You’ve already said it, so why are you asking?
Lu Sili curved his lips politely. “Of course you can.”
It was going to happen sooner or later. Even if Su Yuan had not said anything tonight, Lu Sili himself would have found an opportunity to make it known, because that was one of the purposes of getting married.
“Sorry for making you wait so long. The meeting ran over, and I forgot our appointment.” Lu Sili apologized first.
Su Yuan said, “It’s fine.”
Another elevator opened, and the two of them stepped inside together.
“Did you drive here?” Lu Sili asked.
“I took the subway. I don’t have a car,” Su Yuan said.
“All right.” Lu Sili put on his coat. The elevator quickly descended to the underground parking garage, and his parking space was close to the elevator.
“Let’s go to the law firm first and sign the agreement.”
The underground garage was deserted late at night, making every spoken word seem magnified.
Following behind him, Su Yuan said, “Should we eat first?”
“No need,” Lu Sili said.
His answer was completely natural. He did not even turn his head as he walked straight toward his car and pressed the key to unlock it.
He had been eating a sandwich just now, which meant he was hungry, and because Su Yuan had called out to him, the sandwich had fallen to the floor before he could eat it.
Su Yuan said, “But you don’t look very well.”
Reaching the car, Lu Sili opened the door. “I’m fine. Work is more important.”
He already felt terrible enough about forgetting the time because of his meeting and making both Su Yuan and the lawyer wait so long. Lu Sili had always demanded perfection from himself at work.
Whether he ate those few bites or not did not seem all that important.
Su Yuan still wanted to say something, but Lu Sili had already reached across from the driver’s side to open the passenger door. “Get in.”
The garage was bitterly cold in the depths of winter.
Su Yuan got into the car and turned his head slightly toward Lu Sili.
They had only walked through the unheated garage for two or three minutes, yet Lu Sili’s ears and fingers were already tinged bluish-purple. The knuckles of the hands gripping the steering wheel were white, making him look as though one careless knock might shatter his bones.
Lu Sili felt Su Yuan looking at him. Normally he would have simply asked what the matter was, but tonight felt strange.
He could not bring himself to ask.
Su Yuan’s gaze was always steady and concerned, reminding Lu Sili of the little village dog his maternal grandparents had kept in the countryside when he was young.
What bad intentions could a little watchdog possibly have?
Besides, when Lu Sili glanced at him through the rearview mirror, Su Yuan really was quite handsome now. He looked like a model from a French fashion magazine: nothing striking or showy at first glance, but increasingly appealing the longer you looked.
Let him look. They were going to get married anyway. What was wrong with looking a little more and getting familiar with each other?
The lawyer had originally planned to wait at the company, but Lu Sili had refused. Su Yuan had said he did not have a lawyer of his own, and Lu Sili worried that signing the agreement in his office might make Su Yuan uncomfortable.
Su Yuan’s reason for not hiring a lawyer was reasonable enough. Apart from savings, he had no real assets. His family circumstances were ordinary and his permanent public-sector job was stable, so there was little that needed a lawyer to organize before it could be written into the agreement.
The law firm was not far away, and there was no traffic this late at night. They reached the building quickly.
Lu Sili walked in front.
As they approached the elevator, a sudden wave of dizziness swept over Lu Sili. He reached out to brace himself against the doorframe and closed his eyes for a moment. Once it eased, he acted as though nothing had happened and continued waiting for the elevator.
He did not see Su Yuan standing behind him with his brows tightly furrowed.
People were still working overtime at the firm, and Lu Sili’s lawyer was waiting for them.
“This way.” Lu Sili did not forget to turn back and call Su Yuan.
Once they sat down, the lawyer explained the prenuptial agreement to Su Yuan. Lu Sili listened from the side. He already knew the contents, and they were actually quite simple: all of Lu Sili’s assets were listed, followed by a statement that none of them had anything to do with Su Yuan.
The marriage agreement would also last for two years.
The terms were perfectly normal, but as the lawyer emphasized them one by one, Lu Sili began to feel a little embarrassed.
He glanced up at Su Yuan. Only when he saw no awkwardness or hurt on Su Yuan’s face did he quietly let out a breath.
But Lu Sili quickly caught himself.
Had he stereotyped Su Yuan as an “honest Beta”? Had he assumed that an unremarkable, mild-tempered, decent Beta posed no threat and would never scheme against anyone?
But no matter who the other person was, Lu Sili’s way of doing things was to maintain the same vigilance and distance he used at work.
“Do you have any objections?” Lu Sili asked once the lawyer finished.
Su Yuan had listened carefully to every clause. When he looked up, there was not a trace of discomfort on his face. He even wore a faint smile when his gaze met Lu Sili’s.
He said, “No objections.”
Lu Sili asked, “What about your side?”
Su Yuan tilted his head slightly, seeming a little embarrassed in front of the lawyer, and smiled. “All I have in my name is some savings, and not much of that. I’ve already given the proof to the lawyer.”
Lu Sili nodded and said nothing more. Even in school, it had been obvious that Su Yuan came from an ordinary family. At Yingnan No. 3 High School, where most students came from relatively comfortable homes, his family had even seemed somewhat strapped for money. Lu Sili had almost never seen him take part in extracurricular activities.
He had spoken even less back then. In short…
Lu Sili gave an inward, helpless laugh. Whenever he remembered the school-age Su Yuan, no matter what aspect he thought about, the man had simply been boring.
He fit every stereotype people had about Betas.
By the time they finished signing the agreement, it was nearly eleven. The subway had long since stopped running, so Lu Sili drove Su Yuan back to the doctors’ dormitory at Municipal Hospital.
“Do you want to find somewhere to eat?” Su Yuan asked.
Lu Sili kept driving. “No.”
Su Yuan thought about trying to persuade him again, then felt he did not really have the standing yet and closed his mouth.
The doctors’ dormitory at Municipal Hospital was right beside the hospital. Lu Sili had grown up wealthy and had no idea what doctors’ dormitories were like. His mind supplied images from films and television, and he guessed that a communal dormitory would not be especially comfortable.
If Su Yuan moved into his place after the marriage, he would probably be much more comfortable. The only problem was that commuting to work would be inconvenient. He would need a car.
“Do you have a driver’s license?” Lu Sili asked casually.
Caught off guard by the abrupt question, Su Yuan paused before saying, “Yes. I got it in university.”
Lu Sili hummed in acknowledgment and kept driving.
As they neared the doctors’ dormitory, Lu Sili felt a faint cramp in his abdomen. He guessed that his stomach was acting up because he had barely eaten properly today.
He endured it in silence, planning to cook some noodles when he got home. There seemed to be dumplings his grandmother had made in the freezer too.
“What’s wrong?”
They had already reached the entrance to the dormitory when Su Yuan suddenly asked.
“Hm?” Lu Sili heard the urgency in Su Yuan’s voice and turned to look at him. The moment he stopped concentrating on driving, the twisting pain in his stomach struck him with full force.
Lu Sili took a deep breath. “I’m fine. When I get home, I’ll…”
Su Yuan pulled a tissue from the box and reached toward Lu Sili’s forehead. Lu Sili instinctively tried to pull away, but there was only so much room inside the car.
Su Yuan spread the tissue he had wiped across Lu Sili’s forehead over his palm. “You’re sweating a lot. Your lips have gone completely pale.”
“I…” Lu Sili tried to argue, but a wave of dizziness cut him off.
It felt exactly like the moments before his previous fainting spells.
Lu Sili looked up at Su Yuan and finally admitted through gritted teeth, “I don’t feel well. There’s medicine in the first-aid kit on the back seat.”
Of the three times he had fainted this year, the first two had happened at home. Through his hazy consciousness, Lu Sili had called his private physician, Luke. The third time had been outside a shopping mall, where a kind auntie shrieked in alarm and put him into an ambulance.
This time, he was in the driver’s seat.
It happened far too quickly. Li Ya had once asked him what fainting felt like, and Lu Sili had always said it was like being clubbed over the head. But that was not really true. He would clearly be standing or sitting, yet his body would suddenly feel an overwhelming sense of weightlessness. No matter how hard he tried to keep his eyes open, everything before him turned black, as though he were falling into an endless abyss. More frightening than the physical discomfort was the panic of having nothing to grasp and no control over himself.
This time, it felt as though he managed to grab hold of something, although Lu Sili could no longer open his eyes to see what it was.
Half an hour later, Lu Sili was lying on an unfamiliar bed. The sheets and duvet cover were a boring light gray. On the pale wooden bedside table sat a tray holding the sedative medication and stomach medicine Lu Sili commonly used.
The room was not large, but it was clean, tidy, and warm.
An old poster was still stuck to the wall above the bed, covered with a drawing of a skeleton and densely packed writing, probably related to Su Yuan’s field.
Imagining Su Yuan lying in bed studying something like that made Lu Sili smile despite himself.
He really was a little slow. Earnest, but kind of dumb.
The next second, Lu Sili felt guilty for thinking that.
How could an orthopedic doctor at Municipal Hospital be dumb? And despite being an orthopedist, when an Omega became unwell, Su Yuan had quickly figured out what was happening, moved that damned frail Omega into the back seat, driven him downstairs, prepared the right medication, and given him an injection.
Maybe his brain kept developing after he grew up. He seems pretty smart now, Lu Sili thought.
Lu Sili closed his eyes and breathed quietly, feeling some restless factor inside his body gradually settle.
By his calculations, his heat should already have ended.
But thinking back over the last few days, he had been busy with the year-end gala and had met far too many people. He had met with a business partner that morning and had sensed an Alpha in rut at the time. Perhaps that had affected him.
After resting for a while, he heard a soft knock at the door.
Lu Sili sat up. Su Yuan had placed a clean pair of cotton slippers beside the bed. He put them on and went to open the door.
“Dinner’s ready. Do you want to eat a little?” Su Yuan asked.
Lu Sili, who had been looking at Su Yuan, turned his head slightly away to suppress the urge to laugh. “Okay.”
Of course Su Yuan could tell he was holding back laughter.
He immediately looked down and, sure enough, he was wearing that pretty-girl apron! He had been in such a rush to cook that he had simply grabbed an apron and put it on.
Su Yuan gave an awkward, fake smile. He took the apron off while turning toward the living room. “My little sister gave me this, so…”
“It’s fine.” Lu Sili smiled. “It’s cute.”
The doctors’ dormitory was not nearly as small as Lu Sili had imagined. It had one bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and even a decent-sized balcony.
It was not exactly spacious either. The dining table was small enough that three or four plates nearly filled it.
At Su Yuan’s direction, Lu Sili sat down.
On the table were pumpkin millet porridge, stir-fried choy sum, soft scrambled eggs, and sliced peaches.
Su Yuan had even plated everything nicely.
Lu Sili looked up at him. “Thank you. I’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”
Su Yuan handed him a spoon. “Not at all. Eat. Don’t force yourself to eat a lot. Just have as much as you can.”
He accompanied him with a small bowl of food himself.
Everything was light. Lu Sili ate half the vegetables and finished the pumpkin millet porridge. It was rich and smooth, and the tight discomfort in his stomach eased quickly.
Feeling much better, Lu Sili glanced at the pretty-girl apron tossed onto the sofa and brought up the subject himself. “You mentioned having a younger sister. I never asked. How old is she?”
Su Yuan said, “Fifteen. She’s in her first year of high school.”
Lu Sili nodded, then realized something. “So when you were in high school, your sister had only just been born?”
“Mm, but she’s my aunt and uncle’s child.”
Confusion showed on Lu Sili’s face.
Su Yuan explained, “I was adopted by my aunt and uncle. My aunt is much younger than my mother, so she was a normal childbearing age when my sister was born.”
Lu Sili lowered his eyes awkwardly and picked up some food.
Su Yuan smiled. “You don’t need to feel sorry for bringing up something painful. I think I’ve been very lucky. My aunt, uncle, and sister have all treated me very well.”
Lu Sili looked up. Seeing Su Yuan smiling, he finally smiled too. “That’s good. I should head home.”
Su Yuan understood that Lu Sili would not stay overnight in this little apartment and offered to drive him home, but Lu Sili refused.
“I don’t feel comfortable letting you go alone,” Su Yuan said seriously.
Lu Sili genuinely did not want to trouble him. He thought of a way that would spare Su Yuan the trip while putting him at ease. “Then how about I keep you on the phone until I get home?”
After saying it, Lu Sili looked at Su Yuan with puzzlement in his eyes.
Was the heating in the apartment too strong? Why was Su Yuan blushing?