Su Yuan was so startled that his body went rigid and his breathing stopped for two whole seconds. His alcohol-fogged brain could not figure out how to face the fact that Lu Sili had caught him pretending to read because he was too embarrassed to get into bed.
The entire house was silent until Su Yuan heard Lu Sili quietly laughing.
His shoulders shook with laughter, and the blanket slipped down a little, leaving the side of his face completely exposed as he tried to stifle his amusement.
It was a dry winter night after the snow. The moon hung in the sky, silver-white moonlight spilling faintly into the room. Suddenly, Su Yuan no longer felt embarrassed.
He reached over and tucked the blanket back around Lu Sili.
“Good night,” Su Yuan said gently.
Because he knew it was fake, because he knew Su Yuan would never do anything that crossed the line, Lu Sili could sleep beside him with complete peace of mind.
Lu Sili vaguely remembered that night when his suppressants failed. Su Yuan had looked at him with complicated eyes and told him, very clearly, that he was Su Yuan.
Lu Sili slept until almost noon and was a little surprised when he saw the time on his phone.
The last time he had slept this late had probably been when he was still a student.
Su Yuan was already gone from the bedroom. Lu Sili got up to change clothes, only to discover that the cashmere sweater he had brought had somehow come apart under the arm.
He had only packed enough for two days and had not brought many clothes, so Lu Sili had no choice but to open the wardrobe and see if there was anything inside he could still wear.
He had gone abroad right after graduating from high school and returned only three or four times in between. After moving back to China for work, he had moved out immediately, so there were hardly any adult clothes left here.
After searching for a while, he picked out a hoodie.
It was grayish-white and loose, printed with blue-green English lettering. It had been exactly the kind of thing he loved wearing as a student.
Because he had differentiated into an Omega, Lu Sili had not grown much taller afterward. The hoodie had been oversized back then, but fit him quite well now.
He was only wearing it at home anyway. Anything was fine.
The moment he opened the bedroom door, he heard voices downstairs. Lu Sili remembered that they were supposed to make dumplings on the first day of the lunar New Year and hurried down the spiral staircase.
His maternal grandparents had bought the villa when they got married. At the time, his grandfather’s family had been fairly well-off, and the house had been a wedding gift jointly provided by both families.
Back then, Grandma had still been a young woman dreaming about a beautiful marriage and had wanted to live in a castle with a spiral staircase. Grandpa had hired someone to build one into the villa even though the house itself was not particularly large.
Grandma treasured the house and maintained it carefully. Many of the wooden furnishings had actually grown richer with age.
Including the stair rail that Lu Sili had polished smooth with his hands since childhood.
“Grandma!” Lu Sili called from upstairs.
Hearing his voice, Su Yuan looked up. Lu Sili was lightly running his hand over the railing as he came briskly down the stairs. Su Yuan recognized the hoodie immediately as something Lu Sili had worn in high school. He remembered looking it up after seeing Lu Sili wear it back then. It had cost nearly a thousand yuan, far beyond what Su Yuan could afford at the time.
Even then, Su Yuan had thought the hoodie looked wonderful on him. The teenage Lu Sili had been full of bright energy, his still-growing, beautiful body filling out the oversized clothes in a way that looked casual and cute.
For a moment, Su Yuan felt disoriented, almost as if he were looking at sixteen-year-old Lu Sili again.
Only this time, the version of himself standing in front of Lu Sili was no longer so dim and insignificant.
“What are you spacing out for?”
Su Yuan came back to himself. “Nothing. I put too much filling in this one.”
Lu Sili sat beside Su Yuan and tried to help wrap dumplings, only for Grandma to smack his hand away. “Go wash your hands first. There’s bird’s nest being kept warm in the kitchen. Eat some before you come back.”
“Okay.” Lu Sili stood.
As he turned toward the kitchen, he heard Grandma mutter, “Lili looks about twenty dressed like that. Makes him look so young,” and everyone burst out laughing.
Lu Sili turned back and saw them chatting and laughing together while wrapping dumplings. For a moment, it looked like the happy family from before his parents divorced.
Thinking about how difficult it was even to make a phone call now made his nose sting slightly.
He turned on the faucet and washed his hands.
I wonder what Mom is doing right now. Do they have dumplings at the base on the first day of the New Year?
After lunch, the sun was out. The family went for a walk, and while strolling through the park they saw children eating candied hawthorn skewers.
Grandma sighed. “I haven’t eaten those in years. So strawberries can be candied too.”
“I’ll make tanghulu for everyone. We’ve got nothing else to do this afternoon anyway,” Su Yuan said, then looked toward Lu Sili.
Lu Sili had worn a heavy down coat outside and had not expected the sunlight to feel so warm. His head felt almost dizzy from the heat.
He said blankly, “I don’t know how to make them.”
Su Yuan smiled gently. “I’ll make them. We just need to buy some hawthorn. There are strawberries and blueberries at home already.”
“Okay. I’ll go with you. You don’t even know where the supermarkets around here are.”
Fiona and Grandma went home, while Lu Sili and Su Yuan headed down the hill to find a supermarket.
They had not brought the car keys. Since it was only a short distance, they decided to walk, which counted as exercise anyway.
“Are you hot?” Su Yuan asked.
Lu Sili hummed. “But I don’t dare take this off. I’m only wearing a T-shirt and hoodie underneath.”
Hearing that, Su Yuan took off his flight jacket. “Wear mine. I’ll carry yours.”
“What about you?”
Su Yuan lifted one corner of his sweater slightly and showed Lu Sili the ultra-thin down vest underneath. “I’ve got this.”
“…” Lu Sili pressed his lips together, trying not to laugh.
The kind of little trick where someone dressed warmly without ruining the look of an outfit was extremely domestic.
“It’s really warm,” Su Yuan insisted.
“I know.”
The fresh-food supermarket was well stocked. They bought everything they needed, and each of them carried a bag when they came out.
They had barely stepped outside when Lu Sili’s phone rang.
It was Situ He.
Lu Sili showed the screen to Su Yuan, then answered. “Hello.”
Their previous conversation had gone badly. Now that Lu Sili also knew Situ He’s father had begun interfering, he did not have high expectations for this call. He had already passed information to the media and planned to use public pressure.
Unexpectedly, Situ He began in a respectful, humble tone. “I’m sorry, Lu Sili. I’m calling to apologize.”
Something felt off. Lu Sili frowned slightly. “Not enough.”
Situ He said, “Where are you? I’ll come find you.”
Lu Sili turned to Su Yuan, wanting his opinion. Su Yuan usually handled things steadily, and Lu Sili expected him to say that Situ He’s sudden change in attitude was suspicious. Instead, Su Yuan nodded decisively.
“Okay. I’ll go with you,” Su Yuan said quietly.
Lu Sili still felt uneasy. He could not let Situ He come to Grandma’s house. Looking around, he spotted a parking lot under renovation to the right. Work had stopped for the holiday, so no one was there, but surveillance cameras covered the area densely.
“I’ll send you the address.” Lu Sili hung up after saying that.
“There’s something I want to tell you honestly,” Su Yuan suddenly said.
They walked slowly toward the parking lot. Lu Sili was still thinking that something abnormal usually meant trouble, so he turned to ask, “What?”
“First, I owe you an apology,” Su Yuan said.
Lu Sili stopped. “For what? Why are you acting so strange?”
Su Yuan pressed his lips together slightly, then looked up at Lu Sili. “Actually, your mother stepped in.”
“What?” Lu Sili did not understand. “Who told her? You? How could you even contact her?”
Seeing Lu Sili getting worked up, Su Yuan instinctively reached over and gently touched his shoulder.
“I told Fiona. I was really worried about this, but after thinking and thinking, I realized I genuinely didn’t have a better way to solve it than you did. So Fiona contacted your mother. There was no response for the first couple of days. She only replied yesterday.”
“I see,” Lu Sili said flatly.
Su Yuan had expected him to get angry and had been nervously waiting for a reaction. He had not expected only those two calm words.
From the beginning, both Su Yuan and Fiona had known Lu Sili disliked people handling things this way. But neither of them wanted to see him suffer. Perhaps Lu Sili had his own way of dealing with it, but the process itself was hurting him too.
“Sorry,” Su Yuan said heavily.
“You don’t need to apologize.” Lu Sili smiled faintly. “It’s fine. What did my mom say? Did she tell you something last night?”
Seeing that Lu Sili truly did not seem angry, Su Yuan relaxed a little. “Auntie told me she had made some calls and worked through her connections. She told me to stay with you more so you wouldn’t get upset. And she wished me a happy New Year.”
Lu Sili lowered his eyes slightly, lost in thought.
Su Yuan said, “One phone call and Situ He immediately came to apologize. Does Auntie hold a very high military rank?”
Lu Sili looked up at him, lips curved in a smile and eyes narrowing with unmistakable pride. “Very.”
At that moment, the pride in his eyes was so obvious that Su Yuan became certain: despite the distance between Lu Sili and his mother on the surface, Lu Sili loved her.
Situ He arrived faster than Lu Sili expected. Wang Shen came with him.
Situ He’s whole family had evidently been warned. He arrived heavily disguised to apologize to Lu Sili, only to find that Lu Sili had asked him to come to a small road beside an abandoned parking lot.
Situ He had brought his company boss along, while Lu Sili and his husband were dressed casually and carrying supermarket bags.
He was still unhappy, but he also understood that even if his entire family were added together, they still could not afford to offend Lu Sili.
He had known Lu Sili for two years and never realized that Lu Sili’s parents could make one phone call and have a commander personally warn the Situ family.
“Lu Sili.”
Lu Sili and Su Yuan were afraid the fruit would get dirty if they put the bags down, so they kept holding them. Situ He had barely spoken before, without hesitation, he dropped to his knees with a thud.
“That day, my intentions weren’t pure. I really did forget my suppressant, and when I saw you were there too, I deliberately followed you into the restroom and removed my blocking patch.”
Situ He spoke smoothly. He had clearly rehearsed the wording. Looking up at Lu Sili, he said, “I’m sorry. It was my fault. I’m willing to accept punishment.”
Lu Sili took a tiny step backward toward Su Yuan, almost as though the sight disgusted him.
“Then turn yourself in. Tell them you deliberately released highly aggressive Alpha pheromones in a public place.”
“Lu Sili.” Pleading entered Situ He’s eyes. “I really know I was wrong. Please let me off. I’ve got two films competing for awards next year. You know that.”
Su Yuan gave a quiet laugh.
Lu Sili paused almost imperceptibly, then continued speaking to Situ He. “When you decided to rip off your blocking patch in that restroom, you should have known there would be consequences.”
People constantly shouted about ABO equality, but in reality the balance of rights among Alphas, Betas, and Omegas had become increasingly sensitive. A popular celebrity deliberately releasing highly aggressive pheromones in public could dominate trending topics for days.
And Situ He’s family background was almost completely transparent. A scandal like this would affect more than Situ He himself. It could hit his family’s businesses too.
“I’m sorry!” Situ He suddenly slapped himself across the face.
Both Lu Sili and Su Yuan were startled. Seeing them react, Situ He immediately started slapping himself repeatedly.
Lu Sili frowned. “Enough!”
Situ He said, “Don’t call the police…”
Watching Situ He like this made Lu Sili feel sick. He did not answer. He simply turned and said to Su Yuan, “Let’s go.”
Situ He remained kneeling behind them like a madman. Lu Sili and Su Yuan carried their grocery bags side by side, chatting as they slowly walked home.
“That’s it?”
“No. I already gave the story to the media.”
“That’s probably for the best. If public opinion keeps Situ He under pressure, he won’t dare drag your name into it either.”
“Mm.” Lu Sili nodded, then suddenly remembered something and turned to Su Yuan. “What were you laughing at just now?”
Su Yuan smiled a little sheepishly.
“Situ He made it sound like if you didn’t retaliate against him, he’d definitely win those awards.”
Lu Sili laughed.
“What are you laughing at…”
“I just think you can be pretty sharp-tongued sometimes.”