63

Having uttered this one venomous sentence, Qu Moyu slammed the door and left.

Shen Dai, with no time to piece together his repeatedly shattered heart, hurried to the bedroom to check on Qiuqiu.

Qiuqiu had already cried so much that he couldn't stop hiccupping, his face streaked with tears and snot, looking extremely pitiful.

Cradling his neck and carefully carrying him into his arms, Shen Dai gently patted his back. “Be good, Daddy’s here, don’t be scared, don’t be scared.”

The pheromones released by Shen Dai soothed Qiuqiu's emotions, and gradually the sound of his crying turned from wails to whimpers. His little body twitched, his cheeks turned red, and tiny droplets clung to his long eyelashes.

After wiping Qiuqiu's face with a tissue, Shen Dai cleaned the tear and snot stains off his clothes. But the more he tried to wipe them away, the more the teardrops kept falling. His vision became blurry. Opening his eyes wide, he quickly wiped them away.

He told himself that this was nothing. Whether it was the pain of removing the mark without anaesthesia, the two months during his pregnancy when he vomited everything he ate, the pain and discomfort all over his body, the sadness of attending the prenatal checkups alone, or the hundred nights after Qiuqiu was born when he was unable to get a full night's sleep, all of it was more painful than Qu Moyu's few words, and yet he had gotten through it all, through the period of his life when his body and mind were at their weakest. He had someone to protect at all costs, and from now on, there was nothing that could knock him down again.

He stayed up most of the evening without sleeping. Qiuqiu's mood was very erratic; he would cry until he was hungry and wanted milk. When he was full, he would sleep, but within two hours he would wake up and cry again, repeating the cycle over and over throughout the night.

Shen Dai was physically and emotionally drained, managing only to catch a few brief naps here and there until Xiao Die returned at noon.

She was shocked to find him with dark, puffy eyes and a dejected look on his face: "Shen Laoshi, what happened?" she asked, "Did Qiuqiu wake up crying at night again?"

Shen Dai nodded: "I’ve ordered some food in. Once you’ve finished eating, help me watch over Qiuqiu for a while, alright? I’d like to get a bit of sleep.”

“Alright. Quickly finish eating so that you can head straight to bed.”

Though he was hungry, he couldn’t eat. The takeaway food was too oily and full of spices, making it hard to swallow.

"Shen Laoshi, didn’t you use Bai Laoshi’s pheromone essential oil? Isn’t it able to pacify him?”

"I did, but sometimes it just doesn't work." Shen Dai had no way of telling her that Qiuqiu had been frightened by his own biological father. How ironic. The pheromones of an alpha father, which were meant to provide comfort and support during a child's development, had instead induced fear in the child.

"That's troublesome. What will happen to Qiuqiu if Bai Laoshi's pheromones stop working in the future?”

Deep down, Shen Dai also had his worries, but what could be done at present anyway?

Realising that she shouldn’t have brought it up, Xiao Die quickly changed the subject: "Shen Laoshi, you know, I was so mad today."

"What happened?"

“In the morning, we had an internal meeting at our Research Institute. At first, I was pretty excited about it because the seat I had was quite close to the Crown Prince. Wow, the guy is so tall and handsome in person, with such a commanding presence, truly worthy of being called a top Alpha!”

Shen Dai stiffened for a moment.

"But he was acting strangely today, I got the sense that he was intentionally nitpicking, almost as if he were trying to make things difficult for Professor Bai."

"..."

"The day before yesterday, at the project seminar, the Crown Prince praised Professor Bai and our institute in front of Yan Mingxiu and the media, every sentence was more flattering than the last. But today, with just our people around, some of his comments were clearly barbed. When Professor Liu tried to speak up for Bai Laoshi, the Crown Prince nearly put the Professor on the spot. I don’t get it. Was he purposely trying to demonstrate his power?”

With an impassive expression, Shen Dai set down his bowl and chopsticks. He almost couldn’t believe that Qu Moyu, a man who placed so much importance on his career, would exploit his authority to settle personal scores. You had to know that an academic giant like his professor was highly respected everywhere. And Bai Xiangwan, despite being young, was also a superstar in the industry, a talent sought after by every institution. Why would Qu Moyu embarrass him in front of everybody?

Xiao Die sighed, “It’s difficult to figure out what the boss is thinking. Bai Laoshi has it tough.”

He realised that Qu Moyu’s fury was more intense than he had imagined. If it hadn’t been for him, neither the professor nor Bai Shixiong would have had to suffer this outburst of anger.

He had to consider his next step. Once Qu Moyu came back to his senses, he would no doubt start to question Qiuqiu’s history. With such an implausible timeline, all it would take was a little bit of investigating for the truth to come out.

What would Qu Moyu do if he found out that Qiuqiu was his child?

He didn’t dare imagine, nor did he have any way of predicting. The only thing he needed to do was to stay far away from Qu Moyu, and prevent any harm this person might cause to his child.

Later that evening, Shen Dai received a call from Liu Xi. His intuition told him that it had something to do with the meeting this morning.

As expected, Liu Xi started hesitantly, “A-Dai, is President Qu aware that you’re here?”

Shen Dai thought to himself: Not only is he aware, but he even tailed you yesterday evening to my place. However, for the moment, he wasn't able to tell the professor. Telling him would solve nothing and might instead make him feel responsible. "What makes you think that?” he asked.

“During our internal meeting this morning, he kept bringing up Xiangwan’s faults. It was making things a little unpleasant. In the evening he asked me to dinner alone saying he wanted to catch up, likely because he wanted to make up for today. But over dinner, he asked me about you.”

Shen Dai caught his breath: "What did he say?”

“He didn’t ask me outright. Just talked about if we still needed to keep your position, that sort of thing. He was obviously trying to probe me.”

”I’m sorry to put you in this position,” replied Shen Dai, a low voice.

"Don't worry. Even if he finds out I helped you get settled down here, he won't do anything to me. But you need to be careful. Qiuqiu is an illegitimate child, and for families like theirs, he is a potential minefield that could involve many interests.”

“I understand.”

This phone call left Shen Dai once again unable to get a good night's sleep. For him, the best choice now would have been to stay and work at the institute in Lancheng. However, the sudden arrival of Qu Moyu had made this road an impasse. On one hand, he wanted to provide Qiuqiu with a stable life, on the other, he constantly worried about his grandmother. Perhaps he should just return to Beijing and look for a new job.

The partnership between the Starship Corporation and Longke Heavy Industries had officially been signed. On Monday, most of the staff at the institute had been taken by bus to a mining area about sixty kilometres away to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony.

Bai Xiangwan had sent over a few photos from the site to him. There was a sense of pride and satisfaction in his words. This was a significant accomplishment in his professional career and he was extremely hopeful about the project’s future.

Though Qu Moyu's figure inevitably appeared in the photos, Shen Dai did his best to ignore it and offered Bai Xiangwan his sincere congratulations.

All of a sudden, Bai Xiangwan made a voice call to him.

The call connected. It was very quiet on the other end. Bai Xiangwan's voice sounded a little tired: "I've been up since five or six in the morning. The meeting finally ended. I'm in the lounge now."

"You must be exhausted," Shen Dai laughed. "It might get even busier once the project starts."

"It's not the busyness that bothers me, it's wasting time on these useless meetings," Bai Xiangwan yawned. "I've been hosting non-stop these past few days and haven't even had the chance to visit you... and Qiuqiu. How is Qiuqiu? Does he still wake up in the middle of the night crying?"

"He’s doing much better now. Your pheromone essential oil was very helpful."

"That's good to hear. The mine is a bit far from the city, so we'll be staying here tonight. Xiao Die's phone ran out of battery, she just asked me to let you know."

"Alright, we'll celebrate when you get back. Shixiong, once again, congratulations."

"I hope you'll be involved in this project. I've also spoken with the teacher. Once things settle down, let’s sort out your transfer."

Shen Dai was quiet for two seconds before replying softly, "Yeah, let’s talk about it again once things have settled down.”

Xiao Die was not coming back today, while Qiuqiu, who was unusually well-behaved, had already fallen asleep around nine o'clock. Shen Dai took this rare bit of alone time to properly update and reorganise his resume. After working until almost eleven, he, too, started to feel sleepy. Having freshened up, he had just made up his mind to go to bed when the doorbell suddenly rang.

His heart quickly started to race along with the tempo of the doorbell. Who would come calling at such an hour? He was afraid that it could only be…

Jumping down from the bed, he started to pace back and forth anxiously before the bedroom door. He had a hunch about it, and didn’t even want to go see who it was outside. But to let the doorbell go on ringing would wake Qiuqiu up. With no other choice, he walked over to look through the peephole. Sure enough, there was Qu Moyu standing at the door.

The dim corridor, the distorted figure in the lens, and the tall man wrapped in a black overcoat, threw into sharp relief the setting of a horror movie, or at least, if you asked Shen Dai, for Qu Moyu to show up was terrifying enough. He turned around, back towards the door, adjusting his breathing to be even.

The sound of the doorbell also stopped.

The both of them stood on opposite sides of the door, each aware of the other’s thoughts, silently waiting.

A long while passed before Qu Moyu’s voice called out, “Just open the door. I don’t want to disturb the neighbours.”

Shen Dai forced himself to calm down: “Promise me that you’re not going to scare my child.”

Clenching his fist, Qu Moyu replied in a low voice, “I won’t. I just want to talk.”

He had no choice but to open the door.

Qu Moyu stepped into the house uninvited, just as pompously as the last time. Travel-worn from head to toe, he brought with him the chill of an early spring night trapped between his sleeves which made Shen Dai shiver.

Shen Dai stood to the side, his guard up, looking on as Qu Moyu removed his overcoat, tossed it onto the sofa, and sat down naturally as if in his own home.

“Sit down,” ordered Qu Moyu, gesturing with his chin at the armchair beside him.

Shen Dai felt a chilling terror as he slowly walked over and took a seat.

Qu Moyu placed the document folder he was holding on the coffee table. No emotion could be discerned from his face, and his tone was mild, yet his pitch-black, deep pupils—as depthless as whirlpools—were fixed on Shen Dai. His slight lean forward was enough to instill a fear in Shen Dai akin to being stalked by a wild beast

He signalled with his eyes for Shen Dai to take a look at it.

Shen Dai picked it up and slowly drew out the papers inside. When the characters 'Shen Yue' came into view, he felt a chill in his blood and his movements stiffened.

Shen Yue was Qiuqiu’s legal name.

"I checked his date of birth. He is my son. If you won't acknowledge it, we’ll do a paternity test.” Qu Moyu raised his chin slightly, projecting authority without anger, and created an aura like a crossbow bolt drawn on the string yet held back from firing, even he himself did not realise that this was the posture he habitually adopted at the negotiation table.Neither hurriedly nor slowly, he added, "You owe me a lot of explanations.”