49: Ready To Burst Forth
Shen Jin changed into his slippers and headed for the stairs. Xie Ling stayed in the living room, a laptop open in front of him, fingers tapping away.
Ever since the door opened, his attention had been on Shen Jin. He glanced at his cousin’s empty hands, then noticed he seemed ready to go straight upstairs.
He called out to the younger one who clearly had his mind elsewhere, “Where’s the milk tea?”
You went out to buy milk tea, so where’s my milk tea?
The thing was, right after dinner, Uncle Zhang had casually asked whether he should make the milk tea Shen Jin liked.
Xie Ling’s ears perked up instantly. Why didn’t he know this, yet Uncle Zhang did?
Seeing the faintly accusatory look in Xie Ling’s eyes, Uncle Zhang understood immediately. The eldest young master was feeling sour.
Back then, Xie Ling had been busy with his studies. Shen Jin had been so well-behaved that Uncle Zhang couldn’t help but bring him milk tea a few times, which was how he knew Shen Jin quite liked it.
Xie Ling pretended not to care and asked, “What flavors do you usually drink?”
Shen Jin listed a few. As he spoke, he noticed Xie Ling’s brows knitting tighter and tighter, so he stopped immediately.
Xie Ling lived a very regulated life. Ever since childhood, he’d been raised according to the heir template, with strict family discipline. Milk tea aside, not even toys were allowed in his daily life.
The flavors Shen Jin mentioned, things like bergamot lemon and caramel oolong, sounded drenched in a generational gap.
Shen Jin immediately volunteered to go buy them himself.
Now the milk tea was gone, and the person himself looked absent-minded.
This was bad.
Under his cousin’s scrutinizing gaze, Shen Jin improvised. Didn’t they have evaporated milk and black tea at home?
Ever since elementary school cooking classes, Shen Jin had swept multiple culinary competitions. He rolled up his sleeves and started making something fresh on the spot.
Thinking of how Xie Ling had said he’d be staying up late tonight for a video meeting with the branch office across the Pacific, Shen Jin figured milk tea alone wouldn’t be enough.
He rummaged through the fridge and found an unopened pack of taro balls. He tossed the purple sweet potato, sweet potato, and red bean flavors into boiling water, then filtered tea in another pot.
Xie Ling had already started the video call and was discussing meeting content with several employees. Part of his attention, though, stayed in the kitchen.
Xie Ling felt a brand-new experience settling in, a faint sense of anticipation. He’d never eaten something made by family before. So this was what it felt like.
A little anticipation, a little excitement, and a little urge to show off.
Shen Jin brought out a bowl of dessert rich with milky aroma.
Xie Ling looked at the coffee-colored base, with yellow and purple glutinous rice balls floating inside, round and endearing, topped with golden osmanthus crumbs.
“Isn’t this milk tea?” Xie Ling took off his headset. Don’t think he couldn’t tell this wasn’t the same thing.
“It’s red bean taro balls with a milk tea base,” Shen Jin said, a little nervous. Xie Ling usually only ate food prepared by star-level chefs at home.
Something like this, if those branch-family cousins saw it, they’d definitely say it wasn’t fit for a refined table.
Shen Jin set the bowl down and pinched his burning fingertips against his ear.
When he pulled his hand away, Xie Ling caught the scent lingering on his arm. It was faint, Alpha, with a hint of restlessness. Only very close contact could leave something like that behind.
Looking at his cousin puffing his cheeks and blowing on the taro balls, completely unaware.
“You’ve picked up a scent. Did you run into someone you know when you went out?”
“Mm, a classmate.”
Shen Jin puzzled over it and sniffed himself but couldn’t smell anything at all.
The hug had been brief. Qian Kun had said sorry, then left.
The whole thing had happened so fast. It almost felt like he’d come over just to… hug him once?
His heart trembled slightly.
Shen Jin thought of something.
Xie Ling took a bite. The taro balls were soft and springy, the rich milk aroma blending with the clean tea fragrance on his tongue. The first mouthful alone was a feast for the senses.
Meanwhile, the meeting continued on the other side of the screen. The employees watched their boss eat a homemade late-night snack, while they were stuck abroad chewing on dry hamburgers. The contrast was brutal.
How could a man like this exist?
Being handsome was one thing. Coming from a powerful family was another. He was extremely self-disciplined, and most infuriating of all, his management skills were terrifyingly strong, doubling company performance year after year.
They could barely endure all that.
They could console themselves that some people were born at other people’s finish lines.
But what was that just now?
The younger brother’s voice was so cool, so pleasant. Even though they couldn’t see him on screen, they could hear the exchange.
Why did the boss, already so successful, also have such a considerate family member, one who even made late-night snacks that looked delicious?
How could anyone win at life this hard?
Unforgivable.
After that first bite, Xie Ling’s eyes lit up. He elegantly and efficiently finished the entire bowl.
Shen Jin was delighted. “Um… want another bowl?”
Skills never went to waste. Look, they came in handy now.
Xie Ling nodded with a cold face.
Shen Jin went back to the kitchen to scoop another bowl. He still had to go upstairs to tutor Shen Xie’an. If he didn’t, that kid would definitely slack off.
He instructed Xie Ling, “That’s the last bowl. Eating too much at night will upset your stomach.”
Xie Ling shot him a look.
Who gave you the nerve to manage me?
Shen Jin also told the butler to make sure Xie Ling didn’t eat more.
After Shen Jin left, Xie Ling took a photo of the taro-ball milk tea broth. In an unusually good mood, he prepared to post it to his Moments.
Thinking of how the branch-family crowd would see it, he didn’t bother setting it to limited visibility.
Caption: [Image][Image] Made by my little cousin. Still room for improvement.
He didn’t think it was flashy, but everyone else could tell he was showing off.
Likes flooded in. Quite a few came from branch-family relatives who had Xie Ling set as a special follow. They all shared the surname Xie, but their actual connection had thinned generations ago.
Now, they were among the first to see the post.
Branch-family sisters’ group:
[Did you see the big shot’s Moments?]
[I’ve only got one question. That little cousin couldn’t be… sht sht sh*t!]
[Impossible. He only took care of him for three years. The big shot was running all over the world since he was young, busy as hell. He didn’t even have time for those three years, barely saw him. I heard he didn’t like Shen Jin much. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he invite him for holidays?]
[I went to the Shen house recently. Shen Jin’s already living on campus, so this cousin is probably someone else.]
[Definitely not him.]
[Yeah, impossible!]
Xie Ling couldn’t be bothered with these self-deceiving people. They’d never stand seeing someone live better than them. He trusted Shen Jin wouldn’t care anymore either.
Someone unexpected messaged him.
Beika: [Brother Ling, is Xiao Jin with you?]
Xie Ling pressed his finger to the screen, recalling the scent on Shen Jin earlier, and replied: [Wasn’t that you just now?]
Shen Jin wouldn’t let a strange Alpha get close. Over all these years, apart from family, there’d only been one, Ke Minghuai.
As a guardian, Xie Ling could offer opinions on Shen Jin’s emotional life, but he couldn’t force decisions.
He’d assumed it was Ke Minghuai trying to reconcile, causing that situation.
He’d even thought of something his new secretary Zhou Xiang mentioned, some “crematorium-chasing-the-wife” trope. Xie Ling didn’t quite agree with it, but he hadn’t interfered directly.
Turns out it wasn’t that.
Not bad. Worthy of being my little brother.
So who was that Alpha?
Ke Minghuai immediately caught the problem too. Beika: [Who did Xiao Jin meet?]
Xie Ling replied: [Since you’ve separated, it’s best to each go your own way.]
Xie Ling finished his bowl and wanted to head to the kitchen for another, but Uncle Zhang whisked the bowl away.
Xie Ling looked over coldly. Uncle Zhang stayed expressionless. “The young master said two bowls max.”
Xie Ling watched helplessly as Uncle Zhang walked away without mercy.
Did you all forget who the head of this household is? Are you trying to rebel?
*
When Qian Kun returned home again, he saw an Omega sitting on the sofa, eyes brimming with tears. Beside him was his mother, Liu Manning, elegantly sipping tea.
Liu Manning had gone out to discuss the flow of the next variety show. When she returned, she found an Omega begging the butler not to fire him. After asking what happened, she learned the new helper had entered her son’s room without permission.
No wonder her son had flared up. Even she, his own mother, wasn’t allowed to casually enter his room. He might look indifferent about everything, but in truth his sense of territory was extremely strong, strong enough that he wouldn’t allow anyone else’s scent to linger.
Seeing Qian Kun return, You Jia went over to plead with him not to dismiss him.
Qian Kun looked at him. He was indeed the kind of Omega most people couldn’t bring themselves to be harsh with.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone in. I thought you weren’t home,” You Jia choked out.
“Even if I wasn’t, you shouldn’t have entered. No reason makes it acceptable. The butler will settle today’s wages with you and add one week’s compensation for lost work,” Qian Kun said.
Though he suspected the next “coincidental encounter” might come soon, Qian Kun planned to deal with them one by one.
He thought his mother, who was usually especially tolerant toward Omegas, would object. Instead, she was smiling at him.
As if she understood no matter what he did.
Liu Manning told her son to go upstairs first and personally walked the Omega to the door.
You Jia hadn’t expected Qian Kun to be so unfeeling. Tears streamed down his face.
As he wiped them away and headed out, Liu Manning handed him tissues and said gently, “Kindness isn’t an excuse to overstep. Before doing a good deed, you should first see whether the other person truly needs it, not rely on what you think.”
You Jia stared blankly at the elegant, beautiful woman. He felt like all his little schemes had been seen through.
Qian Kun went back to his room and reread the investigation files.
There was nothing wrong with You Jia himself. His father was a gambler, the family burdened with enormous debt. His mother scraped by running a dried-fish stall, and You Jia worked odd jobs to help support the household.
Because creditors frequently chased them, You Jia moved and transferred schools often.
His work luck wasn’t great either. He was often harassed and dismissed. Yet he had a resilient, upward-driving toughness, like a weed that feared nothing.
What shocked Qian Kun most was the file noting that You Jia was the Omega who’d once been trapped with him back then.
You Jia had been drugged, his pheromones forcibly matured, sending him into heat. His scent had been sweet, sweet enough that Qian Kun had resorted to self-harm just to keep himself from marking him.
It was then, watching the Omega throw himself at him again and again, begging to be held and claimed, that Qian Kun first gained a clear understanding of pheromones.
Those vividly red glands had become a nightmare for years afterward, making him thoroughly disgusted with marking and utterly incapable of feeling any impulse toward glands.
How self-destructive did it have to be.
To make him react to someone else’s glands at all.
However, strictly speaking, You Jia had been an accidental victim back then.
Besides, no matter how powerful a person was, they couldn’t influence the weather, much less cause Qian Kun’s headaches without warning.
Qian Kun leaned toward the idea that some unknown force wanted him and You Jia to develop some sort of connection.
Judging from the instances of help so far, it likely involved emotional entanglement.
Based on his earlier test, where pretending to catch someone made the headache disappear, following along spared him pain, while resisting brought punishment.
There were no other side effects for now. If it was just headaches, that was simple. He’d let it hurt.
As long as it didn’t kill him, no one could force him to do something he didn’t want.
Qian Kun stepped onto the balcony and lit a cigarette. The red ember glowed in the dark as smoke curled upward.
When You Jia looked back before leaving, that was the scene he saw.
The boy in the night looked careless and lazy, like no one could ever make him lower his proud head.
He was like the moon in the sky.
While he himself was grass on the ground, unreachable.
You Jia gave a bitter smile, dragged his suitcase, and left the place he had only stayed in for a single day.
*
After returning to his room, Shen Jin first tutored Shen Xie’an on his homework. Then his younger brother told him their parents had asked him to pass along a message: the engagement cancellation should proceed according to Shen Jin’s wishes.
Shen Xie’an beamed, pumping his fist. “Ge, this is a stage victory!”
“You talked them into it again, didn’t you?” Shen Jin said.
Shen Xie’an looked dejected. “Nothing gets past you. Can you be a little dumber sometimes, ge? But this time they really did reflect. I keep seeing Mom go into your room and sit there for hours.”
Shen Xie’an tried to secretly add a few points back to their parents’ nearly empty score.
When Shen Jin left that house, he hadn’t planned on returning.
What worried him most now was Shen Xie’an. Seeing his brother’s sincere, happy smile, he couldn’t bring himself to say that he would be moving next week.
Leaving that house had long been his wish.
Even if he didn’t come to the Xie residence, he would’ve found a way to rent a place outside, as long as he could sever ties with the Shen family.
The only thing he couldn’t let go of was foolish Shen Xie’an, who would definitely cry his eyes out.
Shen Jin hung up the call, his thoughts heavy.
While washing up, he noticed the necklace at his neck. Thinking back on Qian Kun’s series of actions, hadn’t he forgotten something important?
A thought was ready to burst forth.
Shen Jin’s breathing quickened. He paced back and forth in his room.
Maybe he was overthinking it.
How could he dare to think that? That was Qian Kun, the universally acknowledged “no-CP king.” Liu Qimai had said the people Qian Kun rejected could circle the school several times.
Besides, that person had clearly expressed disdain for him before. Shen Jin believed that attitude had been genuine.
He felt overly self-absorbed.
But what if?
If it really was true, how should he respond?
After nine years with Ke Minghuai, he had no intention of trying again.
He stared at Qian Kun’s WeChat avatar again and again, tapped the call button, hovered between voice and video, then slowly pressed video call.
Only video would let him clearly see the other person’s expression.
Author’s Note:
“Are you trying to pursue me?”
The small bug from the previous chapter has been fixed.
Thank you so much for your support. I’ll keep working hard!
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