15: Suspicion
Shen Xie'an watched as his brother came back downstairs quickly, with no trace of the emotional turbulence from earlier.
Still, they’d lived together for years. Shen Xie'an could vaguely sense that his big brother’s lingering anger hadn’t fully dissipated. The temperature around him felt like it had dropped two or three degrees. Who had the ability to piss his brother off this badly.
He obediently helped plate the food, then looked at the several bags of handmade cakes. “We can’t finish all of this ourselves, so… should we put them in the fridge first?”
With how pretty they looked, how delicate they were, those crystal-clear cherries, and those fancy petal strawberries, they definitely weren’t store-bought.
I know this one. These are cooking class creations!
Shen Jin said, “Sure. Save them as snacks.”
Every bit of kindness shouldn’t be wasted.
Shen Xie'an couldn’t help glancing at his big brother as he opened the fridge. A beat later, he finally felt the difference between Shen Jin before and after differentiation.
A question he’d never considered before suddenly dropped into his heart.
So I’m about to lose a brother-in-law, but maybe I’ll get a sister-in-law soon?
The gentle, pretty, virtuous type who can make little cakes?
Seeing his brother spacing out again and even smiling like an idiot from time to time, Shen Jin said, “What are you thinking about. Take the plates out.”
He also smacked away Shen Xie'an’s hand reaching for soda, then heated up a cup of milk for him.
“I’m letting you indulge for once, and you still want to ascend to heaven?”
Shen Xie'an looked like he was about to cry, like a leaf struck by frost. “Oh…”
He suddenly felt like having a gentle sister-in-law wouldn’t be bad either. She could balance out his big brother’s cold aura.
No matter what, the barbecue finally steadied Shen Xie'an’s anxious heart.
His mood lifted, and he handed the prettiest-looking cauliflower to Shen Jin’s mouth. “Ge, eat with me!”
Something softened inside Shen Jin, and he took a bite to humor him.
Shen Jin didn’t feel much about barbecue though, he only ate a little.
Thinking back to falling asleep in the car, that nightmare still felt vivid. Shen Jin touched his neck.
“Is your throat uncomfortable?” Shen Xie'an noticed immediately.
“I had a dream. I was drowning,” Shen Jin didn’t hide it from him. “Did I ever drown?”
“Yeah. When you were eight.” Shen Xie'an only remembered that after his brother was rescued, he had some memory loss.
Shen Jin tried hard to recall it, yet certain fragments were still blurry.
“Then who saved me?”
“Mm… no idea. When Mom and Dad got the hospital call, you were already there.”
Shen Xie'an vaguely remembered that when his brother woke up, the first person he saw was Brother Huai. Like a baby bird, he’d clung to him a little.
There was no necessary connection, but could the fact that his brother hadn’t opposed the engagement in the end have something to do with that first glance?
Shen Jin asked a few more questions, but back then Shen Xie'an had still been a little brat and couldn’t remember more details. Shen Jin let it go.
The brothers split the rest of the barbecue. Shen Xie'an volunteered to clean up the dishes so Shen Jin could go upstairs and do homework. Shen Jin didn’t fight him on it.
Once he was sure Shen Jin had left, Shen Xie'an checked the time on his watch and quickly sealed up all the leftover skewers, bones, and foil.
He didn’t throw it in the trash. He took it upstairs and stuffed it into his backpack, planning to toss it on the way to school.
If he left it in the trash, the aunt who came to clean tomorrow might find it and tell Shen Jin’s parents. That could easily turn into another family morality drama.
Their parents didn’t allow him to eat this stuff, and they might say hurtful things without bothering to figure out what really happened.
Ge thinks too little.
Then I’ll think a little more.
Shen Xie'an sniffed the air again and sprayed some fragrance.
Once he was sure nothing was left behind, he trotted upstairs with light, cheerful steps.
When Shen Jin came downstairs to drink water, the first floor was already empty. His parents, who hadn’t spoken to him in a long time, had only been home for a short while.
He suddenly thought of something and glanced at the trash can.
It was empty.
Shen Jin went back to his room, grabbed a stack of workbooks, and knocked on his brother’s door.
Shen Xie'an wasn’t asleep yet. He was playing a mobile game. Inside, he’d chosen an iron-blooded warrior and was leading the class Omegas into battle. The screen was filled with messages.
[An-ge is awesome!]
[Alphas are all trash!]
[An-ge, charge!]
There was no trace of the soft, obedient persona he wore in front of Shen Jin.
Hearing the knock, Shen Xie'an shut off the screen like a thief. When he saw it was his brother, he hadn’t even finished relaxing before Shen Jin expressionlessly shoved a stack of papers into his arms.
Shen Xie'an: ?
Shen Jin said, “These are my compiled analyses of the hardest problems in eighth-grade Chinese, math, and English. Take them and work through them. When you come back next week for break, I want to see at least a quarter completed.”
Then he turned around and left, cold and merciless.
Shen Xie'an held the stack and sniffled. He only had to flip through the first few pages to know his brother had summarized these from his own experience. You couldn’t buy this kind of thing anywhere else.
Compared to his brother, the genius who could score high without even trying, he was a useless wreck who couldn’t do science and couldn’t do humanities either.
Shen Xie'an posted in the group chat that he wasn’t playing tonight.
A chorus of wails erupted, everyone asking why.
Shen Xie'an took a photo of the tall stack of papers, even adding a beauty filter.
Shen Xie'an: [See it or not, this is my ge’s love.]
So much love.
You definitely don’t have it.
Even if you couldn’t hear tone through typing, everyone could feel it.
The tyrant of their junior high, Shen Xie'an, was practically smirking into the sky.
Shen Jin only packed a small carry-on suitcase, putting necessities inside. He planned to buy everything else at the school store.
After he got into bed and pulled the blanket over himself, he saw a notification from an app and remembered the question he’d asked earlier. When he opened it, sure enough, there were plenty of replies.
After filtering out the useless ones, one response caught his attention.
[OP, did you run into pheromone combing!!! Oh my god, I’m so excited!!]
[My Alpha and I were childhood friends. I differentiated, but we always stayed friends. Then one day I felt so awful I couldn’t take it, and he actually helped comb me a bit.]
Questions quickly appeared below.
[I just searched the term and I’m still kind of confused. Explain in detail?]
[It sounds like something super hard to get.]
The replier: [I’m about to lose coherence, because this is the first time I’ve met someone with the same situation as me. Ahem, let me explain. Pheromone combing, simply put, is when an Omega is differentiating and their pheromones become chaotic. The body can develop symptoms like pain, weakness, nausea, and so on. If it gets severe, they might even go into shock. There have been cases like that, so you can’t take it lightly. What can ease it are the temporary marks everyone knows about, and the surgery that all Omegas fear.
[My pheromone level is low, so matching someone is basically impossible. A mark is wishful thinking. After my childhood friend found out what was going on, he spent more than half his mental power to comb me. He ended up lying in bed for a whole month before he recovered. Later he asked me if we could switch to a temporary mark…]
You could hear the replier’s helpless amusement in the tone. Eating-melon spectators quickly piled on comments.
[I suspect this post is NSFW, but I have no evidence.]
[What did you do that made him stay in bed for a month?]
[Please describe it in ten thousand words!]
The replier probably hadn’t expected people to go there and immediately clarified.
[It’s because he burned too much mental power and went into collapse, not because we did anything else!! Pheromone combing has no benefit to an Alpha at all. It’s dangerous behavior, so don’t try it lightly.]
Shen Jin quickly asked: [What does it feel like for the one being combed?]
The replier seemed to be waiting for Shen Jin and responded almost immediately.
[It’s like you fall into an abyss, and someone forcibly drags you up into the clouds. You feel weightless.]
Shen Jin’s heart skipped hard.
He typed a few words, deleted them, then asked again.
[Does it really make them bedridden for a month?]
[Yeah. Totally scrapped. He couldn’t even lift an apple.]
When Shen Jin didn’t reply, the replier sent one last message.
[The effect of combing only lasts for a while. It’s just delaying things. OP, you should still find a real solution as soon as possible.]
Shen Jin thought that if his body hadn’t mutated, then the problem lay with the two people in the car.
If the driver wasn’t the issue, then the issue was… Qian Kun?
This was something Shen Jin had overlooked before.
But when forward logic couldn’t explain things, he went in reverse.
If tomorrow, Qian Kun didn’t come to school, then…
Maybe it really was him.
The next day, Shen Jin set an earlier alarm. He needed to go to the dorm building first to drop off his luggage, so he had to arrive early.
He dragged his suitcase downstairs and was a little surprised to see Xie Yan in the kitchen making breakfast.
Shen Jin greeted her and kept pulling his suitcase toward the door, only to be called back by Xie Yan.
“Xiao Jin, do you want… to eat breakfast before you go?”
Meeting Shen Jin’s slightly surprised eyes, Xie Yan felt shame surge up.
She truly had never specifically made breakfast for Shen Jin. So in his mind, it was only natural that there was no portion for him.
Shen Jin said, “No, thank you, Mother.”
He’d always handled it himself, or he ate at the cafeteria or around the school.
Ever since Shen Xie'an’s outburst, the atmosphere at home looked the same on the surface, but in reality, certain cracks that had existed for a long time could no longer be ignored.
Those cracks wouldn’t fade just because Shen Jin was leaving.
Xie Yan glanced at Shen Jin’s suitcase. That was why she’d gotten up early today. She said, “I’ll drive you to school, then help you clean your dorm.”
She remembered that other parents seemed to do things like that.
Shen Jin was even more surprised. He had no interest in the reasons for his mother’s sudden change. It was always going to be the same few reasons.
He refused, pushed the door open, and walked out.
The yearning he’d once carried had, without him realizing it, disappeared completely from Shen Jin’s eyes.
Xie Yan felt as though something important had been lost forever.
After arriving at school, Shen Jin left his luggage with the dorm auntie first, planning to organize it later.
During morning duty at the school gate, a senior saw him and grinned mischievously. “Ice God, you’ll be receiving a gift soon.” One that crossed an ocean.
Shen Jin couldn’t be bothered correcting the nickname anymore. He watched the students entering the school, splitting his attention in two.
“Senior, I’m not the type to casually accept gifts,” he shot back with a joking tone.
“You’ll find out when it gets here.” The senior shook his phone, acting mysterious.
A few days ago, he’d received a shipping notification. He checked the sender. It was a string of English names. After digging a bit, he traced it back to someone’s advisor. It was probably sent back through a teacher.
Given how tightly controlled pheromone research was, this was basically squeezing into a crack just to assert presence.
Also, he’d kept insisting it was only about taking care of a childhood friend.
Childhood friend. Who would believe that.
He’d thought Shen Jin would at least ask curiously, but Shen Jin’s attention wasn’t on that at all. His gaze was focused, as if he were searching for someone.
After the class bell rang, Shen Jin went to the back gate wall and caught a few late students. Sure enough, he still didn’t run into Qian Kun.
After the morning assembly, students filed back into the classroom.
Everyone noticed something strange.
The transfer students’ attitude toward Shen Jin actually had a tiny hint of… respect?
Just minutes ago, one of them had forgotten his ID badge. Shen Jin only had to look at him once, and he immediately ran back to get it, no hesitation at all.
The transfer students had all seen Shen Jin’s hidden depths last night. They didn’t want to be the next one on the receiving end of his attention.
Shen Jin spun his pen rapidly between his fingers, occasionally glancing at the empty seat beside him.
Suddenly, he met Zhou You’s probing gaze.
He’d been caught on the spot, yet he didn’t panic at all. He could hold steady.
The two of them nodded to each other. Shen Jin turned away with composure.
From suspicion to proof, his mood rose and fell slightly.
A sound came from the back door. Shen Jin turned his head to look.
In the light, a tall figure appeared. His eyes were pale, his expression lazy and indifferent, a backpack slung over his shoulder as he strolled in at ease.
The pen stopped spinning.
Author’s Note:
He is.
He isn’t.
So is he or isn’t he.
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