if the internet had suddenly disconnected, he kept his face raised and froze there for a long time. Then he suddenly figured it out and lowered his head.
He had almost gone and beaten up some Alpha mistress.
Zhu Zhixi knew nothing about this and continued casting his spell. “Long-haired men are good. Long-haired men are handsome. Long-haired men tying up their sweaty hair after doing it are super cute.”
But Fu Rangyi said nothing. He buried his face again and quietly ground his teeth against Zhu Zhixi’s collarbone for a while.
How can you not pick up on such an obvious hint? Zhu Zhixi was speechless and jabbed Fu Rangyi’s ribs with his elbow.
Fu Rangyi lifted his head. “Are you talking to me?”
Zhu Zhixi: “Who else?”
Fu Rangyi: “Didn’t you say you weren’t talking to me?”
Zhu Zhixi was so angry he flipped over to bite him, but Fu Rangyi predicted his move and pinched his chin, catching him in a kiss. Only when Zhu Zhixi was almost out of breath did the former long-haired man finally let him go, his large palm stroking down his back, coaxing him to sleep.
The next morning, they arrived at the hospital. While they were in the elevator, Zhu Zhixi’s phone vibrated. He opened it and saw a WeChat message.
[Niannian: shared photo]
The background of the photo was clearly an archaeological dig site. Fu Rangyi stood there in profile, holding a large drawing board as he sketched the stratigraphic lines. His head was lowered, a half-long, half-short lock of hair falling along his jaw and half-covering his face, while the hair at the back of his head was tied into a small ponytail.
Zhu Zhixi sucked in a sharp breath right there in the elevator. Everyone looked at him.
“Nothing happened.” He raised his head, smiling and waving. “The elevator is fine. I just won a prize. Congratulations to us all.”
The others looked terrified, unsure what expression they should make, and turned their faces away. Only Fu Rangyi was holding back a laugh.
[Niannian: recalled a message]
“Why did you recall it?” Zhu Zhixi swiftly grabbed his sinful hand. “Ah, I’m going to kill you!”
The people in the same elevator were once again very confused and secretly glanced over through the mirror. The prize disappeared that quickly?
Fu Rangyi said solemnly, “Sent it by mistake.”
Zhu Zhixi smiled without warmth and muttered through gritted teeth, “Then which little demon were you originally planning to send it to?”
Fu Rangyi lowered his head and leaned close to his ear. “Last night’s rabbit spirit.”
The elevator doors opened, and the people inside poured out. Zhu Zhixi, ears red, continued demanding the photo from him, coaxing and making a fuss until he finally got it. He enlarged the photo and stared at it for a long time.
“When can you grow your hair out again?”
Fu Rangyi said, “With my job, I still need to pay some attention to appearance. Short hair is more formal. Long hair isn’t very proper.”
That was true. But Zhu Zhixi refused to give up. “Then grow it out for me during summer break. Don’t cut it.”
“It can only grow this much during summer break.” Fu Rangyi gestured for him. “It’ll look terrible.” A somewhat ridiculous bob.
“I don’t care,” Zhu Zhixi said. “I want to see it.”
“Then buy a wig. You can have it as long as you want.”
As they talked, they arrived at the reproductive department. It was still Professor Wang. When he saw the two of them, he pulled his reading glasses down his nose, smiled, and skillfully wrote out the examination forms for them.
Fu Rangyi accompanied him through the imaging this time. So when the coupling gel was applied and the kiss marks were seen, Zhu Zhixi felt even more embarrassed.
But Fu Rangyi still had that icy face, staring intently at his lower abdomen.
After the imaging, they went to draw blood and do the other items that needed follow-up. By the time they returned, the electronic images were already out.
Director Wang looked at the images on the computer, rubbing his chin and the corners of his mouth, frowning with a rather grave expression. This scared Zhu Zhixi badly.
“Director Wang, I’m fine, right? Why aren’t you smiling anymore?” he asked in a small voice.
Director Wang lifted his head, glanced at him, and sighed again.
Zhu Zhixi’s heart jumped into his throat. Fu Rangyi also frowned.
Then Director Wang said, “After I finished writing the orders for you just now, I thought I’d eat a rice ball for breakfast, but I accidentally bit the inside of my mouth. I can’t smile.”
Both of them fell silent.
Fu Rangyi closed his eyes for a moment. “Then is his condition all right? Although Li Qiao said there shouldn’t be major changes in such a short period, we were still worried, so we came early for a follow-up.”
“Li Qiao wasn’t wrong. That’s exactly why I think something’s off.” He looked at the images again, clicked his tongue, then lifted his head, his gaze sweeping back and forth over their faces.
Zhu Zhixi suspected that every doctor must have taken a course in frightening patients.
“Have you two had sex recently?”
That question again. But Zhu Zhixi was no longer the same person he had been back then.
He nodded vigorously. “Yes, that’s right, Director Wang. Not only did we have sex, I even let him bite my neck. He bites it every day. There isn’t a single piece of good flesh left on my neck now.”
Director Wang raised a hand. “You don’t need to go into that much detail.”
“I previously told Li Qiao that Little Zhu most likely has a recessively developed gland.” He turned the computer screen around and pointed to a small shadow on the image. “Look here. The left side is from last time, and the right side is from this time. Its volume has doubled.”
As he spoke, he clicked the mouse and switched to another image. “This is the lower abdomen. See this shadowy mass? It wasn’t this pronounced last time, and the area has grown larger too.”
Zhu Zhixi’s palms began to sweat. “What is this… It can’t be a tumor, can it?”
Fu Rangyi tightened his grip on Zhu Zhixi’s shoulder.
“What tumor?” Director Wang nearly rolled his eyes. “This is a reproductive cavity. Look at you. You and your physiology teacher both deserve criticism.”
Zhu Zhixi’s brain nearly crashed. His first reaction was actually: his physiology teacher really was present.
“A reproductive cavity?” Fu Rangyi frowned. “Didn’t you say last time that his reproductive cavity was in an almost completely atrophied state and could be ignored?”
“Yes, almost. See how precise my wording is?” Director Wang leaned back in his chair and took a sip of tea. “Most likely, it underwent secondary development under the influence of pheromones. Even the cavity opening has formed. Although it’s still very small, I had to enlarge the image several times to confirm it.”
“Why would that happen?” Zhu Zhixi blinked.
“Why?” Director Wang looked at the two of them with a smile. “Ask yourselves.”
Author’s Note:
There will be no mpreg in this novel. Emphasizing again, Little Zhu is Beta until long life.
——Mini Theater: How the old photo of the long-haired doggy undergraduate came about——
Fu Rangyi woke up in the morning and brushed his teeth half-squinting. Suddenly, he remembered what Little Zhu had said the night before. He looked up at the mirror and smoothed his messy short hair.
After coming out, he kissed Little Zhu, who was sleeping like a little pig, while looking for his phone. He opened his photo album and searched through piles of photos of dirt pits and fragments, but only found two photos with his own face in them. One was a group photo from a conference, and the other was an ID photo taken for the university website update.
Both were short-haired. Zero selfies.
He thought for a moment and messaged Li Qiao, asking whether he had any photos of him from undergraduate days.
[Li Qiao: Yeah.]
He sent over a whole pile of strange, ghost-like candid shots.
Useless.
[Husband of the World’s Longest-Lived Beta: That’s it? Nothing else? Not a single better-looking one? From when I had long hair?]
[Li Qiao: Nope, that’s all. It’s not like I’m your fansite master.]
Fifteen minutes later, Li Qiao sent over a forum link.
[Li Qiao: There are some here. All secretly taken by people who had crushes on you. Find them yourself.]
Fu Rangyi opened the thread and browsed for twenty minutes. From the vast sea of photos, he selected one he considered acceptable and saved it.
Then he applied to have the thread deleted. The reason he filled in was: violation of my portrait rights.
