CH 33

When those words sounded, Qi Han was stunned at first, and then there was a boom in his mind, almost like an explosion.

“I… gege, what did you just… what did you just say?”

The Alpha’s face, tense to the point of fierceness, froze suddenly, and his eyes turned red.

“Xiao Ge, is that what I understand? Is it what I think it is?”

He squeezed Fu Ge’s shoulders in a panic, and the shudder of his body spread to Fu Ge’s heart through his fingertips. His burning gasps and the tears in the corners of his eyes showed how eager he was for a positive answer.

And the young Beta just pushed his chest lightly, lowered his eyes and bit his lips, as if ashamed: “Don’t you know what it means…”

“I… I don’t know!”

Qi Han wanted to smile, but a trickle of tears slid over the corner of his hooked lips. He wanted to hug Fu Ge frantically, but his fingers trembled for a long time before he only dared to touch his face.

“Baby, my dear, little ancestor, make it clear, make it clear, I still, still have…”

He choked on his words and took several deep breaths with his fists clenched under the tip of his nose before his rapid heartbeat eased a little, “I still have a chance, right? We still have a chance, are you willing… to forgive me?”

Fu Ge tilted his head and looked at him for a while, then abruptly looked away, and when he turned around again, there was a swirling morning mist in his eyes, “If not… what should I do now?”

Grabbing Qi Han’s collar, he pulled his clothes open to reveal the wounds on his shoulders, his festering glands, and the hideous slash on his back.

The corners of the young Beta’s eyes gradually moistened as if his heart ached to the core, “How cold and heartless should I be to be indifferent when you were so badly injured that day, almost to the point your bones could be seen, and still holding that little bear and begging me not to be angry?”

“Ugh, ugh, I know…” Qi Han’s tears burst out, his heart smashed into powder by the huge pie from the sky, “Gege feels sorry for me, gege will still feel sorry for me, right?”

“Not just sorry.” Fu Ge’s eyes, filled with tears, suddenly curved up, as if he finally reconciled with himself and also with Qi Han.

“What’s the use of hating and resenting again? Muscle memory never lies. I wanted to draw you as soon as I raised the brush, and you were still in my head when I put it down. Because of hatred, I hurt you again and again against my will, but when you were pushed into the surgery room, it was me who collapsed and was desperate…”

He closed his eyes, sniffled and let out a sob, then looked at Qi Han with attachment and longing— 

“Ah Han, it’s been five years, and I’m too tired of tossing and turning. Let’s leave those old grudges behind, okay? I want to stop here with you.”

Qi Han’s response was to slap himself on the spot.

The loud sound exploded, and the left half of his face turned red.

Fu Ge was taken aback, and before he could ask, he saw Qi Han turn around and run into the bathroom, turn on the water and splash it on his face.

The cold water washed his hot forehead over and over again, and his hair slicked back with hairspray drooped down. His collar was all wet. He ran back with red eyes and turned on his mobile phone to record: “Gege, can you say it again? I beg you to say it again, I want to listen to it every day.”

Fu Ge burst into laughter and rubbed his head gently, “I won’t record it for you. Can I use this instead?”

Standing on his tiptoes and wrapping his arms around Qi Han’s neck, he dropped a kiss on the tip of Qi Han’s nose.

“We’ll have a good time in the future, and you’ll make up to me for the wedding and honeymoon, okay?”

“Yes! Okay… I’ll make up for it…”

He took Fu Ge into his arms, buried his head in his shoulder and cried incoherently: “Gege, this time I will cherish you and love you properly, give me a chance…”

Fu Ge rubbed his face compliantly. His eyes filled with tears turned sinister in an instant. He lowered his gaze indifferently and said word for word, “Yes, I will give you one.”

Qi Han had envisioned for himself a road so long that he couldn’t see the end of it, and was even prepared to never be forgiven.

But halfway through the journey, he was suddenly grabbed by Fu Ge who told him, “Don’t work any harder, let’s have a good life in the future.”

Like a drowning man who gave up his struggles and was suddenly filled with oxygen, like a man who was falling off a cliff and was suddenly stopped by a tree branch before hitting the ground, he felt an almost apocalyptic surprise that nearly knocked him unconscious and overfilled him so much that he had a fever that night.

The fever went all the way up to 40 degrees, and his forehead was so hot that you could cook eggs on it.

The doctors checked on him several times without finding the cause, thinking he was suffering from some sudden illness that had not been discovered by medical science, but only Chen Xing knew that he was so happy and excited that he almost kicked the bucket.

“It has come to fruition, right?” Chen Xing cut him an apple.

Qi Han didn’t answer, lying on the bed limply with his arm resting on his forehead, “Go and do something for me.”

He took out a key, gave it to Chen Xing and explained: “The FH Gallery at No.10 Baishan Road, where there are all Xiao Ge’s paintings, go and help me take them out.”

“Got it.” Chen Xing took the key and tossed it in his palm: “A surprise for him.”

Qi Han closed his eyelids and said nothing.

A fever came and went quickly, subsiding early the next morning.

Not only that; Qi Han’s work efficiency skyrocketed, and he didn’t even cry out in pain when pheromones were extracted. Chen Xing scolded him a hundred times a day for being unworthy.

After scolding, he proceeded to be there at the beck and call of the unworthy Alpha.

“Here, big lover, the latest examination report of your dear darling.”

Chen Xing threw the paper to him with a little confusion on his face and said, “An expert told me this morning that if Fu Ge can accept it, he can get pheromones by temporary marks in the future, so there is no need to pump your glands anymore. It was a balding guy in his fifties who told me that. Why is Dr. Zheng not here?”

Dr. Zheng was Fu Ge’s attending doctor and an authority on inner cavity treatment.

“Ah, Dr. Zheng had a family emergency, asked for leave and left yesterday.” An unfamiliar man came up from behind; the wind blew away the sparse hair on his head and Qi Han confirmed that this was the man Chen Xing mentioned.

“What’s your name?”

“My surname is Wei. I was urgently transferred from the branch hospital to cover for Dr. Zheng.” The balding guy respectfully stretched out his hand: “President Qi, I have heard so much about you.”

Qi Han didn’t move, and his long narrow eyes peered at the doctor for a long time.

Chen Xing next to him was not so polite, interfering: “Who agreed to your transfer? We are a private hospital. The transfer to the main doctor’s position must be approved by all shareholders. You were directly parachuted in, what family do you belong to?”

He took out his mobile phone and was about to call, saying to Qi Han: “Brother, wait a minute, I’ll check it out. Something is not right here.”

“Ah Han?” Fu Ge suddenly walked over from behind them, embraced  Qi Han’s neck intimately and kissed him, “Hey, where’s my meat floss xiaobei?”

Qi Han  raised his hand, gave him the cake box and rubbed his head indulgently, “Bought it for you, greedy cat.”

Fu Ge took it with a smile, and turned his gaze on them, “What’s the matter? What are you going to check?”

Chen Xing said hurriedly, “Check the new one—”

“The new report,” Qi Han interrupted his words and said to Fu Ge: “There is a problem with the report they submitted yesterday.”

“Oh.” Fu Ge was not interested. He took Qi Han’s hand and asked, “I seem to have heard the words ‘temporary mark’ just now?”

Qi Han glanced at Chen Xing, and the latter disappeared like a mist.

“The doctor said that your current condition is very stable. If it is acceptable, temporary marks can be used to inject pheromones.”

Fu Ge’s eyes instantly lit up, “That means there’s no need to pump your pheromones anymore, right?”

“In theory, yes, but you don’t have to force it for my sake.” Qi Han wrapped Fu Ge’s fingers into his palm and rubbed them slowly, “If you can’t accept it, we’ll keep pumping. I’m adapting well now. We will consider temporary marks when we let go of those things completely.”

“How can it be possible to adapt!” Fu Ge grimaced, disagreeing with him very much. “Pain is pain. There’s no such thing as getting used to it if you feel it often.”

Qi Han was startled when those words were said, and suddenly smiled.

Fu Ge was a little confused, “What’s the matter?”

Pinching the tip of the little Beta’s nose, Qi Han said contentedly: “I have only heard you say this to Qi Chuan before. At that time… I was very envious of him…”

Fu Ge pursed his lips, his eyes full of guilt and regret, “Ah Han, are you angry with me? I didn’t know at that time it was you—”

“How can I be?” Qi Han interrupted him immediately, “As long as gege forgives me, it’s fine.”

“Good.” Fu Ge curved his eyes again and hugged his arm, “Then let’s use temporary marks and stop extracting pheromones, okay? You hurt too much.”

“Okay.” Qi Han nodded, “Tonight?”

Fu Ge blushed, hesitated and said, “But first, let’s agree, ah! You can’t bite me so hard like you did in high school.”

Qi Han picked him up and walked to the room, his voice bright: “How dare I? I can’t bear to kiss you hard.”

They agreed to try the temporary mark tonight, but Qi Han didn’t come back until late. He seemed to be particularly busy today; it was nine o’clock when he finished everything.

Afraid that Fu Ge couldn’t wait, Qi Han hurriedly returned to the hospital. As soon as he opened the door of the ward, he smelled a faint smell of alcohol. The room was empty, and only a few noises occasionally came from the bathroom.

“Xiao Ge?”

“…eh?”

“Are you taking a shower?”

“…uh-huh.”

After two or three minutes of silence, Fu Ge suddenly asked, “Why don’t you come in?”

Qi Han felt helpless and funny, “You just let me in like this.”

The young Beta murmured vaguely: “If you don’t come in, how can you take me out?”

Qi Han raised his eyebrows, “Why are you staying there, have you been soaking for a long time?”

Afraid that he would faint inside, Qi Han opened the door and went in.

Walking to the bathtub in two or three steps, he saw Fu Ge lying lazily in the bathtub, his face flushed, with seven or eight chocolate paper balls next to his hand.

When Qi Han picked them up and smelled them, there was a faint smell of liquor.

“You little guzzler, who gave you those?”

Fu Ge’s drinking volume was so shallow that he was drunk as soon as he touched the wine, and he couldn’t eat anything with alcohol. With so much chocolate in his belly, he would have been confused a long time ago.

“Xiao Bao gave them to me, but the doctor didn’t allow it, he secretly saved them for me.”

Fu Ge squinted his eyes and turned himself over, immersing himself in the water nose-deep, then raising his nose above. He blinked and let out a few bubbles. His waist and the curves of his hips were in the water, sheer white with a vaguely translucent pink tinge.

Qi Han’s eyes darkened, and he forced himself to look away, “Gege knows that the doctor doesn’t allow him to eat so much and gege calls that little boy more intimately than he calls me.”

Fu Ge smiled slowly, “Isn’t that his name?”

As he said it, he stretched out his hand and picked up a little water, splashing it all over Qi Han’s pants.

“Why are you so naughty?” The Alpha grabbed his slippery arm and pulled him closer. The young Beta leaned over obediently, put his wet face in his palm and rubbed against it, “Take me out, it’s time to mark…”

Qi Han liked this lazy look of his wholehearted commitment and deliberately teased him, “Can’t get up by yourself?”

“I can’t get up, I don’t have the strength, if I keep on soaking I’m going to shrink.”

His flushed face was childish, his eyes were filled with a hazy mist. He said he was drunk but still had a bit of sense left in him. He looked very dumb and cute.

Qi Han’s heart was a soft mess. He took him out, wrapped him in a bath towel and stuffed him into the bed, meditating “sex is nothing” the whole time while he somehow managed to dry him up.

Fu Ge sat propped up on the bed, his naked upper body exposed, and looked at him, waiting anxiously: “Where are you going to bite?…”

Qi Han rubbed his earlobes and smiled: “Where else can I do it, I can only bite your neck.”

“What? Just the neck…” Fu Ge drooped his head in disappointment, as if he had suffered a great grievance, “Fine.” He turned around and presented the back of his neck to Qi Han’s mouth.

Qi Han couldn’t bear to pierce such a thin skin with the tips of his teeth. He hesitated for two or three seconds, asking him, “Are you ready?”

The man in front of him raised his head a little, and just when Qi Han thought he was about to nod, Fu Ge plopped down on the blanket.

He actually fell asleep.

“… Xiao Ge, Xiao Ge?”

The drunkard didn’t respond. Qi Han could only put him under the quilt and slowly rub his palms on his forehead to help him sleep. While reaching under the pillow with his other hand, he pulled out the digital planet brooch.

At that moment, the tenderness in his eyes faded.

Qi Han held it tightly in his hand, the sharp corners piercing his palm, and the blue veins on the back of his hand swelled with force.

He stood up with the brooch, found a small hammer on the counter, walked to his room next door and threw the brooch on the table, suddenly raised his hand and slammed the hammer down.

But at the last second, the hammer hovered two centimetres above the brooch.

Qi Han looked at the thing in front of him blankly and withdrew his hand.

Returning the brooch to its original owner intact, he put a light, gentle kiss on Fu Ge’s brow and looked at his sleeping lover with forlorn eyes, “Gege, I said I will give you everything you want.”

Even if I know all this is fake, even if I know you are lying to me…

It is impossible for a person who can’t wait for him to die to suddenly change his mind because he was slashed by a thug.

Qi Han also remembered all too well that the element Fu Ge hated most when he painted was numbers.