13

There was an issue with the network in the laboratory that day which needed some troubleshooting, so Shen Dai had the rare opportunity to leave early from work. As he had gotten to know Auntie Lan better, he would occasionally suggest a few dishes that he liked. After several days of eating takeout food in a row, he was looking forward to trying the culinary skills of the Qu family’s head chef.

Except the instant he walked through the door, he felt the atmosphere was a little out of the ordinary.

Seated in the living room was an exceedingly beautiful lady with an air of elegance and refinement. She wore a black dress and a necklace of luminous pearls. Her hair was swept back into a chignon, without a strand out of place. Though she wore a touch of light makeup, it did little to diminish her natural radiance. Like your quintessential noblewoman who had just stepped out of an oil painting.

He only needed one look to guess that this was Qu Moyu’s mother.

The moment he stepped into the room, everyone was giving him peculiar looks that were hard to put into words. It was as if he had accidentally intruded into a completely foreign setting; his presence there was bewildering.

Although he knew everyone there, her appearance as the mistress of the house caused the room's entire magnetic field to centre around her.

“You must be Shen Dai, right?”, she remarked with a slight smile.

“Good evening,” he replied, bowing slightly. “Mrs Qu.”

“Come over and have a seat.”

He had rarely used the sofa in the living room. Its cream-coloured high-grade leather looked impeccably clean, the sort that seemed likely to pick up a stain at the slightest touch. The backpack he had carried since university was still sturdy and serviceable, but years of use had left it worn and somewhat dingy. When he sat down, he placed it at his feet.

He noticed subtle expressions of concern on Uncle Heng and Auntie Lan's faces.

Mrs Qu's bright eyes swept over him, sizing him up in an instant: “You’re already twenty-seven? You look really young, more like a university student.”

He smiled.

“And you work at the Research Institute? Getting into the Research Institute at Starship is not easy. Do you have a master's degree or a doctorate?”

"A master’s, but I’ve been preparing for my doctorate for the last two years."

“For an Omega to achieve so much is really impressive. Who else is there in your family?”

“Just my grandmother on my mother’s side.” In his heart, he had already written his missing father off as dead.

“Ah”, she replied, slowly taking in a sip of tea. “And what about your pheromone grade?”

“B-class.”

"That's not very high," she remarked, her voice remaining warm and gentle throughout. "It's almost impossible to produce a top alpha."

“That’s true.”

He had always regarded pheromone grading with disdain. Unlike alphas, omegas were graded largely on their reproductive potential. Physical fitness, intelligence, talent, and even genetic health - qualities that ought to matter to every human being - were somehow treated as optional considerations instead. Unfortunately, tying an omega's worth to their fertility was a tradition that ran throughout the entirety of human history. 

He believed himself to be more intelligent, healthier, and more diligent than most people. While his unstable gland had left him with low fertility,  it didn’t bother him in the least. Since he didn't agree with this classification system, he naturally didn't feel inferior because of it.

Seeing his indifferent expression, Mrs Qu appeared slightly surprised.

“It doesn’t bother you?”

“Not really," he replied, thinking to himself: My pheromone grade has nothing to do with your family anyway.

She smiled. “I know that you and Moyu don’t have a conventional marriage, but you are both living together now, and you know how it is with young people, your paths are bound to cross, it's hard to avoid certain thoughts. What’s more, Moyu has always been very…”

She used a deliberately vague term: “…charming.”

As expected, yet another person coming to warn him. Did they really think him capable of seducing or coercing an S-class Alpha? Being treated as if he were a thief really brought his sense of humiliation and discomfort to a peak.

During the three months he was married to Qu Moyu, he had not even attempted to do anything, and yet he had been warned on separate occasions by everyone, both openly and subtly by Lawyer Chen, Qu Moyu himself, You Boyue, Uncle Heng, and Mrs Qu, against coveting someone far beyond his reach.

He knew he wasn’t worthy, but he wasn’t deluding himself either.

Each time his self-respect took a hit, he could only comfort himself. He was earning money, right? No shame in it.

Uncle Heng and Auntie Lan, standing off to the side, sent him reassuring glances. He returned a barely perceptible nod, looked straight into Mrs Qu's eyes and said, "I have nothing but the utmost respect for President Qu, but the relationship we have, whether at the office or at home, is strictly one of employee and employer."

There was a dazed sadness in her eyes. She replied, “I don’t have any malice towards you. Only, this is not a world that an ordinary Omega can assimilate into.”

It was at that moment that Qu Moyu returned home. His footsteps were hurried, echoing loudly on the tiled floor. It wasn’t normal for anyone to be in that much of a hurry upon reaching home. Unless...something was up.

“Mother.” The instant Qu Moyu saw his mother he visibly adjusted his breath, “How is it that you’re* back?”

Mrs Qu nimbly tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “My son got married and I wasn’t even informed about it. Why can’t I come back to meet my daughter-in-law? “

Qu Moyu gave Shen Dai a look: “Go back to your room.”

Shen Dai was on the verge of getting up when Mrs Qu stopped him. “It’s fine, stay and chat for a while.”

He who pays calls the shots, so of course Shen Dai followed Qu Moyu's direction. After getting to his feet, he gave a slight bow, then turned and left.

Mrs Qu took no offence and only shook her head gently: “I thought you were going to marry Xiao Yue.”

“Xiao Yue has always liked Chengchen, you knew that.”

“Oh? So you both still concern yourselves with the matter of ‘liking'?” replied Mrs Qu, a distinct note of sarcasm in her voice.

That was the last part of the conversation Shen Dai heard as he reached the top of the stairs. He could not help but be surprised. Had You Boyue always liked Qu Chengchen? Though he supposed one could count liking Qu Chengchen’s mark as ‘liking’ him, it appeared that what Qu Moyu was referring to was the more worldly and literal definition of the word ‘like’. Then again, the question that Mrs Qu asked in response was also worth pondering.

・・・    

Shen Dai returned to his bedroom, only feeling safe as soon as he shut the door. It wasn't merely that he was unable to assimilate into the world of top alphas, even his room felt as though it existed in a different dimension from the rest of the villa, though every night he still had to pry apart a gap in time and space to watch Qu Moyu secretly.

He worked deep into the night and yet was still as wide awake as before; that constant feeling of being on edge due to Mrs Qu’s sudden arrival had yet to vanish.

After some hesitation, he decided to go for a swim in the heated pool.

Normally, he wouldn't dare use the pool. Even before he moved in, Uncle Heng had made it clear that he should avoid crossing paths with Qu Moyu as much as possible. But at this hour, Qu Moyu must have already gone to bed.

With a bathrobe wrapped around himself, he headed downstairs, estimating that he'd need to swim at least two kilometres. That should be enough to tire him out. After that, he was sure to fall asleep. 

After setting his phone down on a coffee table, he took off his bathrobe and started warming up. But just as he had finished a set of stretches, the lift door opened. To his shock, Qu Moyu walked out wearing only a pair of swimming trunks.

Qu Moyu was also startled for a moment.

He had the physique of a sculpture: slender and defined. More muscular than his clothes revealed, his proportions were perfectly balanced, especially at one, crucial spot, which bulged appealingly beneath the elastic fabric - a figure that could truly be called perfect.

Shen Dai's brain went blank in an instant. He grabbed his bathrobe in a panic and tried to put it back on, but the solid colour made it difficult to tell which side was up. The more he scrambled, the less he could find it, making him look particularly undignified.

Qu Moyu couldn't help but laugh.

Shen Dai's face turned as red as if it had been boiled. Finally figuring out where the collar was, he quickly put the bathrobe on and tightened the belt with such force as if to punish himself for his own stupidity.

“Are you planning to swim in your bathrobe?” Qu Moyu teased, “It’s pretty good at soaking up water.”

“President Qu, please go ahead and enjoy yourself. I’m going back inside.”

Qu Moyu cocked his head and looked at him: “Are you afraid of me?”

Shen Dai didn't dare look at him at all: “Uncle Heng said you didn’t like being disturbed.”

Qu Moyu responded with a vague sound of agreement, then headed towards the pool. Just as he was passing Shen Dai, he once again caught the faint note of the epiphyllum.

The blooming of the epiphyllum was so unpredictable and fleeting. Its scent was unlike that of rose or lavender, which could leave complete memories in people’s minds. Everyone could recognise the scent of roses and lavenders, or form a distinct olfactory image in their minds just by their names. However, the epiphyllum - too rarely seen and for too short a time - was a scent that few could distinguish.

Yet just one whiff of its enchanting fragrance, changing from delicate to rich, from demure to unrestrained as it went from bud to bloom, as if striving its hardest, exerting all its effort for that single act of blossoming, was enough to make anyone stop dead in their tracks.

He caught a glimpse of Shen Dai’s bare neck out of the corner of his eye. It was slender and fair, giving one the slight desire to ravage it.

Shen Dai had only just started toward the lift when Qu Moyu called out to him. As soon as he turned around, Qu Moyu plunged into the water with a splash, leaving him momentarily frozen, unsure whether to stay or leave.

After some time, Qu Moyu emerged from the water. Pushing his wet hair back as he leaned over the edge of the pool, he said, “You can’t see anything now. You don’t need to be nervous anymore.”

“……”

“There’s no need to take what my mother said to heart.”

“I won’t”,  said Shen Dai solemnly.

“Go back and get some rest then.”

Shen Dai turned to walk away but paused after taking two steps. Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his bathrobe, he turned back and said,  “President Qu?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t…” He summed up the courage to look directly at Qu Moyu and continued, “…have any intentions towards you outside the scope of our contract. You can rest assured." There's no need to send anyone else to embarrass me, whether you meant to or not.

Qu Moyu gazed at him, the ripples of the pool reflecting deep into his eyes, making his irises appear piercing and brilliant, as if there was nothing on earth they could not penetrate.

Smiling slightly, he replied, "Alright."