Chapter 57: Lemon Scent
Zhu Zhixi had thought Fu Rangyi would press him down on the sofa and pin him there, doing fierce things that would make the countdown extend. Logically, that made perfect sense.
But Fu Rangyi seemed to have gone still. He did not move, nor did he speak. This puzzled Zhu Zhixi, so he stopped rubbing against Fu Rangyi’s ear in continued seduction, raised his head, and faced him.
He found that Fu Rangyi’s eyes even carried obvious confusion. His lips were pressed slightly together, giving him a clear, earnest look as if he were trying hard to understand those words.
Zhu Zhixi laughed and pressed his forehead against his. “Did you freeze again?”
Only then did Fu Rangyi lift his eyes and glance at him. Then he walked to the living room and placed him on the sofa.
“Do you really get jealous over things like that?” His tone was serious as he sat down beside the armrest.
Zhu Zhixi was dumbfounded. He had practically turned into a spider demon from the Cave of Silken Web, yet Fu Rangyi had not been caught in the web at all. His brain was still stuck on the previous process.
“Of course.” Zhu Zhixi said, “I get jealous all the time. Don’t you remember? I keep throwing little tantrums and making you coax me.”
Fu Rangyi seemed to be pondering something. His elbow rested on the sofa armrest, his chin propped in his palm. After Zhu Zhixi finished speaking, he leaned over and pressed against Fu Rangyi’s shoulder. “You didn’t notice? Then what does all the vinegar I’ve drunk count as? Just me having a bad temper?”
Fu Rangyi tilted his head. His face was buried in his palm, but his ears down to the base of his neck were bright red. After a pause, he said, “I didn’t say that.”
Zhu Zhixi was shocked. How could there be someone so innocent that he could not even tell when the other person was jealous? He can’t really think I was just picking fights for no reason, right? And he was still willing to coax me?
So this is a first love? In this second, Zhu Zhixi once again saw not the current Professor Fu sitting beside him, but that teenage high school boy just beginning to understand love, propping his hand on the desk and pretending to be cool while his heart was actually in complete chaos.
Fu Rangyi was too contradictory. In his professional field, he was clearly extraordinarily gifted, but emotionally, he seemed truly blank. All his care, consideration, and tolerance were pure subconscious reactions—or corrections made after receiving feedback—rather than something born from experience.
Zhu Zhixi simply lay across his lap, looking up at him, while reaching out to tug at his collar. With his big eyes open, he said, “I’m going to tell you something you’ve definitely never heard from anyone else.”
Fu Rangyi maintained his chin-propping posture, but turned his face, lowered his head slightly, and met Zhu Zhixi’s eyes. He asked, “What?”
Zhu Zhixi said solemnly, “You’re so stupid it’s hopeless.”
Sure enough, he had never heard it before. The shock in Fu Rangyi’s eyes said everything.
“Who are you calling stupid?” It seemed that this was an assessment Fu Rangyi could not accept at all.
That made sense. After all, this person had a very obvious intolerance for stupidity. Zhu Zhixi laughed and started acting shameless. He hummed a few times, turned his face, lifted Fu Rangyi’s shirt, and burrowed inside, rubbing his nose all over Fu Rangyi’s abs.
A fluffy head kept nudging back and forth.
Every step Zhu Zhixi took could exceed Fu Rangyi’s expectations. Fu Rangyi was tickled by him and could not exactly get up and leave. After enduring it for a while, he simply took off his shirt and threw it aside. With that, the bad egg suddenly lost his shelter and froze with his messy hair.
Then he was pressed into the sofa and kissed.
Zhu Zhixi was very nice to kiss, and he was clever too. His kissing skills improved quickly. At first, he did not even know how to breathe through his nose, but now, while kissing, he knew to prop himself up with his hands and chase after the kiss.
But his face still turned red very quickly, very vividly. Fu Rangyi still could not bear to close his eyes. The more clearly he remembered these living details, the more he feared separation.
The rises and falls of this day caused his usually steady emotions to fluctuate. He thought a lot, and there were many things that confused him.
What would Zhu Zhixi be like ten years from now? When they kissed, would he still instinctively rub Fu Rangyi’s gland? Would he get tired of staying in this apartment with him? Would his bad habit of not eating properly have changed? How many more corners of the world map that he had not yet visited would disappear?
Would he still speak of love and liking so lightly, honestly admitting jealousy, instead of being like Fu Rangyi, who only wanted to put countless locks on his own heart?
Would he still be by his side?
Would Fu Rangyi be able to see ten years from now?
As they kissed, Fu Rangyi’s eyes unexpectedly began to ache. He parted slightly, removed his glasses, and casually rubbed his eyes.
Zhu Zhixi did not notice anything. He merely propped himself up dizzily, held Fu Rangyi’s face, and smiled like a little flower beneath the sun, saying to him, “Lots of people like the smart Fu Rangyi. Only I’m different.”
“You are different.” Fu Rangyi repeated in a low voice, then said, “The prerequisite conditions are different.”
Only you can see the clumsy me.
Zhu Zhixi did not understand this sentence that seemed to come out of nowhere, but he also did not seem to mind. Instead, he suddenly remembered something else and grabbed Fu Rangyi’s arm.
The old scars on his arm were glaring. Fu Rangyi suddenly realized that he was not wearing a shirt. A sense of insecurity surrounded him. But he could not pull his hand back. Zhu Zhixi was gripping him very hard.
“Right, I remembered something. I wanted to mention it at the hospital earlier.” Zhu Zhixi tugged at his sleeve and raised his left hand. “This bracelet isn’t my original one, right?”
How had he discovered it? He had been exposed, but Fu Rangyi remained calm on the surface and asked in return, “What are you talking about?”
Zhu Zhixi narrowed his eyes and asked, “This is the one you broke during your susceptible period, and you were also the one who put it back on me. Did you switch my bracelet?” As he spoke, he pulled out the white bead and turned it over. “This is the evidence. Look, my previous bracelet number was 66. This one says 99.”
This thing even has a number? After Fu Rangyi received his, he had never worn it even once. He had not even opened the packaging, so naturally he did not know. He glanced at it and said calmly, “If I remember correctly, a certain someone has always had trouble distinguishing the numbers 6 and 9.”
“You’re still mocking me!” Zhu Zhixi grew anxious. “Even if I can’t tell 6 and 9 apart, I can at least tell whether the English letters in front are upside down, right?”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Zhu Zhixi said directly, “You still won’t admit it. Too bad. I’m taking back everything I said just now.”
Fu Rangyi suddenly raised an eyebrow. “Which sentence are you taking back?”
“All of them!” Zhu Zhixi shouted. The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he wanted to raise his hand to cover it, but in the end he chose to press his lips together.
Fu Rangyi said nothing. He suddenly got up, picked up his shirt, and put it on as he left. Zhu Zhixi wanted to sneak a look at where he was going, but felt that would be too lacking in dignity, so he forced his head to stay fixed in place. Not long after, Fu Rangyi returned.
He sat back down beside Zhu Zhixi, twisted open a cap, and after a moment, handed him a capful of liquid.
“For your mouth ulcer. Hold this in your mouth.” Fu Rangyi said casually, “I felt it with my tongue earlier. It’s swollen. You dodge when it’s touched.”
Zhu Zhixi froze. He was unexpectedly stunned, no less than if they had been in the middle of an argument and Fu Rangyi had suddenly kissed him.
His head was dazed, his ears hot. Zhu Zhixi subconsciously accepted the little cap of medicine and obediently held it in his mouth. Only after holding it did he remember to ask a question, so he could only mumble indistinctly.
Strangely, Fu Rangyi understood him. “You can spit it out after five minutes.” After saying that, he left again. This time, he went into the study.
Only about a minute passed before he came back, holding a small black velvet box.
“I also adopted an Antarctic animal, so I have one of these bracelets too.” Fu Rangyi half-crouched in front of him and opened the box.
“Mhm?” This posture looks like a proposal. Zhu Zhixi’s brain short-circuited for a moment. Very quickly, he came back to his senses and stared at the scattered beads inside the box. He reached out and picked out the jade-white bead. Sure enough, it read No.66.
“Mhm!” He pushed the bead right in front of Fu Rangyi and hummed loudly.
“I saw it.” Fu Rangyi leaned back a little. “I was the one who switched it. I tore yours apart, and originally I wanted to restring it, but I didn’t have elastic cord, so I gave you mine instead. I had never worn it before. It was new.”
For some reason, Zhu Zhixi felt happy. Then did this count as a couple bracelet? And one they had before they even became a couple. What did that mean? It meant they were a perfect match, soulmates!
“Almost five minutes.” Fu Rangyi turned back, took a cup from the coffee table, and brought it to Zhu Zhixi’s mouth.
When Zhu Zhixi saw the cup, he frowned and mumbled for a long time, covering his mouth.
“It’s fine. Isn’t it just a cup for drinking water?” Fu Rangyi moved it closer and used his other hand to pull away the hand covering Zhu Zhixi’s mouth. “Spit it in here.”
Zhu Zhixi obediently spat it out.
Did my germaphobe husband from before reincarnate or something? This is unbelievable.
“What’s with that expression?” Fu Rangyi asked.
Zhu Zhixi immediately scrunched up his face and complained, “That mouthwash tastes disgusting.”
“Really?” Fu Rangyi set down the cup, leaned in, and kissed Zhu Zhixi’s cool lips, his tongue parting the seam of his lips.
“Mm…” Caught off guard by the kiss, Zhu Zhixi dodged a little. His tongue was gently and softly stirred, and the wet sounds were impossible to hide.
But the kiss was very short. Fu Rangyi soon withdrew and put his glasses back on. “It’s alright. Sweet.”
Zhu Zhixi was left alone on the sofa, smoke practically rising from his head.
He looked at the box beside him, secretly hid it behind his back, and finally brought it back to his own room.
Counting carefully, there were only three and a half days left before Fu Rangyi went to C City on his business trip. Clearly, he had not even left yet, but Zhu Zhixi had already begun to feel unaccustomed in advance. The thought of Fu Rangyi digging in the dirt outside while he not only could not accompany him, but also had to stay at the museum to work and deal with a bunch of people all day, made Zhu Zhixi extremely irritated. He had always liked dealing with people, but now just thinking about it made him not want to see anyone at all.
Fu Rangyi, however, did not seem that reluctant to part with him. At least he did not show much clinginess. Every day, he did things in an orderly manner, as though determined to arrange everything properly. From morning to night, he was busy without pause.
In the morning, he would drive Zhu Zhixi to work at the museum. After work, he would also come pick him up. When they got home, there would be a table full of delicious food and nourishing soup he had stewed. At night, he also had to shoulder the task of helping Zhu Zhixi extend the countdown. He did all intimate acts, but firmly obeyed the doctor’s orders: only marking, no entry.
He was simply the husbandliest of husbands.
“Teacher Fu didn’t bring you here today?”
Zhou Ming suddenly appeared and asked this. Zhu Zhixi had been thinking about Fu Rangyi and was startled by him.
“Ah, right.” Zhu Zhixi smiled. “He’s going on a business trip tomorrow, so he went to school very early today. Seems like there’s a meeting.”
Zhou Ming nodded and did not ask further. He directly turned the topic back to work. “The team handling the artifact mounting has arrived. Have you met with them? What do you think of the plan they gave?”
At the mention of this, Zhu Zhixi’s head began to ache. He stammered, “Mm, we met before, and they’re also scheduled to give the second version of the plan today. It’s just…”
Before he could finish speaking, an enthusiastic voice came from not far away.
“Morning. Have you all had breakfast? Want to go grab something together?”
Both of them turned their heads. The newcomer was a young Alpha wearing a silver-gray motorcycle jacket and a black beanie, with medium-length golden hair showing at the edges.
“You haven’t met him yet.” Zhu Zhixi took the initiative to introduce him to Zhou Ming. “This is Sun Qi. He’s in charge of the artifact mounting this time.”
Zhou Ming was clearly a little shocked too. “So young?”
Sun Qi walked over, stopped, and extended his hand with a smile. “Not really. I’m twenty-five. Nice to meet you, Director Zhou.” After shaking hands, he raised his eyebrows at Zhu Zhixi. “Morning, Little Xi.”
In just one second, with his keen sense for his own kind, Zhou Ming judged that this man was interested in Zhu Zhixi.
What he saw was not an artifact mounting specialist, but a future defeated dog. A peacock-type defeated dog.
“It’s not morning anymore. It’s almost lunchtime.” Zhu Zhixi smiled. “I already told you not to call me that. I’m still a year older than you.”
“But you’re cute. You look younger than me. When I first met you three days ago, I thought you were an intern student here.”
Zhu Zhixi forced a smile. Without showing it too deliberately, he made some gestures to display his very unsubtle wedding ring and emphasized, “What intern student gets married this early?”
“Exactly, what a pity.” Sun Qi said carelessly. “A youthful early marriage. But young people’s divorce rate is pretty high these days too.”
Zhou Ming raised an eyebrow. He really dares to say that.
“What divorce? Can you not curse me?”
“I’m kidding.”
“That’s not funny at all. I will never get divorced. Not even if I die.”
“You’re that firm? Wow, your husband is way too lucky…”
Standing off to the side, Zhou Ming suddenly really wanted to call Professor Fu. The museum is about to catch fire. Please come put it out.
Just as that thought arose, footsteps actually sounded from not far away. The sound of leather shoes striking tile was especially clear in the spacious museum. Zhou Ming looked up and froze, then almost laughed aloud.
Talk of the devil.
Zhu Zhixi also looked in that direction. His previously troubled expression instantly turned sweet. Smiling, he walked over quickly.
“Why are you here?”
He couldn’t have heard anything, right? Please don’t misunderstand.
Fu Rangyi was rarely dressed entirely in black: black sweater, black overcoat, black dress pants, and black leather shoes. The only embellishment was the gold buckle of his slim Loewe belt. But in his hand, he was carrying a pink insulated bag—which Zhu Zhixi had bought. The whole person looked strangely and incongruously adorable.
“Bringing you lunch.” As he spoke, his gaze swept toward the young Alpha not far away. His lenses reflected faintly, concealing his eyes.
“Lunch?” Zhu Zhixi was a little surprised. He took the bag and weighed it. “So heavy.”
“There’s soup inside.” Fu Rangyi took the bag back from him, adjusted his wristband, then took Zhu Zhixi’s hand and walked toward the two Alphas.
From a distance, he smiled at Zhou Ming and greeted him politely and refinedly, “Director Zhou.”
Zhou Ming also smiled. “Teacher Fu is here. Just now I was wondering why you didn’t bring Little Zhu to work today. He said you had something at school. Sure enough, you still came.”
Fu Rangyi said, “I was afraid he wouldn’t eat properly here. After going back from school, it was still early, so I made lunch and brought it over.”
After saying that, he reached the two of them and stopped, looking at the somewhat flamboyantly dressed Alpha on the other side. His gaze swept over the man’s whole body and finally stopped on the golden ends of his hair. With a smile, he asked, “And this is?”
“Hello, I’m Sun Qi.” Sun Qi smiled brightly and introduced himself. “Teacher Little Xi’s colleague.”
Zhu Zhixi closed his eyes.
“Teacher Little Xi.” Fu Rangyi repeated in a low voice, turning to look at Zhu Zhixi. The smile on his face did not fade. “That’s quite a novel form of address.”
This has nothing to do with me, my honest-to-heaven husband. The hand Zhu Zhixi held was almost twisting itself into a braid.
Zhou Ming watched the drama from the side and even helped with the introduction. “This is Little Zhu’s spouse, Professor Fu Rangyi from S University’s archaeology department.”
In reality, aside from the title at the end, the introduction before it was unnecessary. As soon as Fu Rangyi walked over, any Alpha could sense the pheromones on him, the same scent as the lethal dose of pheromones on Zhu Zhixi.
But Sun Qi still pretended to be clueless and said with a smile, “So you’re an expert. Amazing. If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you? You’re so young, yet you’re already a professor.”
After hearing this, Fu Rangyi frowned. “?”
Zhu Zhixi immediately said, “That’s because he’s brilliant. He skipped grades all through school. Since childhood, whether among colleagues or classmates, he has always been the youngest. Evaluating a title doesn’t depend on years of service, it depends on papers.” After saying that, he pulled Fu Rangyi’s arm and said, “Teacher Little Fu, I’m starving. Let’s hurry and find somewhere to eat.”
“Alright, Teacher Little Xi.” Fu Rangyi allowed his wife to drag him away, but his eyes were still fixed on that impolite Alpha.
When they were in the elevator, he deliberately stood a little farther away.
“What are you doing?” Zhu Zhixi moved closer to him, almost squeezing him against the elevator wall.
“A sandalwood scent. Disgusting.” Fu Rangyi said irritably.
“Ah, you broke the rule.” Zhu Zhixi caught him. “You should say disgusting to longevity.”
“You broke the rule just now too.” Fu Rangyi lowered his head, looking at his phone, and said mercilessly, “They cancel out.”
When? Zhu Zhixi thought for a while, then felt something was off. “Wait. Don’t you like sandalwood? The incense at home and in our car are all sandalwood-scented.”
“I’ve smelled too much of it, so now it makes me sick.” The elevator doors opened, and Fu Rangyi walked out. “Tomorrow, I’ll replace all of them.”
“Alright, alright.” Zhu Zhixi laughed.
Does Fu Rangyi’s pheromone really not have any lemon scent in it?
They found a lounge where they could eat. Zhu Zhixi took the small lunch boxes out of the bag one by one, then opened the lids in sequence. Seeing the dishes inside—sweet and sour ribs, braised pork with quail eggs, stir-fried beef tenderloin with choy sum, stewed chicken soup, and a box of strawberries.
“They’re all dishes I like.”
But Fu Rangyi had his head lowered, seemingly not hearing him, very seriously playing with his phone.
“What are you doing? You’ve been on your phone since just now.” Zhu Zhixi leaned over, but Fu Rangyi moved the phone away.
Hidden behind his back, the phone screen showed S University’s campus forum. It was on an anonymous post page, and the content was only half-edited, not yet posted.
[Rational discussion: Do you think it’s inappropriate for university teachers to have long hair?]
Author’s Note:
Teacher Fu, if you post this, it’s basically doxxing yourself. Is this something you can really ask?
Teacher Little Fu: I’m already annoyed about the business trip, and now there’s another rival. I’m so mad I could die.
Little Zhu: Eh! You broke the rule again, I caught you again, mmph mmph…
gets forcefully kissed
Sun Qi: Director Zhou, why aren’t you on my side? Let’s form the Fu Avengers together.
Zhou Ming: I only just recovered, thanks but no thanks.
