A full week had passed. The two of them were once again sitting face-to-face, eating together.

Lin Zhu had always been quiet and efficient when he ate. He held his spoon, eating the mini wontons one by one. In no time at all, he finished them completely, smoothly cleared away the packaging, and wiped down the table.

In contrast, there was Yan Ruoyun.
The man ate elegantly, chewing slowly and deliberately. By the time Lin Zhu had finished, the mini wontons in his bowl didn’t seem to have decreased by even a few. They were still crowded together, floating on the surface of the milky-white, fragrant bone broth.

“I’m full too.”
He put down his spoon and took a tissue to wipe his mouth.

“Ge, you’ve eaten too little…” Lin Zhu glanced into the bowl. “Do you not like this? Do you want me to go buy you something else?”

Yan Ruoyun shook his head. “I don’t have an appetite today.”
In reality, what he had just eaten was already forced down into his stomach. Whenever his heat came around, he always suffered from a loss of appetite, and his energy levels were much worse than usual.
But this was, after all, the meal his little boyfriend had brought for him, so he had to eat at least a little.

Lin Zhu frowned, staring closely at the man’s pale face. After hesitating for a few seconds, he still said,
“…It would be best if you ate a little more?”

Hearing this, Yan Ruoyun quietly looked back at the blond youth. After a long while, he lowered his eyes, picked up his spoon again, and said, “Then eat with me…”

Lin Zhu had tried to persuade him, but he hadn’t expected Yan Ruoyun to agree so lightly. A strange look flashed through his eyes, but his heart was filled with something soft.
There it was again.
That feeling of his heart being poked over and over.

He froze for a few seconds before hurriedly replying, “Okay, if you really can’t eat anymore, just give them to me…”
As soon as he finished speaking.
A spoon holding a mini wonton was held up in front of Lin Zhu.

The wonton wrapper was very thin, revealing the faint pink color of the meat after being cooked, garnished with a few finely chopped scallions. The broth was clear, making it look especially tempting under the light.
Yan Ruoyun held the lid under the spoon with his other hand to prevent the broth from dripping. Seeing his little boyfriend freezing up and not speaking again, his playful side suddenly flared up, and he deliberately drew out his words like coaxing a child.

“Lin Zhu, ah—”

Lin Zhu looked down at the spoon pressed against his lips. The tips of his ears suddenly felt a bit hot, but he still half-a-beat late opened his mouth and ate it.
Then, Yan Ruoyun scooped up another one and ate it himself.

This was even more intimate than when the two of them had hotpot together last time. While being fed by Yan Ruoyun, Lin Zhu recalled the campus couples he used to see in the cafeteria.
At that time, he completely didn’t understand the point of passing food back and forth like that. He only felt that it not only slowed down the pace of eating but also meant exchanging saliva, which seemed a bit unhygienic.

…Thinking about it now, it didn’t seem unhygienic at all? When he and Yan Ruoyun kissed, who knew how much of each other’s saliva they had swallowed; a simple feeding was nothing in comparison.

Thinking like this, Lin Zhu successfully shared the rest of the wontons in the bowl with Yan Ruoyun. During this process, the man took the opportunity to stuff many more into his mouth, making him feel a bit too full.

Just as they finished cleaning up, Dr. Xu happened to come in for ward rounds, holding an expedited lab report.
Lin Zhu took a step forward, standing seriously by the bed to listen to Dr. Xu explain the report. “President Yan, you still have one abnormal indicator. As I mentioned before… this might induce symptoms of indirect heat.”
“Fortunately, Mr. Lin is here. It’s best if you two don’t separate for the next few days. The duration of a temporary mark is already relatively short to begin with… President Yan, your body can no longer withstand a second high-intensity release of pheromones.”

Hearing his name, Lin Zhu nodded vigorously with a blank expression.
Yan Ruoyun appeared much calmer than him.

Before leaving, Dr. Xu added one more reminder:
“Oh right, Mr. Lin, I’ve booked you for a routine Alpha checkup tomorrow morning. It won’t take long, you can do it right downstairs. A nurse will come to guide you when it’s time.”
“President Yan, you also have a routine blood and urine test tomorrow morning, don’t forget…”

Click.
The ward door closed, and the lock clicked shut.
The room fell quiet for a moment.

It was getting late. Seeing the tired look on Yan Ruoyun’s face, Lin Zhu opened the drawer and took out the things he had bought earlier.
“Riiiip—”
He pulled out a pad.

Yan Ruoyun’s noble and aloof face instantly froze, and his tone even stiffened a bit. “…Lin Zhu, I am not sleeping on that.”
“Only cats and dogs that wet the bed use those.”
After saying this, not knowing what he had just thought of, he suddenly froze, his earlobes turning burning red.

Lin Zhu simply thought his older lover couldn’t let go of his pride. He pursed his lips and explained patiently, “Ge, you misunderstood. This isn’t a pee pad, it’s a nursing pad… I don’t think you’re going to wet the bed.”

The place he used to live had many stray cats, and in the middle of the night, he could always hear the sharp cries of feral cats in heat.
Feral cats are not like house cats; they are almost never spayed or neutered.
Because of this, whenever Lin Zhu found newborn kittens on the roadside or in some corner, they hadn’t even opened their eyes and had absolutely no ability to take care of themselves.
When fostering them temporarily, he had to line the bottom of the cardboard box with a pee pad.

It was exactly because of this that Lin Zhu had preconceived notions…
Sensing Yan Ruoyun’s disgust, he explained earnestly: “Ge, I’ll be sleeping on it with you tonight…”
Even though there was only one bed, due to various reasons, the two of them had to share a bed for the next few days.

In the end, Yan Ruoyun reluctantly let Lin Zhu spread a thin pad in the middle of the bed.
The cotton core faced up, with a waterproof stitched edge around it, while the bottom side was entirely made of waterproof material.
After laying it out, Lin Zhu turned around and put the remaining pad from the package back into the nightstand drawer.

There were other items in the drawer. For example, those few boxes that hadn’t been put to use before, or for example…
Lin Zhu gave a confused extra glance, picking up a third box that had appeared out of nowhere. He asked, puzzled, “Ge, what is this?”

As soon as he touched it, Lin Zhu felt that the cardboard box was practically empty, weighing almost nothing.
The box was completely square, and the outer plastic wrap was gone; it seemed someone had opened and used it.
The packaging design was exceptionally plain, without any extra text information, only a simple graphic printed on the front.
The graphic showed a completely transparent, hollow air-cushion ring. It seemed to be made of rubber, and it wasn’t clear what it was used for.

Full of doubt, Lin Zhu instinctively cast an inquiring look at his older lover.
Receiving his gaze, Yan Ruoyun: “…………”
He felt that his face wasn’t just burning, it was going numb.

Yan Ruoyun couldn’t help but raise a hand to touch the side of his face near his temple, feigning composure. “It’s nothing, just put it back for now.”
Perhaps infected by the man’s slightly evasive attitude, Lin Zhu suddenly felt that the item was a bit hot to handle too. He gently placed it back into the drawer and closed it.

Thinking about it now…
This extra box probably had the same kind of use as the other two boxes, right?
Lin Zhu’s understanding of such items was limited.
He had only seen condoms and lubricants with his own eyes, since they were sold in stores, but this—
He really didn’t recognize it.

If it had been in the past, Lin Zhu wouldn’t have had much curiosity or desire to explore this area, but now…
He was someone with a partner.
So, Lin Zhu silently lay down on the bed, turned on his side, getting extremely close to the man, and pressed softly:
“…Ge?”

Yan Ruoyun was lying flat on his back, trying to ignore the hot breath brushing against his ear, but he couldn’t completely ignore his little boyfriend either. He answered in a low voice, “What?”
The two of them had experienced several temporary marks tonight, which was precisely when they were most desperately craving intimacy from each other.
Smelling the pheromones on the bedsheets, the man couldn’t help but turn on his side, coming face-to-face with the blond youth, their eyes meeting.

At this moment, the high-wattage lights in the ward had been turned off, leaving only a very dim night light. A steady, muffled sound of rain came from outside, making the lovers’ whispered words even more blurred.
Lin Zhu rested one arm under his face, stayed silent for a moment, and couldn’t help asking, “Is it something you can’t tell me?”

Perhaps it was the Alpha instinct acting up after a marking, but he felt a wave of restlessness over Yan Ruoyun’s secretive attitude. His other arm had already slipped through the gap in the thin blanket and rested on Yan Ruoyun’s waist.

It wasn’t the first time Lin Zhu had touched his waist.
From the initial touch-and-go to the lingering reluctance he felt now…
With every encounter and physical contact, Lin Zhu’s attitude toward Yan Ruoyun grew more intimate and natural, as if he had grown accustomed to the fact that he had an older boyfriend.

The man’s waist was very slender, and lying on his side only made the curves more pronounced. Lin Zhu’s palm was scorching hot; even separated by the thin fabric of the hospital gown, it was of little use. The heat had already transmitted to the man’s skin, bringing about a slight tremble.
Half of Yan Ruoyun’s face was buried in the pillow.
He and Lin Zhu were so close that their breaths intertwined, indistinguishable from one another.

The youth stared straight at him with his slightly drooping eyes. His lips were pressed tight in a flat line that seemed to hide a little secret of displeasure.
But it wasn’t hidden deeply.
—Green and clumsy.

The youth’s hair was somewhat coarse, his blond hair sticking out messily like a prickly hedgehog. Yan Ruoyun reached out to smooth his hair, feeling that all the spikes on this hedgehog were soft.
Smoothing it down.
His heart suddenly melted completely.

Yan Ruoyun said abruptly, “That ring, it’s worn on the body.”
He shifted closer, only stopping when his entire body was pressed against the youth’s embrace. His usually cold and detached voice softened, surprisingly sounding a bit clingy. “It’s used for……”

He said the last half of the sentence pressed closely against Lin Zhu’s ear. The volume was extremely low; it merely circled the little boyfriend’s ear canal before dissipating into the air.
He couldn’t help it.
He was highly sensitive to begin with, and when facing Lin Zhu, it became even harder to control himself. If he didn’t exercise some restraint over certain situations, he was afraid…

Hearing this, Lin Zhu suddenly froze.
In the next instant, the man quietly grabbed the hand Lin Zhu had resting on his waist, pushed past the loose seam of his pants, moving down, and further down…
“Right here.”