CH 25

Shen Dai went home to have lunch with his grandmother. He then took her to see the newly bought house in the afternoon.

He hired a company to make a simple renovation to the house, which is expected to be completed in another half of a month. When the two went there, the workers were working on the renovation. He took his grandma to see the three-bedroom apartment several times. The two discussed how to arrange and decorate here and there. He also bought a lot of decorations for the house and waited for them to be delivered. Once his grandmother is discharged from the hospital after surgery, she can go back to a cosy home.

His grandmother is very happy. There is a rosy complexion on her face. There is nothing more motivating than planning for the future. Shen Dai hopes that his grandmother will have the courage to face the surgery, because a better life is waiting for them.

After seeing the exhibition, Zhou Lan saw Shen Dai’s deliberate alienation of him. So he did not dare to be too attentive, but as long as he found an opportunity to bring food to Shen Dai, he would be the first to rush to do it. Originally, it was common for junior brothers and sisters to bring meals to senior brothers and sisters. It was usually not just one person who would do so. Shen Dai also had no reason to object.

He always hoped that there would be an opportunity to clarify his rejection of Zhou Lan. But Zhou Lan never made his intention directly clear. He just approached him silently and tried to be nice to him. It is not easy to hide his feelings.

Cheng Zimei persuaded him several times to try to get along with Zhou Lan. But he had to pretend that he was about to be angry, which stopped Cheng Zimei from trying to match them together.

Shen Dai’s attention has not been on this recently. He has too many things to do, decorating his new house, working on his thesis, and learning how to take care of patients after surgery. Gastric cancer patients have a lot of rules about diet. An hourly worker can be hired, but he has to master first of what his grandmother can and cannot eat.

His grandmother’s surgery period is approaching, and he also becomes somewhat nervous. At this time of infinite anxiety, he received a phone call that he didn’t want to receive.

It was an ordinary day. On his way home from work, he received a call from an unfamiliar number on his mobile phone. After the call was connected, there was three seconds of silence before the person on the other end cautiously said “hello”.

Shen Dai was immediately stunned. His heart trembled slightly. He thought that the voice sounded familiar.

“Ah Dai? I… I’m your father.” The voice on the phone was very gentle and pleasant. Such a voice would make people unable to help but have beautiful thoughts about the other person, which was extremely deceptive.

This voice only made Shen Dai feel like falling into an ice cave, and he was chilled down to the bone.

“Ah Dai, I…”

Shen Dai immediately hung up the phone. But the other person called in again soon. He wanted to block the number, but then he thought about the cost of being harassed by him through the usage of new numbers. So, it is unavoidable. He answered the call again.

“Ah Dai, I’ll just say a few words to you. Don’t do this to your father.” The voice was a little choked with grievances, and it sounded really pitiful.

Shen Dai asked indifferently, “What do you want?”

“I miss your grandmother very much. I heard that she is going to have an operation. I miss you too. I really…”

“Don’t you try to come back.” Shen Dai’s voice was empty and without emotions, “We are living well now. If you still have a little conscience, don’t come back and destroy our hard-earned peace.”

“Ah Dai.” The other end sobbed, “I’m sorry. I made so many mistakes. And I feel ashamed to see you. But I really miss you.”

“Don’t come back.” Shen Dai was unmoved and said firmly, “If you really still have feelings for us, then don’t come back.”

Shen Dai hung up the phone again. Standing at the subway entrance where people come and go, in the chaos and noise of the world, he feels an indescribable helplessness.

People cannot choose their own parents. But now he is an adult so he can choose to stay away from them.

It’s just that he has an ominous bad feeling in his heart. The reason why selfish people are selfish is because they only consider their own feelings. He is afraid that sooner or later he will have to face the father who is already dead in his heart.

Whenever he feels hesitant and at a loss, Shen Dai always thinks of Qu Moyu. He knows that his dependence on Qu Moyu is very dangerous, because Qu Moyu is obviously not his alpha. But liking someone and being dependent on someone are human natures. Even if the heart has been flooded with disaster that is yet to come, it is unavoidable.

Shen Dai unlocked his phone, clicked on Qu Moyu’s WeChat avatar, pressed his trembling fingers against the dialog box, and looked at the soft keyboard but didn’t know what to say. He really just wanted a response, anything at all.

But what to say?

Even if they didn’t do anything that day. They only slept sweetly hugging each other, and woke up in the morning snuggling with each other. They seemed to have been a little closer. But when they put on clothes and walked out of that room, they seemed to go back to being strangers.

Shen Dai hesitated again and again. In the end, he only forwarded an academic report from the work group to Qu Moyu and said: This is regarding the question you asked me the other day. This report also has relevant explanations and it provides some domestic and international data comparisons of production capacity.

After a while, Qu Moyu replied to him: Okay.

Shen Dai stared at the word for a long time, then summoned up the courage to ask: Are you off work?

There was a quick reply: On my way home.

Shen Dai couldn’t describe the mood at that moment. It was like rain falling down on a land of long drought. Such a sudden joy. This conversation is ordinary and brief, but full of life-like flavours. The two seem to have known each other for a long time, and they care about each other in daily details. For him, this is far more emotional than associating skin-to-skin.

Shen Dai replied: Me too.

He didn’t think Qu Moyu would reply again, so he quickened his pace to return home.

At the same time, Qu Moyu was sitting in the car looking at his phone. The page was the WeChat dialog box with Shen Dai. Shen Dai’s avatar is a Chinese ink painting of a mountain. Qu Moyu guessed that this should be Mount Tai painted by his grandfather. From the limited pixels, thousands of valleys and thousands of rocks floating in the colours of red and green can still be seen. This mountain is well drawn by a talented artist. But it’s hard to imagine that this is the WeChat profile picture of a young omega.

Qu Moyu thought of Shen Dai from his avatar. Suddenly, he wanted to laugh. But he also had some subtle desire to explore. He clicked into Shen Dai’s circle of friends. He found that most of his ‘moments’ were almost all reposts of various academic and industry-related articles. He scrolled down for a long time but found no personal content. The only personal photo was taken when he attended an academic summit with Professor Liu. Shen Dai’s face was deformed by the camera, which didn’t look good.

For Qu Moyu, Shen Dai is a type of omega that he has never been in contact with before. From his appearance to his name to his job and even to his personality, in general, he is the omega that is the least like an omega he has ever seen. There are many omegas that shine, but very few are engaged in scientific research work in science and engineering. People like Shen Dai who are good-looking but don’t make a statement or take advantage of this advantage are even rarer. Shen Dai seems to be deliberately trying to blur his own gender.

What an outlier, Qu Moyu thought to himself. But when he was on the bed, when he was in his arms, he could clearly be charming and only he had seen him like that.

The corners of Qu Moyu’s mouth raised slightly.

“Young Master, Uncle Heng asked you if you want anything for dinner.”

Lao Wu’s voice interrupted Qu Moyu’s thoughts. He usually socialises a lot. So, every time he wants to go home for dinner, his driver will notify Uncle Heng in advance.

“Whatever is fine.” Qu Moyu looked out the window, “The traffic is bad.”

“Yeah, there might be a car accident ahead.”

Qu Moyu’s eyes randomly landed on a large LED billboard on the street. An advertisement for an astronomical and geological exhibition was placed on it. Qu Moyu remembered that Shen Dai had been to this exhibition. The screen switches to a host interviewing the audience at the exhibition. The two occupy one-third of the frame, but in the distant view, a familiar figure can be seen.

Qu Moyu slowly lowered the car window and watched intently. Although he only saw the back and the side view, he can still determine that the person watching the exhibition in the distant view was Shen Dai. And beside Shen Dai stood a tall and upright young man. Most probably be an alpha from his physical appearance. The man handed Shen Dai a bottle of water and talked a few words with him. The two of them bent down to read the writings on the exhibit together. They were very close and it looked as if their heads were almost overlapping with each other, making them seem to be very intimate.

“Stop.” Qu Moyu ordered coldly.

“What?” The car was moving slowly following the traffic.

“Stop.”

Lao Wu hurriedly stepped on the brakes and a dissatisfied honk sounded immediately behind him. He looked back at Qu Moyu and found that Qu Moyu was staring intently at a billboard. He had to press the double flash to indicate emergency stop.

Early the next morning, not long after Shen Dai arrived at the laboratory, he was informed that a leader was coming in for inspection in the afternoon.

It may be because it is almost the end of the year. Recently, various partners have come to visit, or they have to send people to inspect. Although he is used to it, he is still very dissatisfied. They are already busy enough, and he really does not want to receive wave after wave of people. He had to introduce the same thing and answer the same question, but despite his dissatisfaction, work still has to be done. But then, the executive told him that the CEO would also come.

Shen Dai was instantly refreshed, and he was very happy to show Qu Moyu what he looked like at work. This is probably a compensatory mentality, wanting to pull the person who is too powerful for him into his own field, showing his ability and self-confidence, in order to seek a little balance in his dignity.

Yesterday he got home first and went back to his room to write his thesis after dinner. In fact, he was a little disappointed. He deliberately procrastinated his dinner, hoping to meet Qu Moyu. Naturally, it was simply because of the content of their previous WeChat conversation. But having already returned to the room, it would seem deliberate to come down just to talk to him again.

But Qu Moyu will come to his lab soon, and the conversation here makes him more comfortable and more confident. Although he repeatedly warned himself to be sober and rational, he still instinctively wanted Qu Moyu to see his brilliance. He wanted him to see the achievements of his unremitting efforts. And he eagerly wanted the person he likes to ‘see’ his real value, not only his value as a bed partner.

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Next update: 2022.04.18

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*Translator’s rant: Shen Dai, you’re going to be disappointed. Anyone, please give me a pair of sandals so I can throw them on Qu Moyu’s head before the next chapter. Oh but Shen Qin (Shen Dai’s omega father) also deserves to be slapped by my sandals. You will know why soon. I hate this guy with a passion. -K