Chapter 9: Imagination Game
Hearing this question, Fu Rangyi’s expression became extremely subtle.
His brows were furrowed, not exactly pleased, and there was even a trace of surprise in his eyes.
Zhu Zhixi felt that something was a little off, but he was not entirely sure. He blinked and was about to ask a second time, but the moment he opened his mouth, his next move was perfectly predicted.
“Zhu Zhixi, have you never taken a physiological health class?”
Suddenly hearing him call his full name, and in such a serious tone too, gave Zhu Zhixi the illusion of being called on by a teacher.
“Huh?” He nodded with great uncertainty. “I have…”
Very quickly, he added, “But we betas usually call it nap class.”
Fu Rangyi looked utterly speechless.
“Forget it.”
“Don’t forget it. What does this have to do with physiology class?” Zhu Zhixi looked completely matter-of-fact. “I know you’re an Alpha and have pheromones, and I know I can’t smell them. Just tell me directly.”
Fu Rangyi took off his glasses and placed them on the table, lowering his head to rub the bridge of his nose. “Do you know that this behavior of yours counts as…”
“Counts as what?” Zhu Zhixi looked blank. “I do this all the time. When I meet a new friend, whether they’re A or O, I’ll ask. I’m curious, that’s all. You’re not a beta, so you don’t understand.”
After saying this, he thought Fu Rangyi would understand. Unexpectedly, this person seemed even angrier.
“Sorry. Other people may answer, but I refuse.”
Fu Rangyi was very decisive, as though a red line had been touched. He stood up and wanted to leave, not even taking his glasses.
Zhu Zhixi did not know what was going on. Almost instinctively, he reached out and grabbed his wrist.
“If you don’t want to say it, then forget it. Don’t be angry.” His voice was very soft, carrying a little childish confusion.
Fu Rangyi suddenly calmed down quite a lot.
He suddenly understood. Zhu Zhixi truly did not understand how ambiguous and boundary-crossing this behavior was. He was simply curious. This was his way of life as a beta.
And Fu Rangyi was also surprised by himself. Why had his emotional management become so terrible?
He did not understand it. It should not be like this. It was unhealthy, and it was abnormal.
So he took a deep breath, sat back down, and withdrew his hand.
“Does this question have any meaning for this contractual marriage?” He tried hard to make his tone sound restrained, without too much emotion. “Like you said, you’re a beta. You can’t smell it anyway. It would be strange if you understood my pheromones too well.”
Zhu Zhixi was the kind of person who would push further once given an inch. Originally, he had been a little confused, but once Fu Rangyi sat back down, he felt there was hope again, so he immediately became cheerful.
“This is where you don’t understand, Student Xiao Fu.”
With a solemn expression, he got up from his chair, leaned against the long table, and crossed his arms. “Imagine this: suppose we didn’t get married just to deal with other people, but were two people who truly loved each other.”
This person had once again begun trying to manipulate his imagination.
Fu Rangyi’s mood was still complicated, but he could not bring himself to tell that smiling face to stop.
Zhu Zhixi was not looking at him either.
Whenever he started imagining things, his eyes always looked upward, making them appear especially large, with very long lashes.
Just like now.
He was vividly and enthusiastically describing it on his own. “On the day of our blind date, we fell in love with each other at first sight and discovered that both our interests and preferences were shockingly similar. Our conversation flowed super well. We didn’t even have time to drink the lemonade you bought me, or eat that plate of soufflé.”
And so, Fu Rangyi’s brain passively played a romance movie he would never have clicked on himself, complete with sound and even background music.
And he had no pause or exit button at all.
“We kept chatting nonstop. After leaving the café, we walked down that street, talking as we went, and even bought a cup of hot mulled wine, holding it as we continued chatting. We kept going like that until it got dark and we had no choice but to part.”
“Then we missed each other so, so much that we couldn’t sleep at all. We immediately arranged a second meeting, then a third, a fourth… You liked me so much that when I was talking about Turkish cats, you suddenly interrupted me and said: Would you consider marrying me?”
“Impossible.” Fu Rangyi’s free will briefly revived. He suddenly broke away from this half-coerced scenario-building game and blurted it out.
Zhu Zhixi blurted something out too, except it was in English: “Imagine!”
Then he continued.
“Then I agreed without even thinking about it. That completely fits my style. Why not? So, without anyone’s permission or witness, we went to handle the paperwork, happily took photos and got our certificates, then showed off to the whole world. We didn’t even need matching rings or a wedding.”
“Because we would have endless curiosity about each other. We’d lean together and talk to each other all night long, talking about everything, everything we wanted to say, until our lips went dry and our eyelids started fighting, but we still couldn’t bear to sleep.”
Fu Rangyi remained silent.
In the middle of it, he lifted his eyes twice and looked at the narrator, but very quickly looked away again, picking up his glass and quietly drinking water.
“So,” Zhu Zhixi smiled, “we would definitely talk about pheromones! Because I like you, but I’m a beta, so I can’t sense your pheromones. Think about it. What a sad and regretful thing that would be. I would definitely cling to you and keep saying, ‘Rangyi, tell me. Describe it to me. I really want to know. Please.’”
His tone changed, and his expression became more vivid than ever before. He spoke with such emotion that anyone would fall into this woven trap of love.
“After that, you would pretend there was nothing you could do and say, ‘Fine, fine. I’ll tell you, okay?’”
Finally, his gaze landed on Fu Rangyi, and he raised the end of his brow.
“How about that? Isn’t it very reasonable? I’m very good at figuring out characters’ psychology. I even went to audit classes in the directing department because for a while I wanted to become a theater direc—”
Before he could finish.
“Cypress.”
Fu Rangyi, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.
One by one, without any emotional color, he said a few names of scents.
“Wormwood.”
“A cold, slightly sharp smell. Similar to… aldehyde?”
He sounded as though he were conducting a chemistry experiment.
And in a daze, Zhu Zhixi also reacted, becoming the partner who carefully took notes.
“And also a very faint floral scent… Have you smelled pomelo blossoms before? They bloom in April. That’s all. Mixed together, it’s roughly like that.”
After Fu Rangyi finished speaking, he felt regretful, even disappointed in himself.
He clearly knew that opening his heart would never lead to a good outcome. This might lead to a broken-window effect. He clearly knew this, yet he still did it.
He must have been bewitched by something.
Had Zhu Zhixi forgotten to report one of his professions? Something like a hypnotist, perhaps.
Fu Rangyi took another sip of water.
At this moment, Zhu Zhixi suddenly reached out, grabbed his arm, and shook it hard twice. “When you describe it like that, I feel like I can really smell it!”
His eyes once again looked toward the upper right. The warm yellow light above the dining table poured entirely into his eyes, like the afterglow of sunset on a lake.
“It’s like… someone has been walking for a very, very long time through a forest in a blizzard. Just when he’s so cold that he’s about to lose his sense of smell, suddenly, he finds a little wooden cabin. He pushes open the door and smells a slightly bitter scent, because herbs are being brewed inside the house. It’s wormwood. Then he keeps walking farther in, and vaguely, he smells a very light floral fragrance. When he turns his head, there’s a branch of pomelo blossoms in a vase on the windowsill, snow-white, just like the snow piled outside.”
After saying this, he looked at Fu Rangyi, smiling as though he had truly smelled it. “It smells so good.”
Fu Rangyi lost focus for a moment.
This was an impossible story.
How could there be pomelo blossoms during a blizzard? It was completely out of season, very absurd. Just as absurd as him saying he could smell it.
It took him some time to walk out of it. Subconsciously, he used his left hand to hold his right hand, which wore the bracelet. Then he let go.
His mind was in chaos, and another voice in his body was sounding an alarm, warning him: Hurry and do something. Make yourself sober.
“I suddenly discovered a profession that suits you very well.”
Hm?
Zhu Zhixi was a little curious. Was this an occupational habit of being a teacher? Why was he suddenly digging out career paths?
“What profession?” he asked eagerly.
“A marketing scammer who gets paid to write fragrance reviews.”
“Then you’re a critic who makes money from being vicious. No wonder you don’t take the subway to work. That mouth of yours would never pass subway security!”
“Even if I can’t pass, I won’t let you pass either,” Fu Rangyi said blandly.
This person really was…
After they finished bickering, when Zhu Zhixi saw those several scents written on the paper, some regret still rose in his heart.
He sniffed. Aside from the sandalwood aromatherapy in the house, he could not smell anything.
And with very high probability, he would never smell it even before he died. It was like one item on his bucket list that could never be checked off. What was terrifying was that besides him, many people could easily check it off.
Any Omega or Alpha could.
His gaze gradually moved downward, finally landing on Fu Rangyi’s wrist.
“Actually, when you’re at home, you don’t have to wear it.”
Fu Rangyi looked at him but said nothing, instinctively avoiding this topic.
But Zhu Zhixi directly reached out, his fingertip hooking the silver bracelet around Fu Rangyi’s wrist.
“This.”
“Although I don’t need suppressors, my brother and my dad both have them. I know wearing this thing too much isn’t good for the body. It’s natural for AOs to release pheromones. Constantly suppressing and blocking them can lead to pheromone disorders. Suppressants are the same. My brother only wears his during susceptible periods.”
And the higher the Alpha’s level, the more they needed release and guidance, because their pheromones were more complex than ordinary Alphas’, and their concentration and dominance were also higher.
Ever since he met Fu Rangyi, this bracelet had never once been taken off. He suspected this person never removed it, causing endocrine imbalance, which was why he was in a bad mood every day.
“It has nothing to do with you.” Fu Rangyi pulled his hand away.
“How does it have nothing to do with me?” Zhu Zhixi’s tone was natural. “I’m a beta. I can’t smell pheromones, and I won’t be affected by them. You can just treat me as if I don’t exist. Wouldn’t it be nice to take it off at home?”
Fu Rangyi stopped speaking and merely stared at him quietly.
“Up to you. I just want you to be a little more comfortable when you’re at home.”
Sensing that Fu Rangyi disliked this topic very much, Zhu Zhixi changed the subject at the right time. He looked at the questionnaire and continued downward, asking questions one by one. He still refused to cooperate with most of them.
Like an exceptionally gifted good student, he looked down on the difficulty of the practice questions in the textbook and only liked extension questions outside of them.
And Zhu Zhixi happened to have scattered thinking. He really did think of another extension question.
“Ah, I almost missed another super important one.”
Fu Rangyi raised an eyebrow, unusually not denying it from the start.
“Do you have any birthmarks or anything like that? Like a very distinctive mark.” Zhu Zhixi asked.
But Fu Rangyi was not that cooperative either. He still preferred answering questions with questions.
“Do you?”
Unexpectedly, Zhu Zhixi answered very honestly.
“No birthmarks or anything like that, but I do have moles. Two fairly representative ones.”
As he spoke, he suddenly moved closer without any warning, like a little dog that inexplicably comes over on the road and starts sniffing on its own. With a pair of round eyes, he stared at Fu Rangyi with an innocent expression.
At a certain moment, Fu Rangyi smelled the same scent as on himself. It was the fragrance of woody body wash, subtly diffusing outward, as if this beta had suddenly gained his pheromones in that instant too.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed?” Zhu Zhixi still maintained this excessively close distance and blinked.
Fu Rangyi turned his face away. “Noticed what?”
However, in the next second, his chin was propped up by a pen.
Zhu Zhixi used a little force, using the pen to turn his face back toward himself. Then he closed his eyes in front of Fu Rangyi.
“Here. Look.”
The pen that had just touched him now tapped Zhu Zhixi’s closed left eye.
On his thin upper eyelid, there was a very faint red mole. Rather than red, it would be more accurate to call it rose-colored.
Very quickly, he opened his eyes again. That tiny mole sank into the fold of his eyelid, like a bit of rose bookmark left at the edge of a book page that had quickly closed.
Fu Rangyi’s expression barely changed. As usual, a thin layer of ice seemed frozen over it.
“I saw it.”
Actually, he had noticed it the first time they met. On such a clean, fair face, even the smallest mark was difficult to ignore.
Back then, he had subconsciously thought of a kind of dessert he had eaten as a child: round white glutinous rice balls filled with crushed sesame, peanuts, and white sugar, with one little red dot placed on the skin.
During holidays, every child could receive one. The one he got always had the red dot crooked, which was irritating. But the one on Zhu Zhixi’s eyelid was perfectly centered, right above his pupil.
“It’s been so many days. I thought you’d seen it ages ago.”
“I thought something dirty was stuck there.”
Zhu Zhixi laughed out of anger and also backed away. The distance widened, and he held the pen between his fingers, swinging it a few times.
Fu Rangyi rarely took the initiative to ask further. “What about the other one?”
“It’s not on my face.” As Zhu Zhixi spoke, he stood up and lightly bounced twice, trying to shake out his clothes.
He was wearing an oversized Christmas-green knit sweater, ragged and full of holes and loose threads, with a white base layer underneath.
He lowered his head, his fingers searching over the knitted fabric before finally stopping at one of the holes and tapping it.
It was his lower abdomen. More precisely, it was the lower part of his lower abdomen, close to the left side of his hip bone.
If not for that white long-sleeved shirt, right now, his reddened fingertip would have passed through the hole in the outer sweater, poked his skin, and pointed at this private mark.
“It’s dark-colored and pretty obvious. Every time before I shower and take off my clothes, I look at it in the mirror.”
Even saying something like this, Zhu Zhixi’s expression was still very innocent. His thin eyelids lifted, and with his eyes lowered, he stared directly at Fu Rangyi.
“Remember it?”
Author’s Note:
Juicy, aren’t you asking for trouble?
By the way, please remember this mole. There will be a callback during the susceptible period, friends.
