71: Wife Above
Once Shen Xie’an confirmed he’d differentiated into an Alpha, he was so happy that night he practically exploded.
He spread the good news far and wide. Before long, anyone on Nanhu Middle School’s forum knew their school tyrant had differentiated into an Alpha. What a tragic story this was.
Back when he was an Omega, he was already undefeated across the entire school.
Why had no one ever called parents?
Which Alpha would have the face to complain after getting bullied by a delicate, “might cry any second” Omega?
For a while, some were delighted, and some were miserable.
Dear Heavens, are you blind?
The Heavens didn’t hear the Nanhu middle-school Alphas wailing. The next day, the skies cleared up.
The accumulated water on the roads was cleared, emergency repairs were finished, and they could leave anytime.
The three of them checked out. Qian Kun sat in the passenger seat while Shen Jin sat in the back row with his younger brother. Shen Xie’an sensed something strange about the atmosphere between those two.
Shen Xie’an didn’t know if it was because he’d argued with his future brother-in-law yesterday and affected their relationship. He decided to bring up a topic to ease the tension.
Where should he start?
Then Shen Xie’an thought of something. “Kun-ge.”
Qian Kun didn’t turn around. He hummed, telling him to speak.
His hands flipped through documents at speed, focused, scanning ten lines at a glance. This trip had been a last-minute decision. He could only finish the old master’s assignment on the ride back and submit it when he returned.
Even if the old master had never said it outright, Qian Kun had always understood: if he wanted absolute emotional freedom, he had to show value. Only then could he control more decision-making power.
“Why did you paint your car this kind of soft, girly pink?”
“Doesn’t it look good?”
“It’s not bad. Pink but not tacky. It just doesn’t match you.”
As a former dedicated pink user, Shen Xie’an considered himself an authority on this.
A soft laugh came from the front. Qian Kun turned his head. “Ask your brother.”
Shen Jin shot someone a glare. His tone toward his younger brother softened a little. “Don’t mind him. He’s just overflowing with girlish sentiment.”
“Mm. I’m overflowing.” Qian Kun looked perfectly content to accept it.
Qian Kun’s reactions were always honest. He never deliberately adjusted himself for show.
He himself didn’t realize it, but that tone made people’s ears burn. It was teasing, and there was a kind of indulgent fondness he couldn’t quite put into words.
Shen Xie’an looked at his brother again.
Ice-cold.
Shen Xie’an couldn’t read his brother’s attitude, but one thing was certain. He had probably picked the wrong topic again. This pink car definitely had a story behind it.
Instead of easing anything, he made it weirder.
He looked at the driver uncle up front. The man had said “hello” when he picked them up and then vanished into silence.
That was the wise move. Shen Xie’an decided he’d be quiet as a chicken for the rest of the ride.
After a while, Shen Xie’an dozed off.
Qian Kun put on a Bluetooth headset. He highlighted parts he didn’t understand and asked the professional manager he’d hired. After the other side answered, Qian Kun followed up with a few brief, pointed questions.
The car stayed quiet, broken only by Qian Kun’s occasional voice.
Only then did a faint blush creep onto Shen Jin’s pale face. He’d simply slept poorly last night and his reactions were half a beat slow.
He was about to look away when he noticed the person in front had, at some point, adjusted the rearview mirror’s angle.
As long as Shen Jin’s gaze passed forward, he’d “accidentally” meet a familiar pair of eyes.
Sometimes they connected. Sometimes they missed each other by a hair.
Qian Kun would read a case, then glance at Shen Jin through the mirror for one or two seconds. He never lingered long, as if it were unintentional.
As if Shen Jin was his little moment of happiness between work.
At first Shen Jin was just curious. Could Qian Kun really split his attention like that and still absorb the material?
He could.
He didn’t just absorb it, he asked enough follow-up questions that the professional manager on the other end practically went numb.
They collided in the mirror a few times, then looked away again.
It felt as if an invisible thread had wrapped itself around his heart.
Only then did Shen Jin realize.
He was being seduced.
Qian Kun didn’t even need to say anything. Just that near-but-not-quite gaze was enough to crank both their heartbeats up to the limit.
In that quiet, on-the-verge atmosphere, the pink little off-roader rolled up to the Shen family gate.
Shen Jin had originally planned to take Shen Xie’an to the Xie household to recuperate, but Shen Xie’an shook his head like a rattling drum. He was still a little scared of Xie Ling. Xie Ling’s reputation was too famous. A standard overachieving nth-generation heir, even more intense than his ancestors.
That wasn’t the point.
The point was that Xie Ling wasn’t just strict with himself. The whole Xie household’s atmosphere was serious, practically the definition of stern discipline.
Could you believe it?
When his brother returned to the Shen family at eight years old, he was a tiny stiff little board with flawless etiquette. Seeing him talk during meals back then felt unbelievable.
If Shen Xie’an hadn’t been cute enough, he never would’ve melted his brother’s ice.
Shen Xie’an repeatedly insisted that he was truly fine. There was no discomfort after differentiation, which meant his body was well-suited to being an Alpha.
Shen Jin felt envious, yet he was still uneasy. He decided to stay until their parents returned from overseas, then leave.
When Shen Xie’an heard that, he made a victory sign at Qian Kun where Shen Jin couldn’t see.
See? Who cares about Alpha. The one my brother loves most is still me.
Anyway, Qian Kun wasn’t planning to pressure Shen Jin too hard in the first place.
That measured attitude made Shen Xie’an feel like he had punched cotton.
Kun-ge, why aren’t you following the script?
That night, Shen Jin waited until his brother was sound asleep. After confirming he had no fever and no complications, he finally returned to his own room.
The room hadn’t changed at all since he left. Only the suitcase under his bed was gone. In its place lay a note with three words written on it: I am sorry.
It was Xie Yan’s handwriting.
This wasn’t the outcome she wanted.
Yet it was what she had, knowingly or unknowingly, created.
Back then, Shen Jin didn’t want those three words.
Now, he needed them even less.
When he was a child, what he wanted was her attentive gaze.
Shen Jin put the note back exactly as it was, pretending he’d never seen it.
If he wouldn’t respond, why forcefully shatter an old person’s fantasy?
The feeling of a fantasy breaking wasn’t pleasant.
Shen Jin hadn’t dreamed in a long time. Nothing special had happened lately, yet he dreamed about the novel’s plot again.
The biggest difference from before was that this time, he could see the faces of those perverts who loved locking him in a little black room.
Shen Jin woke with his heart in his throat and sat on the bed, shaken.
By the time he came back to himself, he’d already called Qian Kun.
The other side clearly hadn’t woken up yet.
Qian Kun’s voice was slightly hoarse, the tail end unreasonably sexy. “Jinjin?”
Hearing Qian Kun unconsciously call him Jinjin made Shen Jin’s heart twitch.
Qian Kun had watched over the Shen brothers the whole night before. Yesterday, after he got home, the old master dragged him into a room and lectured him until late. He hadn’t slept many hours.
The old master gave him case files from various companies over the years, successes and failures. Qian Kun had to write out how he would handle each one, then analyze it step by step.
Making his grandson truly digest it wouldn’t happen overnight. They talked in the study until midnight.
After the “homework,” the old man sat there, calm and grand, and asked with a hint of restraint, “I heard from your parents you’ve got someone you like?”
“I do.”
So he really does!
Then why did that fortune-teller say he was destined to be lonely forever?
The old man was confused, but he nodded and stroked his beard.
“Did you catch him yet?”
“Not yet.”
The old man slapped the table, beard bristling, eyes wide. “What, he’s too good for you now?”
Not to brag, though he criticized his grandson all day long, who wouldn’t envy him for having such an outstanding descendant when word got out? Looking at him, everything was exceptional. Just look at how many families wanted to form marriage ties these past years If that still wasn’t enough, was the kid rebelling?
Qian Kun didn’t flinch. He smiled. “Who says that because I’m good, he must like me? Grandpa, that’s not how it works.”
The old man had heard that his grandson was extremely protective of this person, wouldn’t even let anyone meet him. He hadn’t believed it at first.
His grandson was proud. He’d once declared he hoped to grow old alone. Who had the face to change that?
No one in the Qian family thought it was a joke.
Qian Kun had once been locked in a room with an Omega whose compatibility was as high as 99.999%, and he still refused to mark him.
It was like the time Qian Kun and You Jia had been shut in a storage room. You Jia had been drugged into heat and repeatedly threw himself at Qian Kun. When they were rescued, Qian Kun was covered in injuries. He had tortured himself to the point of nearly losing half his life.
You Jia had been tied up.
By Qian Kun.
Later, tests at the hospital revealed their compatibility was extremely high.
By rights, with numbers like that, an Alpha couldn’t resist on willpower alone.
That was instinct. The instinct to possess, to mark.
Even now, people still found it unbelievable that Qian Kun could hold back.
Someone like that, claiming he had a person he liked, was enough to make the Qian family curious.
The old man couldn’t pry anything out, so he directly told his grandson to scram.
After a moment of silence, Qian Kun emphasized again, “Even if he rejects me in the end, I hope you won’t make things hard for him.”
The old man laughed in anger.
He’s not even through the door and you’re already protecting him like a treasure. You won’t even let us see him once. If you actually succeed, what, are you going to propose on the spot?
“Scram!”
The old man roared, full of vigor.
Qian Kun didn’t dare provoke that lively elder further. He obediently rolled back to his room.
He only managed to glance at the secretly taken album before falling asleep with his phone in hand, sinking into deep sleep.
When he got the call in the morning, Qian Kun was still half unsure if he was dreaming. His tone was gentle. “Did you have a nightmare?”
Qian Kun didn’t even know what happened, yet his first sentence was that. Warmth rushed at Shen Jin.
Shen Jin steadied his mind. He didn’t care that he’d acted impulsively. “Do you remember I told you I once dreamed I might be in danger?”
This was the original reason Shen Jin had asked him to be a fake boyfriend. Qian Kun woke up fully.
“You dreamed it again?”
“Yeah. This time I saw their faces!”
“Who?” Qian Kun’s gaze sharpened instantly.
“Yang Junbi, Xue Yi, Xie Jisheng...”
Among them, Yang Junbi was the senior-year Alpha who once matched with Shen Jin and boasted outside that he would soon mark a high-level Omega. Qian Kun had badly beaten him up in the end.
He also surrounded and harassed Shen Jin at a bar entrance before. Shen Jin recorded audio and kept the evidence.
With proof that solid, the school issued him a warning. The Yang family had influence, but because they feared offending Qian Kun, they temporarily forced Yang Junbi to take a one-year leave.
Shen Jin had thought that punishment was heavy enough.
“You might not know Xue Yi, he...”
“I know all three.” Qian Kun cut in. “Yang Junbi’s case will get you a satisfying answer soon. I already have evidence, just last week. I didn’t have full confidence yet, so I’ve been looking for a key witness. That’s why I made you wait.”
Wait?
Shen Jin slowly covered his mouth, his chest aching with a sour swell.
“W-why have you never said anything?”
“I was afraid that if I told you, you’d hold hope and then be disappointed.” He never made promises without certainty. From Shen Jin’s tone, he heard fear and helplessness. It made guilt cut deeper. He was still too slow. “Trust me. Soon.”
It truly hadn’t been long. They hadn’t even finished one semester.
Shen Jin struggled to stay calm. With his mild social difficulty, his tone turned stiff at moments like this. “This isn’t something you’re supposed to do.”
Shen Jin thought of Zhao Haotian, already eating three free meals a day. Qian Kun moving in silence suddenly didn’t seem so hard to understand.
He just didn’t know how to respond.
Shen Jin had always wanted to say thank you. He had said it before, yet it felt too light.
Qian Kun probably sensed Shen Jin’s turbulence. What he wanted wasn’t gratitude, but for Shen Jin to live peacefully.
He deliberately broke the atmosphere before Shen Jin could sink into that “owing” feeling. “As for Xue Yi, he committed other crimes. He’s currently missing. The police have been hunting him for a while. There’s something you might not know. He’s that so-called top student everyone said I forced out of school, the one who supposedly couldn’t even attend classes anymore.”
Shen Jin remembered that the internet had plenty of “legendary deeds” about Qian Kun. There were endless posts claiming to be “insiders.” Shen Jin figured Qian Kun didn’t care and probably never read them.
“Try checking a few big forums.” Shen Jin offered a new idea. “Look for posts about you. Some commenters’ IP addresses might be worth investigating.”
Qian Kun considered it and found it workable. That method might really produce an unexpected lead.
“The third one, Xie Jisheng, is trickier.” Qian Kun’s voice cooled slightly. “I know him, though. Xie Ling’s second younger brother, right?”
“Yeah.” Shen Jin hesitated. “Technically, I should call him Second Cousin, but he hated me back then.”
Shen Jin hadn’t seen Xie Jisheng for years. The three young masters of the Xie family each had a different mother. Xie Jisheng’s mother was from the Ji family.
Xie Jisheng spent most of his time living with the Ji family and almost never returned to the Xie household. After he and Xie Ling fell out recently, he stopped coming back entirely.
So if, in the novel, he hated Shen Jin enough to lock him in a “little black room,” what would he do to Xie Ling?
Even “Shen Jin” was cannon fodder, yet Xie Ling was a person who wasn’t even mentioned. He had no plot line at all.
Compared to himself, who already had defenses up, Shen Jin worried more about Xie Ling, who had no guard around family at all.
“I’ll have people watch him.” Qian Kun understood the worry instantly. “Don’t worry about your cousin either. I’ll keep watch. If anything’s off, I’ll notify you.”
After that, the atmosphere abruptly went quiet.
Shen Jin was silent for a long time.
Then he said, “He... isn’t your cousin.”
Qian Kun hadn’t expected this young man to think so hard, only to get stuck on that.
It was unbearably cute.
Qian Kun almost laughed. Every day he discovered something about Shen Jin that made it impossible to stop. “Just a figure of speech. I’ll watch it next time.”
Shen Jin thought: You won’t.
He sighed internally.
Fine.
It wasn’t a big deal.
Shen Jin reassured himself that way.
Qian Kun walked toward the bathroom to wash up, phone still on. “But Xie Jisheng doesn’t have time right now.”
“Busy?”
“Yeah. I heard he’s gotten obsessed with a celebrity.” Qian Kun sounded mildly amused. “I only heard rumors. I’ll investigate and report back. I don’t know who’s unlucky enough.”
Report back?
“I’m not your boss.” Shen Jin’s tone sharpened. “Wrong word choice. I’ll need to tutor your Chinese again.”
“Sure.”
Then Qian Kun added very softly, “In a way, you are.”
If Shen Jin hadn’t listened closely, he would’ve thought he imagined it.
Wife is above.
However, these words were something Qian Kun couldn’t say out loud.
At least not right now.
By the time Shen Jin reacted, the other end was already a flat “beep—”
Qian Kun had hung up, the gentle smile on his face gradually disappearing as he looked at the phone expressionlessly.
The original reason for the boyfriend contract was the unknown danger around Shen Jin.
Once that danger stopped being unknown, it meant the contract would expire.
His identity as a tool person had completely lost effectiveness.
There would be no excuse left to keep Shen Jin close.
Shen Jin went to knock on his brother’s door. When he opened it, the room was already empty.
Shen Xie’an hadn’t taken leave today. Maybe because he’d become an Alpha, he couldn’t wait to go to school.
On the way downstairs, Shen Jin saw the table set with a very simple breakfast, eggs and bacon. The edges of the eggs were burnt. Shen Jin stepped into the kitchen and looked into the trash.
As expected, several charred-black eggs lay inside.
Shen Jin: “...”
Not surprising.
Shen Xie’an had never passed cooking class since he was little.
Was he so happy about differentiating because now he didn’t have to take those classes anymore?
Shen Jin felt like he’d found part of the truth.
Shen Jin took photos of breakfast from every angle. He clumsily added a smoothing filter, trying to make the eggs and bacon look as presentable as possible.
He posted to Moments for the rare first time, captioned: Morning.
His account was full of classmates from kindergarten through high school. Comments appeared almost immediately.
[I can finally get the same breakfast as my male god!]
[This obviously isn’t Ice God’s cooking. Here’s Ice God’s past work. This color, this shape, whew, the perfect fried egg!]
Shen Jin ate the one surviving fried egg, then messaged his brother with a very low score and told him to keep trying.
Shen Xie’an immediately sent back a crying sticker. It made Shen Jin worry that his brother’s soft, adorable personality would get bullied by other Alphas.
Shen Jin hadn’t ridden a bike to school in a long time. He wheeled out the little pink bicycle he’d ridden for years from the yard.
After only a few steps, he saw someone standing at the road entrance.
A tall, handsome young man with a cold expression.
He drew the attention of passersby in the neighborhood, yet he looked used to it, not caring at all. He only stared at his phone and liked that egg photo.
Ever since realizing he couldn’t even count as a tool anymore, Qian Kun’s already tight nerves tensed up again.
When he set out, the Shen family address slipped out of his mouth without thought. Even halfway there, he hadn’t planned to change direction.
Shen Jin was genuinely surprised to see him.
“Why are you here?” They would see each other at school soon anyway.
“Passing by.”
“...” Boy, we live in opposite directions.
You saying this, I really want to expose you.
Yet, Shen Jin didn’t plan to. The person who had just been on the phone with him was now standing in front of him. Shen Jin felt a little happy.
He noticed Qian Kun staring at the little pink back seat.
Don’t tell me you want me to give you a ride?
Shen Jin looked at Qian Kun, who had grown another two centimeters. Shen Jin already had to look up at him. How was he supposed to carry him now?
Those long arms and legs, sitting on his back seat, would make Shen Jin feel awkward too.
How could he make a young master lower himself like that?
Shen Jin suggested, “Then... want to take the bus?”
Author’s Note:
Qian Qian’s very subtle confession: the wife is above.
Sweethearts, happy Mid-Autumn Festival! I ate so many flavors, pickled-vegetable fresh meat, lotus paste, red bean paste~~~~~ aaah!
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