“Stop typing and come over. Let me take a look.”
Xiao Yan put down his phone and beckoned Luo Zhiyu over.
“Oh, okay.”
Luo Zhiyu still had his seat belt fastened in the back seat. He lowered his head slightly and pulled open his collar, revealing the gauze bandage wrapped around the back of his neck.
Against Luo Zhiyu’s fair skin, a little red had seeped through the gauze, like scattered peach petals dampened by rain.
Xiao Yan felt somewhat regretful.
When he teased Luo Zhiyu, he liked to rub and pinch his waist and the back of his neck. He genuinely enjoyed seeing Luo Zhiyu laugh and plead with him to stop while dodging away. He did this often, and sometimes he was a little too rough when they were fooling around, so he had forgotten that at this stage, Luo Zhiyu was easier to bully than usual.
“It was my fault.”
Next time he marked Luo Zhiyu, he definitely had to hold him firmly in place and not let him move around again.
An alpha’s instincts were probably a rather nasty thing.
Rationally, he felt guilty, but deep down, something kept clamoring for him to bully the other person even more.
Two thoughts that had absolutely nothing to do with each other—guilt and dissatisfaction—could actually become intertwined one day.
“Your technique isn’t very good, Brother Yan.”
Luo Zhiyu sighed deeply.
“Just think of it as getting some practice on me.”
The driver pricked up his ears and secretly glanced at them through the rearview mirror.
“Stop talking. Did you hear me?”
Through the gauze, Xiao Yan gently rubbed the back of Luo Zhiyu’s neck.
“You talk too much.”
The textbook said that this kind of action could soothe an omega’s emotions and reduce the discomfort they experienced during heat.
Luo Zhiyu comfortably closed his eyes.
The pain in the back of his neck gradually eased, replaced by a drowsiness and sense of dependence that seemed to flow through his body.
He knew it might have little to do with pheromones or the temporary marking. After spending an entire semester together, joking around and fooling around, he had developed an indescribable sense of trust in Xiao Yan.
The car entered an upscale residential neighborhood in the southern part of the city.
The driver turned around and asked Luo Zhiyu where he should drop him off.
“He’s not going home yet.”
Xiao Yan pulled Luo Zhiyu out of the car.
“I’ll take him home later.”
Hearing Xiao Yan make the decision about where he was going without asking him, Luo Zhiyu didn’t object either. Hugging his schoolbag, he followed behind Xiao Yan and watched as Xiao Yan took out his phone and sent the driver a WeChat red envelope.
The note said: Hush money.
As soon as Luo Zhiyu entered the courtyard, he began looking around curiously.
Their two families both lived in this neighborhood. When they were children, whenever they happened to run into each other on the street, they would exchange glares as their greeting.
This was Luo Zhiyu’s first time coming to Xiao Yan’s house.
Perhaps because he had just done something mildly rebellious that textbooks and his parents wouldn’t exactly approve of, Luo Zhiyu actually wanted to stay with his accomplice a little longer.
So he hadn’t objected from the beginning.
He had simply deviated from his route home and halfway along the way slipped into his Brother Yan’s house.
“Sit over there. Find some snacks you like.”
Xiao Yan pointed toward the sofa and piled all the snacks from the refrigerator onto the coffee table.
“I’ll find some household medicine and change your bandage.”
“Okay.”
Luo Zhiyu found a place on the sofa.
His eyes met those of the parrot in the living room.
“Hello.”
The parrot greeted him.
“Hello. If a friend comes from afar, is that not a joyous thing?”
Huh. A cultured parrot. First time I’ve ever seen one.
“Say it, Stinky Orange.”
Luo Zhiyu started chatting with the parrot.
“Come on, repeat after me. Stinky Orange.”
“Don’t corrupt my little brother. You managed to hit it off with him in no time.”
Xiao Yan placed the medicine box on the table and glanced at the parrot on the stand.
“But it seems to like you quite a lot. When other people come over, it doesn’t say a word. It’s so aloof that it barely seems like a parrot.”
“On the pipa strings, I speak of lovesickness; beneath that same bright moon, I once watched the colored clouds return.”
The parrot chirped.
Luo Zhiyu asked in amazement, “…Are all the parrots in your family this cultured? Does it have a name?”
“My dad taught it. We never gave it a name. We just call it Little Brother…”
Xiao Yan gently pressed down on Luo Zhiyu’s shoulder.
“Lower your head.”
“I’m changing it for you.”
Luo Zhiyu lowered his head and stared at Xiao Yan’s toes.
The medical tape on the back of his neck was slowly peeled away. When the alcohol swab touched the gland at the back of his neck, it tickled slightly. He bit his lip and didn’t make a sound.
Having another person’s pheromones enter his body was an entirely unprecedented experience.
Right now, Luo Zhiyu found Xiao Yan especially pleasing to look at. Every movement he made seemed capable of making him feel comfortable.
“Done. I won’t touch you anymore.”
Xiao Yan patted him.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
Luo Zhiyu actually didn’t have much strength left.
At school, omega students in heat would usually take leave and rest in their dormitories. He should have gone home, but he didn’t really want to leave so soon.
An omega would temporarily become dependent on an alpha after being temporarily marked. This was normal.
Both of them knew it perfectly well.
Considering the compatibility of their pheromones, the effect wouldn’t last very long, so neither of them paid much attention to it.
Luo Zhiyu said, “I think…”
“Stay a little longer. Rest for a while and recover your strength.”
Xiao Yan spoke first.
“I’m guessing there’s no one at your house tonight.”
The way he said no one was somewhat ambiguous.
Ever since science and all their crooked logic had simultaneously demolished the boundary they had crossed, the two of them had become much more uninhibited and had fewer reservations.
“No one. There really isn’t anyone.”
Luo Zhiyu picked up his schoolbag.
“Do you have any first-year high school textbooks? I might as well review a little. Final exams are coming up soon after I go back.”
He naturally identified Xiao Yan’s bedroom and pushed the door open.
“If love between two hearts can last forever, why care about morning and evening?”
Little Brother the parrot was still chirping.
“Morning and evening, duck. Morning and evening.”
“Yes, I have some. I’ll get them for you.”
Xiao Yan followed Luo Zhiyu inside and quickly closed the bedroom door.
Xiao Yan’s room was somewhat different from what Luo Zhiyu had imagined.
It wasn’t as neat and conventional as he had expected.
On the bookshelf, Luo Zhiyu spotted a ukulele.
“You can play?”
Luo Zhiyu plucked the strings twice.
He didn’t understand music, but there was always some connection between different forms of art. He naturally tended to favor people who carried an artistic quality about them.
“I want to learn, but high school is too busy. I bought it and then just left it at home.”
Xiao Yan took Luo Zhiyu’s hand and guided his fingers into the correct position to pluck the strings.
“I only know the basics for now. After college, I’ll learn properly.”
“You’ll probably learn pretty quickly. You’re talented, after all.”
Only then did Luo Zhiyu realize that Xiao Yan was standing directly behind him.
His back was pressed tightly against Xiao Yan’s chest, trapping him between Xiao Yan and the bookshelf.
This sudden sense of restraint and loss of freedom didn’t make him irritated.
Instead, it gave him an unusual sense of security.
Luo Zhiyu was a little confused by his own thoughts.
Xiao Yan, however, stepped away first and went to the cabinet beside them to look for books.
Neither of them mentioned what had just happened.
They both understood without saying anything.
Xiao Yan’s desk wasn’t very big, and there were already quite a few books piled on it.
Luo Zhiyu didn’t fight him for the desk. He simply took one of the books Xiao Yan had used in his first year of high school and walked around the room while memorizing from it.
He made no sound.
His ability to study during heat wasn’t very good. Things he could normally memorize easily had suddenly become difficult.
There was something hidden in his heart that felt almost like a worry.
His usually sharp mind had slowed down slightly, and his memorization became slower.
Holding the book, Luo Zhiyu leaned against the bookshelf, but his eyes wandered everywhere.
Every now and then, his gaze landed on Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan’s school uniform was folded neatly beside the bed, with the blanket Luo Zhiyu had returned to him earlier draped over it.
On the top shelf of Xiao Yan’s bookcase were photographs of Xiao Yan from when he was little.
There were five dictionaries on Xiao Yan’s desk, each one thicker than the last.
When Xiao Yan worked on problems, he did mental calculations most of the time and rarely used scratch paper…
Why are there so many today?!
In just this short while, there were already two sheets of used scratch paper on his desk.
They were covered with all kinds of calculations, scattered messily everywhere.
It seemed that, just like Luo Zhiyu, his mind wasn’t really on studying either.
While Luo Zhiyu was looking at Xiao Yan, Xiao Yan was also looking back at him.
“I don’t think I’m really in the mood to study today.”
Luo Zhiyu explained himself.
“Then neither am I.”
Xiao Yan put down his pen.
“Let’s play for a while. Want to play a game?”
The clock on the wall pointed to eleven-thirty at night.
Luo Zhiyu borrowed Xiao Yan’s phone charger, and the two of them played several rounds of a game together.
“Going home turns you into a night owl, Brother Yan. It’s almost midnight and you’re still dragging us into games.”
Lu Minggui, whose ID was Green-Haired Turtle, yawned repeatedly in the team voice channel.
“Huh? You brought a first-year kid along?”
“Have Luo Zhiyu turn on his mic. It’ll be easier to communicate.”
Fan Yue reminded him.
“I don’t need to.”
A familiar voice came through Xiao Yan’s speaker.
“Just the two of us sharing one is fine. Otherwise there’ll be an echo.”
Lu Minggui: “?”
Fan Yue: “?”
“Queue up. We’ll go to bed after this one.”
Xiao Yan urged them on.
“I wouldn’t dare say anything.”
Lu Minggui typed a message into the team channel.
They had said they would just play casually.
But high school boys rarely got the chance to stop studying, and once they started gaming, they kept going late into the night.
By the time the final match ended, Luo Zhiyu was already asleep against Xiao Yan’s pillow.
“We’re done.”
Xiao Yan typed.
“Everyone disperse. It’s late. We’re going to sleep.”
Fan Yue: “I wouldn’t dare say anything.”
“Luo Zhiyu.”
Xiao Yan pressed his hand lightly against Luo Zhiyu’s forehead.
After the temporary marking had formed, Luo Zhiyu hadn’t had a fever again.
“Wake up. Do you want to wash up? Otherwise you’ll be uncomfortable sleeping like this.”
“Did we win?”
Luo Zhiyu sat up and spent three seconds figuring out where he was.
At Xiao Yan’s house. Playing with Xiao Yan behind our parents’ backs. And no one at home knows. Exciting.
“We won. It’s already over.”
“Go wash up. It’s one in the morning, and there’s no one outside anymore. I’ll give you the bed. I’ll take you home tomorrow around noon.”
Xiao Yan found Luo Zhiyu a new toothbrush and cup.
“As for a towel…”
“Use yours…”
Luo Zhiyu was still half-asleep.
“Don’t open a new one for me.”
“Beyond Ba-dong, the Three Gorges stretch long; in Wu Gorge, the cries of the apes three times soak the robes with tears.”
The parrot was still reciting poetry from the living room.
“Tonight, hearing the willow-breaking tune in the song, who wouldn’t feel longing for home?”
“That’s way too literary. You don’t sound like a parrot.”
Luo Zhiyu stared at the parrot and muttered to himself.
“I’ll teach you something else tomorrow.”
Luo Zhiyu took Xiao Yan’s towel and went into the bathroom.
Xiao Yan received a message from Fan Yue.
[Fan Yue]: What are you doing, bro?
[Fan Yue]: What time is it? Are you with Luo Zhiyu?
[Orange]: I brought him back from the banquet.
[Orange]: What’s up?
[Fan Yue]: Nothing… As long as you two are happy.
[Orange]: Happy.
After Luo Zhiyu finished washing up, he changed into an old set of Xiao Yan’s pajamas and staggered back.
He naturally claimed Xiao Yan’s bed, rolled himself up in the blanket, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep.
“Don’t sleep yet. Wake up.”
Xiao Yan patted his cheek.
“Let’s review what you learned in health class. Can you sleep in another alpha’s bed?”
“No.”
Luo Zhiyu was extremely sleepy, but his answer came quickly, and his attitude was unusually firm.
“Only Brother’s is okay. All other alphas are up to no good, with ulterior motives, impure intentions, and shamelessly trying to get close.”
Xiao Yan let him off.
Luo Zhiyu had no trouble sleeping in an unfamiliar bed at all.
He turned over and thoroughly committed himself to staying out all night.
Xiao Yan carefully carried a sofa bed in from the living room.
Staring at the sleeping face of a certain little rascal, he found himself unable to sleep.
Tonight, he had caught the stars and hidden them away safely.