CH 56

Zhou Cun helped the young Omega named Ji Ning into the back seat of the car. He held the door open and glanced back at Zhou Rin who was left standing on the side of the road, frowned slightly, then said calmly, “You should come back with me as well.”

Back then, Zhou Rin had been young and unrestrained. Due to the excessive doting of his mother and sister, he had no worries about being cut off, so he would often have fights with his father, not to mention his brother. 

Normally, he would have just left, but seeing Ji Ning in the car left his thoughts distracted. Finally, he opened the front door of the car and sat in the passenger seat. Through the reflection of the rearview mirror, he could see the Omega’s face was pale.

“Second young master.”

The driver greeted him. Zhou Rin nodded perfunctorily, and once his brother had loaded Ji Ning’s luggage into the car, the engine started. His brother lowered the car window, letting the pheromones that still clung to Ji Ning’s body scatter into the night air.

“It’s freezing.” Zhou Rin glanced at Ji Ning, who was curled up in his brother’s arms, and his tone became more gloomy, “Close the window.” 

“It’s for your own good.” Zhou Cun remained firm, “Unless you want to vomit in the car and trouble someone else to clean it up for you.”

Zhou Rin froze for a moment. He’d temporarily forgotten his hatred of Omegan pheromones. Normally, the longer he smelled them, the more disgusted he felt. How could the fresh and sweet scent of Ji Ning be so different?

He actually felt this way about his brother’s lover…why was this Omega his brother’s lover?

The irritation in his heart was accompanied by a faint pain, which spread quickly across the organ, as if his heart was being squeezed by an invisible hand.

His chest felt stuffy and he took out his cigarette case with a gloomy expression, wanting to smoke a menthol to get rid of this feeling, but he found the case was empty. He clenched the box in anger, until the metal began to warp.

It was because he was guarding that alley like an idiot that he smoked out all his cigarettes. As a result, he was misunderstood to be doing something wrong and now that Omega still looked at him with lingering fear.

From time to time, he glanced back in the rearview mirror. Seeing the frightened expression on Ji Ning’s face, his expression darkened and he regretted how he’d entered the car without thinking. He didn’t even say goodbye to his friends before leaving.

“Why were you with the two of them just now? They’re bad people, don’t hang around them in the future.” His brother spoke abruptly with a cold expression, “And why were you holding on to Ji Ning just now?” 

Hearing this question, Ji Ning’s body stiffened and his downcast eyelashes trembled slightly.

“What does it have to do with you? Leave me alone.” Zhou Rin replied harshly. Since his brother had already assumed he was associating with scumbags like that, he didn’t care to explain things to him.

“Zhou Rin.”

There was anger in his brother’s low voice, “Don’t forget that I’m your brother.” 

“Why don’t you take care of your little boyfriend instead of sticking your nose into my business.” Zhou Rin sneered, “Not taking his inhibitors and going into heat on the street, that kind of Omega…”

“Vabq atf mjg.” Itbe Jec bgvfgfv. Lf qblcafv bea atf klcvbk jcv rjlv, “Itbe Elc, ufa bea. Tbe cffv ab mifjg sbeg tfjv.”

Wtbe Elc rwlifv vlrvjlcoeiis, uba bea bo atf mjg jcv rijwwfv atf vbbg rtea. Ktf mjg kjrc’a ublcu ab ifjnf klatbea tlw, yea tf kjixfv jkjs ys tlwrfio.

His steps grew faster until he was running into the night, the icy wind pouring into his lungs. It wasn’t until his physical strength was exhausted that he doubled over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath. But the sweet scent still seemed to linger for a long time. 

Remembering the intimacy between Ji Ning and his brother, compared with the way he looked at him, his heart felt pained. He wiped the sweat from his face and slammed his fist into the lamppost next to him.

Omegas were truly annoying.

Since that day, Ji Ning lived in their house.

Over time, he learned that Ji Ning and his brother met by chance, and the two quickly developed a crush on one another. Ji Ning’s family originally ran a business, but the company encountered a crisis and went bankrupt, owing a lot of money to many different people. Both his parents fell ill due to stress, but Zhou Cun accompanied him throughout. Later, the two of them confirmed their relationship, which is why his brother wanted to bring Ji Ning to meet his family. 

Ji Ning had a good personality and was extremely smart, being a top student in a famous university, so the Zhou family were very satisfied with him. From the Zhou family’s point of view, the huge debt that Ji Ning’s family carried wasn’t even worth mentioning. They didn’t care about his family background, as long as their eldest son liked him.

At some point, Zhou Rin overheard a conversation between Ji Ning and his brother. It turned out that the accident that night was because Ji Ning had packed an empty inhibitor bottle by mistake, which resulted in his unexpected heat. Once he started his heat, he immediately called Zhou Cun because of the dangerous situation.

His elder brother apologised for not coming faster and gently comforted Ji Ning, but Zhou Rin still felt angry for no particular reason. He stepped out of the shadows and mocked Ji Ning, causing a big fight with his brother.

He didn’t understand why his brother wasn’t angry. In his opinion, this kind of behaviour was simply stupid. An Omega should protect themself and check things like their inhibitors several times before going outside. 

Besides, if it wasn’t for the fact that Ji Ning didn’t have an inhibitor, he wouldn’t have smelled that pheromone.

The tantalising scent appeared in his dreams, making him more and more strange. Whenever he saw Ji Ning alone at home, his heart beat faster, and when he saw Ji Ning and his brother together, he felt so restless he wished he could throw something at them to stop them holding hands.

Ji Ning.

Ji Ning. 

Was he crazy, why couldn’t he stop thinking about Ji Ning?

Maybe he was crazy. He was clearly aware that the Omega was his brother’s lover and his own future sister-in-law, but the instinctual throbbing caused by the scent of his pheromones wouldn’t stop. Instead it only became stronger, like a whirlpool slowly dragging him into its depths.

In his heart, he cursed himself as a scumbag. It wasn’t good to think of anyone so pervertedly, but especially not Ji Ning.

Not only were their identities taboo, but he was the only person that Ji Ning hated. One second Ji Ning would be smiling softly, but the moment he saw Zhou Rin, he would suppress the smile on his face and give him a tight nod before leaving. 

He’d never explained the misunderstanding that night to Ji Ning. At first, he was too embarrassed to mention it, but later, when Ji Ning heard about his ‘brilliant’ reputation, the Omega already assumed he was a playboy. Even if he explained the truth to Ji Ning, he wouldn’t believe it.

Although he was never involved in rumours regarding love affairs, people can always change. He, the second young master of the Zhou family, was notoriously unpredictable. If he held back his nausea, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t attack an Omega.

In the end, he deliberately smashed the pot and let Ji Ning misunderstand him. There were a lot of people who didn’t like him and he’d never cared before. He didn’t need Ji Ning to like him.

Even though he always told himself this, each time he was faced with Ji Ning’s indifference, his heart would clench, and his attitude became worse and worse. 

The relationship between the two of them was very awkward and the family felt a headache because of it. They kept asking him not to show so much hostility towards Ji Ning, but at the time he stubbornly felt that it was Ji Ning’s fault. If Ji Ning wouldn’t concede, then neither would he. Eventually, he was so angered that he simply moved out of the house and stayed with a friend.

This friend of his was a Beta. Their house was clean and had no smell of pheromones and they had similar hobbies. The two of them played games day and night and Zhou Rin could finally take his mind off his troubles.

But after a week, his friend grew tired of their monotonous life of playing games, and stood up from the ground, swaying slightly, to say,

“I can’t do this anymore, let’s go out and get some air. If I continue to stay at home, I’ll die. Let’s find a place to play around, where do you want to go? We could play billiards or go swimming…” 

His friend suggested a lot of activities, but Zhou Rin couldn’t raise his spirits and denied them one by one. In the end, the friend asked him to suggest something himself. After a while, Zhou Rin said slowly.

“Let’s go to the botanical garden.”

“…What?”

He still couldn’t stop thinking about Ji Ning’s pheromones. It was a complex scent, but the strongest fragrance was a type of floral smell. However, he didn’t know much about flowers, so he couldn’t tell what species it was. He didn’t know why, but he really wanted to find out what kind of flower it was. 

…but why was he thinking about that annoying Omega again?

He was annoyed by the place he’d subconsciously chosen, but the two still changed their clothes and left the house. As his friend drove, Zhou Rin never said a word about changing their destination.

Once they had arrived at the botanical garden, Zhou Rin’s friend remained in a daze until they’d paid for their tickets, as if he still couldn’t believe the two of them had actually come here.

The botanical garden was huge and had thousands of different plant species, but even though they stayed until closing time, he couldn’t find a scent that matched Ji Ning’s. This made his mood, which had finally started to improve, turn cloudy again. 

It was only when he realised how desperately he’d been searching that he felt a little embarrassed. He turned towards the exit without saying a word, but as he passed a girl, he smelled a familiar aroma.

The flowery scent was somewhat similar to Ji Ning’s pheromones. As soon as he smelled it, he stopped abruptly and asked the girl, “What perfume are you wearing?”

Startled, the girl jumped slightly. She looked up at him and blushed a little, but he didn’t bother to pay attention to her reactions, just folded his arms and waited for her answer. The girl replied softly, “This perfume is called ‘Queen of the Night’, it smells like the Epiphyllum flower.”

Epiphyllum. 

Instantly, he understood why he hadn’t found this floral scent in the botanical garden.

This flower only bloomed at night and its flowering period was brief. It wouldn’t appear within the botanical garden during the day so he wasn’t able to find its scent.

“Thank you.”

He thanked her quickly and left in a hurry. 

Before going to bed that night, he walked to his window and looked up at the large bright moon in the sky, recalling the first night he met Ji Ning.

The young Omega was flushed, his hair damp with sweat and his beautiful eyes filled with moonlight. His lips were red and soft, and as he let out heated gasps, his body trembled slightly, pheromones filling the air.

Like the epiphyllum flower that only bloomed under moonlight, he was astonishingly beautiful, but fleeting.

He closed his eyes and eventually fell asleep, but a shadow of that person remained in his dreams. 

His untouchable moon.

The author has something to say: As a human, I’m weak to handsome men.

Ah, I really love Zhou Rin in this chapter – poor baby, he’s getting played by Ningning. You have to explain the misunderstanding Zhou Rin, otherwise there’s no way this pair of tsunderes will ever get together!!

Thank you everyone for your patience and kind words – this week I had two exams, two essays and a surgery and all of them went well (hopefully ※\(^o^)/※) so I will be back to posting two chapters a week, yay!!