Chapter 13

Tong Yan stayed with Zhuo Xiang Ming for theweek. They left together in the morning and came home together at night, then ZhuoXiang Ming looked over his homework. Almost all of their free time was spenttogether.

On Friday afternoon, Tong Yang would pick Tong Yan up from school and takehim home. This was the established schedule, but Zhuo Xiang Ming only rememberedthat arrangement while he was driving Tong Yan to school that morning, afterTong Yan offhandedly mumbled this sentence to himself.

“Then I don’t have to come over?”

Amoment later, he asked a pointless question.

TongYan still hadn’t completely woken up. Lying askew on the seat, closing his eyestightly against the intense morning sun, his thick black eyelashes sweeping hischeeks, his body swaying along to the car’s acceleration and deceleration. Strugglingto maintain his balance despite his drowsiness, he didn’t notice how pointless ZhuoXiang Ming’s question was: “Uh-huh, brother, you can go straight homeafter work.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming didn’t mention that he leftwork early every day, he even never attended the dinner parties held after 5 pm.If he didn’t need to pick him up today, he’d have to work overtime to take careof all the work that had piled up.

DropTong Yan off, then drive away as soon as he got out, this was the usual routineall week. But today, probably because he knew that he wouldn’t see Tong Yan fortwo days, Zhuo Xiang Ming felt reluctant.

Itwas dissatisfying to watch your domesticated kitten eat dried fish from anotherfamily, not to mention the child he had taken care of for more than two months.Plus, the child was excited to go back to the Tong family house, and on Monday,he’d look forward to Friday.

Zhuo Xiang Ming knew that this sort of comparison method was wrong. Tong Yan wasn’t his family, he was merely borrowing him for now. Tong Yang should be the one thinking this, not him.

Arrivingat the school, he helped Tong Yan unfasten his seat belt. Seeing that Tong Yanhadn’t opened his eyes, still in that inexplicable mood, Zhuo Xiang Ming reachedout and pinched the fair-skinned, cute-looking cheek in front of him: “Brat.”

TongYan originally wasn’t sound asleep, being teased by Zhuo Xiang Ming, the ticklingsensation made him want to laugh. He dodged left and right, then plungedheadlong into Zhuo Xiang Ming’s arms.

He shamelessly clung to Zhuo Xiang Ming’s waist, his hair poking Zhuo XiangMing’s shoulder socket, disregarding his image, he rubbed against him: “I’msleepy …”

“Who let you stay up late.”

Last night, he and Xuan Gui secretly watched a 19+ rated horror movieuntil 12:30am. Originally, it was nothing special, and his mood relaxed as themovie was coming to an end, when suddenly, a bloody severed head appeared atthe ending. The 5D effect jump scare made Tong Yan scream in alarm, which wokeup Zhuo Xiang Ming.

It was already extremely late, so despite Zhuo Xiang Ming’s solemnexpression, he merely instructed him to go to sleep. A moment ago, he’d mentionedthat he would punish him this evening, but that was easily bypassed by onesentence from Tong Yan, “I’m going home tonight”.

In fact, Tong Yan was currently acting like a spoiled child because ofthat incident. Zhuo Xiang Ming was so nice to him, and the two had gradually gottencloser. Staying together wasn’t as uncomfortable as before, but he was stillafraid of incurring Zhuo Xiang Ming’s anger.

Or, it could be said that because their relationship had become closer,he was even more afraid of incurring Zhuo Xiang Ming’s anger.

“I know, I was wrong …” Tong Yan said, trying to curry favor,“I won’t do it again, brother.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming sighed and straightened him out, fixing his uniform andhair, looking over him to make sure he had his water bottle and warning card onhis chest. Then he opened the door and told him to get out, totally unaware ofhow much he resembled an old nursemaid.

TongYan stayed seated and refused to leave. Zhuo Xiang Ming saw that he was sittingthere with a bold and righteous expression, thinking with some satisfaction, whywas this boy so troubled even though he was going back home soon?

He seemed to be spoiling Tong Yan into revealing small faults, and he was even proud about it.

“You know that you did wrong?”

TongYan lowered his head and acknowledged his mistakes: “I know.”

“What did you do wrong?”

TongYan: “I shouldn’t secretly watch horror movies on a school night.”

“Thatis one.” Zhuo Xiang Ming said: “What else?”

TongYan pondered: “I shouldn’t watch 19+ rated horror movies.”

“Whatelse?” Zhuo Xiang Ming said.

TongYan looked up at his solemn face, subconsciously feeling that Zhuo Xiang Ming wasn’tas angry as he put on, and maybe he was even teasing him, but Tong Yan still didn’tdare jump to conclusions, looking into Zhuo Xiang Ming’s eyes cajolingly.

Zhuo Xiang Ming: “Shouldn’t you watch this type of movie with aguardian present?”

“Oh …” Tong Yan held back a smile, “I’ll call you over nexttime.”

“Okay, go.” Zhuo Xiang Ming once again fixed the warning cardon his chest, almost like someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder. “Don’t foolaround too much, study well, and don’t go to places with a lot of alpha.”

These instructions were a daily routine. The time to leave was delayedfor a while, and time was running out. Once this routine started, Tong Yan’sheart immediately relaxed. He promised to behave, and ran away.

Zhuo Xiang Ming watched him through the half-open car window, there werea few teachers entering and exiting the school, but there were not manystudents. His eyes stayed locked on Tong Yan until he turned into the building,then he instructed the driver: “Go.”

——

Starting from the third year of high school, there was usually a quiz onFriday mornings. After two exams, the class was dismissed. At noon, Tong Yan wentto eat in the school cafeteria with his desk-mate, Chai ManMan, and the two studentswho sat in front of them.

The four found an empty table in the corner and sat down. Chai ManManwas anxious to know her results, she took out the answer sheet she’d writtenfor memorization and compared with them. In the end, she got five multiplechoice questions wrong, and Tong Yan got all of them correct.

“Your grades were so good?” Chai ManMan swallowed a few bitesof rice. “If I knew that, I would’ve made you send me the key points yesterday.”

TongYan’s front desk mate said: “Tong Yan’s grades were always very good. Beforehe left school, his ranking was consistently high.”

Chai ManMan laughed: “Eh, speaking of that, Tong Yan is originally oursenior.”

TongYan felt a little embarrassed, but still said: “You can still call me seniornow, if you call me that, I’ll send you my notes next time.”

Chai ManMan glanced at the sign on his chest: “Come on, don’t you two stillneed us to protect you?”

TongYan and his front table mate were “Sensitive Persons”, the homeroomteacher arranged them to seat next to betas, the purpose was to help them be affectedby pheromones as little as possible.

“You don’t need to say it,” Tong Yan said. “It’s a freeconsultation, but I can’t guarantee the accuracy.”

When they finished eating, before they separated,Chai ManMan proposed: “Why don’t we go out to play this afternoon?Tomorrow’s the weekend, we can go home a bit late.”

“Wheredo you want to play?” Asked Tong Yan’s front table mate.

“A new shopping mall opened up in the 21st district. I heard thatthere were many boutiques. I want to go stroll around, then eat hot pot upstairs.Oh, by the way, that street also has a pub we can check out, let’s have a drink.”

“I asked around, it’s not crowded over there, ifwe take a de-pheromone bus, you can go.” Chai ManMan added.

TongYan was not very interested in these activities, but the omega girl wastempted, and her desk-mate was also going. Tong Yan didn’t particularly not wantto go, and he felt that shopping around was good, so he also agreed.

Aftergroup agreed, they were all a little less attentive in class that afternoon, immediatelygathering to chit-chat in the intervals between classes.

During the lunch break, Tong Yan sent a text to Tong Yang, telling himnot to pick him up that afternoon. He would go home by himself after hangingout with his classmates.

However, Tong Yang never responded back. Tong Yan thought that he wasjust busy, or that he didn’t see it. After school, they got onto the District21 school bus, and Tong Yan called Tong Yang again, but Tong Yang still didn’t answer.

Except for those whose homes were very far away, on Fridays, basicallyeveryone went home. Before five o’clock, a vast number of cars were parked atthe school gate, all of which were picking up children. After school, Tong Yan’scell phone was almost out of power. Fortunately, because of the traffic, theschool bus he was on only moved about 100 meters from the school gate evenafter 10 minutes. He didn’t see Tong Yang’s car during that time, so he wasn’tworried about him waiting for him in vain.

When Tong Yang got some free time, he’d look at the text message, andeverything would be fine.

–

ZhuoXiang Ming received a call from a strange number at 8:30.

Before that, he’d been waiting for Tong Yan’s call, and also wonderingwhether or not he should call Tong Yan first, but seeing an unknown numberflashing on the screen at this time, he felt inexplicably worried.

“It’s Tong Yang, did Tong Yan return with you?” Tong Yangasked as soon as he was connected.

Zhuo Xiang Ming frowned: “Didn’t you go pick him up?”

“…” There was a moment of silence, then Tong Yang said,“I was delayed by something, and my cell phone isn’t on me. I just called him;his phone is off. I came over to his school, but he’s not there.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming hung up and called Tong Yan, the phone was off.

He called Tong Yang’s phone again: “Where are you now?”

TongYang: “I’m still at the school gate.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming looked at the time, it was 8:40. It was already completelydark out, with the distinct drop in temperature that occurred at night, if he’dwaited until now, Tong Yan would be extremely miserable. However, Tong Yan wasn’tstupid, nor was he a child who didn’t know the roads, even if he didn’t leave,it was impossible for him to wait there until now.

“Are you sure he didn’t go home by himself?” Zhuo Xiang Mingasked, although he knew that it was not very likely.

“No, I asked the housekeeper, they said that he didn’t comeback.”

“He didn’t call you?”

TongYang said, “I don’t have my cell phone.”

Hearingthis again, Zhuo Xiang Ming remembered.

“Wait there for me, I’m coming over now.”

“No need,” Tong Yang said politely, “I’ll look around again…”

“Where are you going to look? He waited a week for you to come pickhim up and take him home, but you didn’t even bring your phone with you. Don’tyou know that your brother is sick? He can’t use the subway, his cell phone isdead, how can you let him make his way home from so far away?”

TongYang’s ‘he can take a taxi’ suggestion was not fully uttered before Zhuo XiangMing cursed: “Bullshit!”

Tong Yang was rendered silent by his admonishment, Zhuo Xiang Ming paced a few steps, suppressing the sudden unknown anger before patiently saying: “Sorry.”

TongYang was also very worried, not taking it to heart: “Forget it, it’s allmy fault.”

“… Wait there, I’m leaving now.”

Tong Yan’s cell phone couldn’t be reached.The two men made a few laps around the school, and the more Zhuo Xiang Ming circledaround, the hotter his anger grew. He also couldn’t figure out how he got so angry.He wanted to thoroughly scold Tong Yang, and, when he found Tong Yan, he wantedto scold him as well, so that he would never dare to run around again, letalone with his phone turned off, leaving others unable to locate him.

What’sworse, news stories about omegas being victimized wouldn’t stop circulating in hishead, to say nothing of Tong Yan’s vulnerability because of his illness.

Evenmore anxious and helpless, Zhuo Xiang Ming reported it to the police. They couldn’taccept a missing persons case before 24 hours passed, but hearing that it was ahigh school student, they suggested that he check the internet cafes near theschool.

Zhuo Xiang Ming really went to check, of course in vain.

Justas he was about to call a police commissioner he was familiar with, Lin Yue Huacalled and asked him to come home for dinner. After listening to hisexplanation, she was also worried, and said offhandedly, “Did you ask his homeroomteacher?”

Hiseffort wasn’t wasted this time, as soon as Zhuo Xiang Ming asked, he learned TongYan’s general whereabouts.

Thatafternoon, they’d discussed going out to play in the 21st district. The homeroomteacher heard about it as she was randomly passing by, and recommended a fewgood hot pot restaurants to them.

In the end, Zhuo Xiang Ming got Chai ManMan’scell phone number. When the phone was passed to Tong Yan, there was still asmile in his voice: “Brother?”

“Tong Tong, where are you now?”

TongYan was bewildered, but he quickly reported the restaurant’s name and address tohim.

“Is your meal almost over?”

SensingZhuo Xiang Ming’s mood, Tong Yan glanced at the delicious looking dishes thathad just been set on the table and said, “We’re almost done eating, what’swrong?”

“Okay, I’ll come pick you up.”

TongYang’s car was following behind Zhuo Xiang Ming’s. Tong Yan noticed this, butZhuo Xiang Ming got out of the car and opened the passenger side door for him,his complexion very unsightly. Seeing that Tong Yang wasn’t coming out, hedidn’t dare say anything for the time being, and got into Zhuo Xiang Ming’scar.

It was already almost 10 o’clock. Just now, when Zhuo Xiang Ming hungup, their homeroom teacher also called to ask about them. At this time, TongYan roughly understood what was wrong. He wrung his fingers for a while beforeasking, “Didn’t my brother see my text?”

“He didn’t bring his cell phone.”

“Did you think I’d gotten lost”?

ZhuoXiang Ming hadn’t responded before Tong Yan spoke again: “Sorry, my phone died afterschool…… I should’ve also called you at noon.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming still didn’t speak, Tong Yan covertly glanced at him, discoveringthat his complexion was even uglier than before. His jaw was clenched tight, andhe stared at the road, as if he hadn’t heard him.

It was a freaky combination of factors; he could only say that it was acoincidence. Tong Yan knew that he’d made some mistakes, but even after heapologized, Zhuo Xiang Ming still seemed so angry, he really didn’t know what todo.

Hecould only suggest: “If you’re going to keep ignoring me, then let me sitin Tong Yang’s car.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming turned the steering wheel and parked the car in the emergencylane. Tong Yang was unprepared, and could only drive straight past.

TongYan was a little surprised, he turned and asked: “What are …”

Beforehe could finish speaking, Zhuo Xiang Ming hugged him. The smell of cedar treeflavored pheromones was already pervading the compartment, and it became ever richerafter he drew near. Tong Yan panted for a few moments, raising his hands to returnZhuo Xiang Ming’s hug.

Zhuo Xiang Ming said in a low voice: “Ithought that, after I found you, I’d seriously scold you.”

TongYan was pressed up against him, so he noticed the uneasiness that Zhuo XiangMing momentarily exposed. Rubbing his cheek against him, he said softly:“Then you should scold me, don’t just ignore me.”

“No scolding.” Zhuo Xiang Ming touched the back of Tong Yan’s head,stroking the hair that he’d ruffled, as if he was holding a kitten in his embrace.After giving him one final prolonged squeeze, Zhuo Xiang Ming took a deep breathand backed away, “I’ll take you home.”

=======================================

T/N:

Seemed etc – 好像是把人惯出了点小毛病 . This sentence was so confusing. EDIT Changed into a more correct sounding translation

My screen’s still broken, but this chapter was already half-done, so I pushed myself to finish it. Hope you guys enjoyed the cute hug, just wait till you find out why TYang was late…