CH 40

The sky was pouring with rain. There seemed to be a bee nest hiding Fu Ge’s cochlea, and his heart was also hanging over the campfire, being repeatedly scorched.

It had been raining for thirty minutes, and Fu Ge had been waiting here for six hours.

The phone at hand kept ringing, but he ignored it as if he couldn’t hear it. He plucked off the leaves of the green plant on the table, and the bamboo wicker chair under him was picked until it formed a gaping hole.

Fu Ge raised his hand in a daze, only to find that his fingers had been abraded by the wicker chair and bleeding. The pain came as an afterthought, but it started from his heart.

He knew the dangers of gland trading better than anyone else. Qi Han had a fifty percent chance not to come back. From the moment he went out, the strings in Fu Ge’s mind stopped working as if they were rusted.

Even he didn’t know what he was waiting for.

Waiting for those fifty percent? Or waiting for… the other fifty percent?…

When Qi Han returned, he was soaked to the bone, and the rain poured in trickles from his windbreaker, dripping all over the floor.

Fu Ge’s steps sounded in unison with this dripping sound as he walked to the door. As soon as Qi Han walked up, he opened the door.

“Ah Han? Why are you so wet?! Come in!” Fu Ge grabbed his wrist and pulled him in. Suddenly, his palm touched a sticky place. When he raised his hand, there was crimson blood.

The young Beta’s pupils shrank at that moment, and he raised his eyes to Qi Han, his face turning white.

“You are injured… bleeding… is it serious?”

He went to check Qi Han’s chest and neck with trepidation; the worry on his face didn’t seem to be fake.

Qi Han could obviously feel that the hand that touched him was trembling slightly, and breathed lightly and softly.

“Is gege worried about me?”

What he actually wanted to ask was: would gege worry about me? I thought gege wanted me to die directly in the hands of the gland hunters.

He still didn’t know whether the gland hunters had anything to do with Fu Ge’s arrangements.

The young Beta clearly knew the time when the black market auction started. Everything, from the news that the glands had appeared at the black market to the impromptu adjustment of the auction’s time, was revealed to Chen Xing by someone Fu Ge had arranged.

Since he could do this, it wasn’t impossible to arrange obstacles on the way back, and he could even use the gland hunters to make Qi Han die a shady death, and then expose his illegal dealings when the police got involved.

It was like killing two birds with one stone, effortless.

Until Qi Han saw the panic and fear in Fu Ge’s eyes, this thought kept spinning in his head.

Fu Ge glanced at him angrily, “You are bleeding. If I’m not worried about you, who am I supposed to be worried about? How can you go to a meeting and make yourself like this—”

His voice stopped abruptly, and he suddenly fell into Qi Han’s arms. The Alpha, drenched all over, stepped forward and hugged him tightly, passing the cold rain and the anxiety of the night to him.

“I had a car accident on the road.” He said softly, his voice full of dependence and fondness, “The car rolled over, I was thrown out, and there was a fuel leak. It was very dangerous. I thought… I wouldn’t be able to come back tonight…”

Thought you were in a hurry to send me to my death.

Fu Ge’s heart trembled. He took a few deep breaths silently, and then hugged Qi Han back after a long silence.

“Be careful next time, don’t rush back in such a heavy rain. It would make no difference if you stayed at the company to rest.”

Qi Han hugged him and rubbed against him contentedly, breathing a sigh of relief like a patient who suspected that he was terminally ill but was suddenly told that there were still a few months to live.

He thought, I don’t want a few years, I only need two months. I want a full garden of spring flowers and a clean reputation on my wedding day.

In this way, if his father could bring his mother to the wedding, they wouldn’t feel that their son was too disgraced.

“I was coming back in a hurry. The cake hasn’t been finished yet.”

As Qi Han said that, he looked at the table, which was empty.

Fu Ge didn’t expect him to ask about the cake and said awkwardly: “I thought you wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, so I ate it.”

“You ate mine too?” Qi Han smiled and pinched the tip of his nose, thinking he was greedy and cute, and also wondering if the fact that Fu Ge didn’t dislike to eat what he had eaten meant he wasn’t that disgusted with him either.

He got it cheap and showed off (idiom for taking advantage and acting cute) and asked, “Is gege craving sweets again?”

Fu Ge had a sweet tooth and liked to eat junk food like French fries. Qi Han used to worry a lot about his teeth and stomach, always frowning and trying to control him, but as soon as Fu Ge nibbled on him with his mouth still sweet from eating candies, he was unable to say anything.

“A little bit, the doctor told me not to eat too much sweet stuff.” Fu Ge pushed him towards the next ward: “Hurry up, go take a hot bath and have a good rest, don’t get a fever.”

“I think I already have a fever,” Qi Han said coquettishly. “Touch my forehead, isn’t it hot?”

“Really?” Fu Ge raised his hand and touched his forehead. Although it wasn’t too hot, Qi Han’s body temperature was indeed higher than normal. “It seems a bit. Should I call a doctor?”

“No, gege is better than a doctor.”

His eyes were shining; Fu Ge blushed when he saw it, and when he spoke, his breath was scorching hot: “What are you going to do again… just like during the day…”

The two of them had messed around during the day when they were making the cake, and Fu Ge still hadn’t had time to wash his soiled pants and apron.

Qi Han’s heart felt soft when he saw him blushing and shy. He leaned close and rubbed the tip of his nose against the tip of Fu Ge’s nose, “What else can I do, ah? I just want gege to sleep with me. If I really have a fever tonight and lose consciousness, no one will call me a doctor. How miserable will it be?”

When he said it so pitifully, it would be illogical to refuse. Fu Ge could only nod and agree, “Then you go take a bath first, and I will get you a towel.”

He went into the bathroom to run water for Qi Han, bring a towel and a change of clothes. Qi Han stayed in the room to take off his drenched windbreaker when he saw Fu Ge’s open sketch book on the cabinet next to the bed.

He liked to watch Fu Ge paint very much when in high school.

Those neat or messy lines were always inexplicably calming, and all his anxiety and impatience were wonderfully smoothed out.

The difference was that Fu Ge only loved to draw him when he was young; whereas now at best he shared brush and ink with the bear, or made a timed return for acting purposes.

“What did you draw today…” Qi Han muttered in boredom. He picked up Fu Ge’s sketch book and opened the first page with a white hawthorn flower.

A line of small characters was also written under the flower: At the end of September, my body recovered a lot. I vaguely smelled the flowers downstairs, but I wasn’t sure which flowers were there.

“Did you draw hawthorn flowers without being sure which ones were there?”

Qi Han still remembered that there were a lot of hawthorn flowers on the high school basketball court. Every time the wind blew, Fu Ge had to run under the tree and get under the shower of petals while Qi Han secretly hid to watch him.

In fact, the petals didn’t fall much, and the young Beta had already discovered the boy hiding in the corner.

After this page, there were five or six blank pages, and then there was the second picture. It was a bellflower, and the words under it were: At the end of October, I smelled him.

Qi Han was stunned for two or three seconds, and his eyes suddenly became moist.

“The scent of bellflower, does it mean my pheromones?”

Beta cannot smell pheromones, unless it is a special group of people who have been marked for life and have a physical connection with their mates, vaguely perceiving the smell and level of Alpha pheromones.

“So this one… was painted for me…”

Qi Han couldn’t believe it. Except for the little bear and the head-and-shoulders portrait that looked like a posthumous picture, it turned out that Fu Ge had painted other paintings for him.

The speed at which he flipped through the sketch book suddenly accelerated, and even his fingers trembled uncontrollably. After turning over five or six pages of blanks, he finally found a third picture, this time a violet.

Qi Han didn’t even have time to read the small characters below. His heart trembled suddenly, as if he was hit in the chest by a knife smeared with honey, stopping his breath and heartbeat.

“How could it be… exactly the same…”

Hawthorn, bellflower, violet…

These flowers didn’t even bloom in September and October, but they all appeared in the sketch book Fu Ge drew for him when he was eighteen, without exception.

They appeared every five or six drawings, and again at the end of each month, because Fu Ge used to draw a flower at the end of each month to signify its end. Qi Han had looked through the sketch book enough times to notice this pattern.

So what was the little Beta doing now?

An answer that was so incredible that even he couldn’t believe it suddenly appeared in Qi Han’s mind—

Is he restoring the burned sketch book… as the last gift for me before I die?…

Like a man in the water clinging to a life-saving driftwood, Qi Han shivered as he opened the fourth painting.

He didn’t even dare to look at it, first covering it with his hand, recalling the order in which the flowers appeared in the burned sketch book, and silently reciting in his heart: lilac.

Holding his breath, he raised his hand.

It really was a lilac…

Tears rolled out of his eyes in an instant, and no one could imagine his surprise at the moment.

Qi Han didn’t know how to describe his mood. He just felt a fire in his throat, rising all the way to his head, the pillar of fire soaring into the sky and falling again, smashing into the pot of hot oil with a bang, his soul and nerves exploding together. 

“Am I worthy of gege to prepare all this for me…”

He had already prepared himself to die alone, even to the extent that his corpse would be buried in the wilderness with no one to collect his bones, and to be scorned for decades after his death.

But he never imagined that Fu Ge would restore the sketch book for him before he died.

Did he want him to have no regrets? Or… in the end, could he not bear to let him go on the road without a single thing?…

Qi Han quickly flipped through the remaining sheets, and the frequency and time of various flowers appearing all corresponded to the sketch book in his memory.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to the last page. At that moment, he almost suspected that he was dreaming. His first reaction was to raise his hand and slap himself.

It was only when his face was hot with pain that he dared to confirm that it was true. For on the last page the design of two rings was drawn.

One of the inside of the larger ring there was a flower-shaped letter Q. 

“I’m really going crazy…”

Was it an illusion caused by mental disorder?

He felt that he was not worthy of Fu Ge’s final intention.

So the night when he begged to get married and the little Beta said, “Isn’t it too perfunctory to just buy a pair of rings”, he really meant it?

Fu Ge really wanted to give him a complete wedding at the end.

Qi Han’s heart was trembling.

The sketch book, the rings, what’s next… will there be a silk ribbon bracelet?

Qi Han wept with joy, holding the album and standing there crying and laughing, feeling crazy for a while and unworthy for a while.

He looked at the design over and over again, and then read the following line of small characters: March 11, my brand new wedding.

His brows frowned slightly, and a trace of doubt flashed in his eyes: why is it March 11, isn’t it the wrong date? Their wedding is on February 26.

There was the sound of footsteps at the door of the bathroom. Fu Ge let the water run and told him to go wash up. Qi Han no longer had time to pay attention to these details. He put down the sketch book and rushed over, lifting Fu Ge up.

“Hey— what are you doing!” Fu Ge exclaimed and patted him twice.

Qi Han’s eyes were red and his throat was hoarse from being soaked in the rain. He put Fu Ge down and hugged him. When he spoke, his heart was aching dully: “Gege… thank you… I, I…”

I don’t deserve you to do this for me…

Fu Ge didn’t know why he was crazy. “What’s the matter? Are you crying again? How old are you, still crying like this?”

“I only cry when there’s someone to feel sorry for me,” Qi Han rubbed against the nook of his neck: “I never cry when I’m alone.”

“It sounds to me like President Qi is quite proud of himself?”

Qi Han sniffled and hugged him contentedly: “Shouldn’t I—”

His voice was interrupted by a rapid mobile phone ringtone. Qi Han picked up the phone impatiently, “It’s Chen Xing, I have to pick it up, gege, wait for me.”

Despite his reluctance to leave Fu Ge, he walked out of the ward and went to the staircase.

As soon as the phone was connected, there was Chen Xing’s cursing. Qi Han ignored him and let him curse for five minutes. Finally Chen Xing was tired from cursing, “Why do you not care about me?”

Qi Han: “Not care about you how?”

Chen Xing: “I’m so tired of cursing, but you don’t care about me, how can I stop?”

Qi Han chuckled, “Stop cursing if you’ve cursed enough. Just stay calm. You will be allowed to return when the time comes.”

Chen Xing was very unwilling: “Damn it, I’m still not allowed to come back even though I’m cursing like this?! I’m bored to death here!”

He wilted suddenly as he talked, and said very quietly: “Brother, he is getting married.”

“Qi Chuan?”

“Right.” Chen Xing let out a bitter chuckle, “Why on earth do you think he came back, to tease me a bit and then marry someone else, am I so much fun?”

Qi Han had no smile in his eyes, and sighed helplessly, “When?”

“March 11, his birthday, auspicious, right?”

His breathing stopped for a moment; Qi Han raised his eyes abruptly, barely able to hear his own voice, “What day? Who did you hear that from?”

“March 11, I heard from his secretary, he’s already prepared the invitations. What’s the matter?”

With a pop, the phone fell to the ground, Qi Han took a step back in shock, stunned.

How could this happen…

Like a dazed child, he raised his hand and grabbed his bangs with force, his face flushed in an instant.

“On March 11, Qi Chuan gets married… Q… Q…”

As if a bucket of ice had been thrown at him, Qi Han woke up like from a dream. The pain was hurting to the bone, and all his ridiculous fantasies just now were shattered all over the floor.

“The ring… is not for me…”

What about the sketch book?

Arranging all the pictures in his head all together, he found that there was no image that belonged only to him on the drawing paper, and even the only bellflower flower associated with his pheromones was no longer unique.

Because Qi Chuan’s pheromone scent was also bellflower.

So what Fu Ge smelled was his pheromones…

The ring and the sketch book were all for him. March 11 was not his wedding. It was the wedding of his lover and his… lover’s…

Was that why it was called a “brand new wedding”?

“What about me…”

Qi Han muttered to himself like a madman: “What about the wedding you promised to me…”

He dragged his feet back to the ward, like a walking corpse that had been stripped of its flesh and blood. How surprised and moved he had been just a few minutes ago, and how broken and desperate he was now. 

But the sharpest knife is always the next one.

Through the glass he saw Fu Ge pour a glass of milk and add a pill to it. In the trash can next to him there were some residues of the cake.

Fu Ge had no habit of drinking milk at night, so this medicine was prepared for him. And the remaining cake was not eaten by Fu Ge; he had thrown it away long ago.

How could he still have the face to hope for a sketch book and a ring? The poisoned milk and the thrown away cake were what he deserved.

It was clear that there were only two months left, but Fu Ge could not wait any longer.

Qi Han looked at everything in front of him quietly through the glass, only to feel extremely absurd. He finally understood why the gland auction was scheduled so fast.

Because Fu Ge had never wanted him to live to that wedding from the beginning.

Touching the glass with his fingers, Qi Han asked silently: “Gege has never thought about marrying me… right?…”

Translator’s note: Is it already painful enough? Then I have “good” news for you. The next ten chapters are going to be agony…