CH 75

Tired from crying, he fell asleep drowsily wrapped up in Lu Shangjin’s soothing pheromones.

Lu Shangjin supported his head and laid down beside him. Yan Yi was bowed and curled into a ball, fingers still clutching Lu Shangjin’s lapel powerlessly.

He drew a tissue and bent his index finger to gently dry the tears from the rabbit’s eyelashes, his eyes would be swollen the next day.

It was rare for him to see Yan Yi cry so sadly. In his memory, he had cried very, very few times. There had always been a kind of high-grade omega pride in his bones, maintaining his composure and hiding all his emotions deep in his heart to himself. 

“Just cry it out.” Lu Shangjin gently stroked his hair and closed his eyes regretfully.

No matter how many cloned cells there were, even if there were millions, his Yan Yan was still the one and only. 

After taking care of Yan Yi these days, Lu Shangjin had developed a biological clock, waking up at seven o’clock in the morning to prepare breakfast for Yan Yi.

Pregnant omegas needed nutrition the most. The ingredients for three meals a day were formulated by professional nutritionists, which were a little troublesome to make, but he didn’t feel assured about buying meals from outside. 

When Lu Shangjin got up, Yan Yi’s fingers were still hooked onto the corner of his coat.

As the warm scent of narcissus wrapped around his body left, Yan Yi shivered and grabbed the pillow tightly, holding the thin quilt in his arms.

Lu Shangjin hurriedly returned. Half kneeling on the bed, he leaned down to kiss the corner of his forehead. Yan Yi slowly opened his eyes and looked at him sleepy-eyed and dazed. 

“I’m going to make breakfast, you can sleep longer.” Lu Shangjin patiently released soothing pheromones. “Don’t panic if you don’t see me when you wake up.” 

Only then did Yan Yi fall asleep again in a daze, his tightly curled body relaxing a little.

“Good boy.” Lu Shangjin tucked his little tail back into his pyjama pants for him and tugged up the crooked waist of his pants.

It seems that he couldn’t let Yan Yi sleep alone at night again. He didn’t expect that he would sleep so restlessly after being pregnant, tossing around noisily without a little bit of soothing pheromones. 

Yan Yi didn’t wake up until 8:30. He felt for his phone beside his pillow and wanted to take a look at the time, but then he stared at the picture on his lock screen, dumbfounded. 

The picture on the lock screen was of his hand wearing a ring, with ten fingers clasped together with Lu Shangjin. The light was dim, the picture unclear. 

He froze and flipped over to look at the back case in a stupor, and found that it was Lu Shangjin’s phone.

After surveying his surroundings, he realized that he had slept in Lu Shangjin’s bedroom.

Slightly flustered, Yan Yi protected his belly and sat on the edge of the bed blankly. His eyes fell on a simple wooden photo frame standing on the bedside table, which held a photo of the two of them together.

Recalling the scene he made last night, Yan Yi sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his arms, feeling regretful. What was there to cry about? He became extremely hypocritical as soon as night fell.

He found his suede slippers by the bed, placed neatly where he could slip them on right as he stretched his feet out.  

When he slipped into them, the insides were warm and had just been heated, and even his body was getting warmer. 

The smell of porridge wafted over from the dining room. Lu Shangjin had just put the bowls and chopsticks on the table, “You’re up so early, I haven’t called you yet. It’s hot now.” 

The pot was filled with the delicious smell of vegetables and lean meat porridge. He was about to serve it, but Yan Yi took the ladle into his right hand and scooped up two bowls, taking one for himself while the other was left there without a care.

Without moving a muscle, Lu Shangjin looked at that bowl of porridge for ten seconds.

He suddenly got up and went upstairs to bring his phone down, taking a picture of the porridge with the caption, “The porridge my wife scooped for me.”

Xia Pingtian replied: Sister-in-law is very skilled. 

Bi Ruijing replied to Xia Pingtian: Did you not open your eyes, he said it’s scooped, not made.

Lu Shangjin pondered briefly, before deleting Bi Ruijing’s reply.

Suddenly sensing that Yan Yi was looking his way, he immediately looked up and cast his gaze over. Yan Yi lowered his eyes and buried his head to eat. 

“Eat more, I’ll be back to make lunch in the afternoon.” Lu Shangjin took a piece of carrot pie cut into four halves and put it on his plate, full of hope, “See if it tastes good?” 

Yan Yi stared at the pie and gripped his chopsticks slightly.

He didn’t have much of an appetite a few days ago, but now he was gradually eating more.

“Is it good…” Lu Shangjin pinched the back of his neck. He really wanted to hear an answer, even if it wasn’t delicious. He would improve on it next time.

He suddenly asked another question:

“If it doesn’t taste good, I’ll find a nanny again to come and cook.”

“No need.” Yan Yi dodged Lu Shangjin’s burning gaze and quickly walked into the kitchen with his empty bowl as if he was fleeing. 

Lu Shangjin secretly leaped for joy as he followed him into the kitchen. Before Yan Yi could touch the water, he took his hands and held the door frame to enclose the omega in the small space in front of him.

“I’ll come back to wash, don’t touch the cold water until I come back, not even warm water, will you listen?” 

With nowhere to escape, Yan Yi’s face was lifted by the chin to look up at Lu Shangjin.

“Good boy.” Lu Shangjin lowered his head and kissed his soft drooping ear, “I’m starting to miss you before I even leave.” 

He stopped at the right moment before Yan Yi could feel disgusted and sick of it, then went to the cloakroom to change into a suit. Wanting a mile after receiving an inch, he imagined that Yan Yi could put on a tie for him.

In the past, Yan Yi tied Lu Shangjin’s tie for him every day, picking a design and colour most suitable for the day’s journey, tilting his head slightly and carefully smoothing out every crease.

If there was still such a chance in this life, he wanted to hold Yan Yi’s waist and hug him properly, kiss his ear and say a thank you baobei, I love you.

His mood became inexplicably low again, full of melancholy as he went out the door.

Hearing the soft click of the door closing, Yan Yi was startled out of his mind wandering. 

After thinking long and hard, he called Dr. Zhong. 

Dr. Zhong asked about Yan Yi’s current physical condition in a friendly manner and whether there was any abnormal discomfort in his glands.

When Yan Yi asked about the specific details of the surgery he had done on his glands, Dr. Zhong paused and suddenly said he had a meeting right away and would talk about it again when he was free, before hastily hanging up the phone.

Doctors were normally really busy during the week, with many meetings and surgeries, so it was understandable.

However, Yan Yi couldn’t help but continue to think about it. His mind was a chaotic mess and the image of three blackened scars on Lu Shangjin’s shoulder shook around in his mind from time to time. 

The more he thought about staying at home, the more moody he became, so he took his cloak and keys and left.

The warmth came after the spring rain. In the blink of an eye, all the willows in the park had sprouted, swaying slightly in the warm breeze.

Sitting on the bench, Tan Meng held a red balloon in his hand. He leaned over and stretched out his hand, teasing the little meatball that was wobbling towards him.  

The little baby still couldn’t walk well, earnestly and anxiously opening his little hand, taking two steps before wobbling and falling down. Tan Meng laughed as he took him into his arms, supporting his little arms to carry him onto his lap.

Once he looked up and saw Yan Yi, he waved at him.

“Did Lu Shangjin not accompany you out?” Tan Meng stuffed the balloons into Yan Yi’s hand and switched hands to hold the child.

“No need to accompany me.” Yan Yi leaned down and handed the balloons to the white, soft and tender little bun. The child lifted his head to look at him with big eyes. Yan Yi deliberately teased him, splitting the balloon string into two. With a tug, it suddenly became two balloons, and with another split, into four balloons.

The child stared at Yan Yi, dumbfounded. Suddenly, he opened his mouth, which had only four teeth, and giggled. He pulled on Yan Yi’s rabbit ear before turning back and holding Tan Meng’s neck shyly, calling out “papa” in a soft, sweet baby’s voice.

Like a drop of water dripping from the eaves in the drizzling rain, a gentle ripple opened right before Yan Yi’s eyes.

Bi Ruijing came back with a fluffy cotton candy, but was scolded for his wrongdoing by Tan Meng from ten steps away, saying how old are you to still have an addiction to sugar, you’d have toothaches in due time, troublesome1 bastard, it’ll be really worrying if our child takes after you in the future. 

After saying hello, Bi Ruijing took the baby from Tan Meng’s arms and held him up onto his forearm. A tall and burly alpha holding cotton candy and a baby looked a little funny, making others have sore eyes. 

The little baby liked his alpha dad’s soothing pheromones, he hugged Bi Ruijing as he called out “papa” sweetly, clinging to him like a sticky steamed bun. 

Yan Yi couldn’t help but touch his belly, and fished out his phone to look at his unread messages.

Lu Shangjin had sent him a message ten minutes ago.

“The strawberries I washed this morning shouldn’t be cold anymore, you can eat eight of them, not more. Love you, and love baby too.”

Yan Yi pursed his lips and slowly lowered down his phone, pointing the screen at his bulging belly, secretly letting the baby look.

Tan Meng noticed his odd behaviour and asked him what he was doing.

Yan Yi’s expression stiffened and he hastily deleted the message Lu Shangjin sent. 

A few minutes later, he recovered the deleted message with a sense of loss and frustration.

He stayed out all day, not doing anything much, just procrastinating and not wanting to go home. Tan Meng kept asking him to go to his studio to talk more with the high grade omegas. He wasn’t in much of a mood before, but today he stopped by to check it out.

It was already evening when he got home. The lights were on and the sheer curtains on the French windows of the balcony were not drawn. 

Through the glass, he could see the alpha busying about on the balcony.

Holding three nails in his mouth, Lu Shangjin was half kneeling on the ground and nailing a child’s height ruler on the door frame of the balcony. 

He was using his right hand to hold the hammer at first, but after nailing a few times, his arm felt sore, so he switched to his left hand.

Yan Yi stood under the streetlamp and watched him from afar, looking intently as the alpha nailed the height ruler into the door frame, nail after nail. Suddenly, a beam of light fell over his head and the street lamps lit up one after another, lighting the way home.

When it was time to go to bed, Lu Shangjin stayed in his bedroom, brazenly and shamelessly refusing to leave, saying that he had to coax Yan Yi to sleep first regardless of whatever he said. 

Yan Yi was too lazy to argue, so he had to let him stay.

Lu Shangjin stayed by his side, encircling Yan Yi in his arms as if protecting a young baby animal, and using soothing pheromones to give him a little more sense of security.

However, ​​just as he put his hands around Yan Yi’s waist and tried to quietly touch the baby, Yan Yi’s body suddenly shook with fear, arching his body in extreme resistance as he desperately shook Lu Shangjin’s hands away from his stomach. He sat up abruptly, losing his mind in panic.

His nose twitched violently in small increments, his tail faltered and shrank back into his pyjama pants. Yan Yi sat on the bed and curled into a ball, his shoulders trembling, as he carefully protected his stomach.

Lu Shangjin froze for a long, long time. Suddenly, his heart hurt as though a spoonful of hot oil had been poured over it. He drew back the hand that had touched Yan Yi’s belly in embarrassment, digging his nails into his palm until it bled. 

He then pulled Yan Yi into his lap, holding his head so that Yan Yi could lean on the crook of his shoulder, and gently caressed him. Pressing a kiss into Yan Yi’s hair, he carefully murmured words of comfort. 

——

Footnotes

1. 不省心: someone troublesome/ bother in an way where they make you worry about them
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