Chapter 79: The Warm Nest

Fu Rangyi’s pheromone disorder symptoms continued to fluctuate, with his condition being good one moment and bad the next. That night, Li Qiao helped arrange for him to be moved to a private special care room for semi-isolated treatment, during which he was to avoid contact with people as much as possible.

Zhu Zhixi was the only one who could come and go freely. At first, he thought it was because of his gender and lack of pheromones, assuming all he had to do was eliminate any carried pheromones before entering. He would spray himself vigorously with eliminator each time and even considered buying a few bottles to keep by his front door.

But he later learned that it was actually because he was the source of Fu Rangyi’s reverse marking phenomenon and the most crucial part of the treatment.

“I spoke with that expert I mentioned before. Fu Rangyi’s situation is a typical case of the reverse marking phenomenon. Fortunately, it’s not particularly severe, and he hasn’t shown signs of mental breakdown like that other Alpha. This might be because Fu Rangyi’s own mental strength and pain tolerance are higher than the average person’s.”

Li Qiao’s last sentence was like a long, thin needle piercing Zhu Zhixi’s heart.

Pain tolerance… He would rather Fu Rangyi didn’t have such a thing.

Li Qiao didn’t know the reason for Fu Rangyi’s recent incident, but Zhu Zhixi did. In the final days of the countdown, Fu Rangyi had appeared calm and composed, constantly thinking of ways to fulfill his wishes. Zhu Zhixi had even come to believe that he could accept it and move on with his life.

Perhaps in a few years, this marriage, this brief companionship of a few dozen days, could also be let go.

It wasn’t until he found Fu Rangyi in a state of shock that Zhu Zhixi’s mind went blank. Only then did he realize he had been deceiving himself; Fu Rangyi could never let go.

He was just habitually using silence to cope with the onslaught of pain, right up until the point of collapse.

“Then what do we do?” Standing outside the hospital room, Zhu Zhixi asked Li Qiao, “Is there any good treatment plan? That expert is so skilled, he must have a way, right?”

“Reverse marking between an A and a B is extremely rare clinically. If it were an Omega, it would be much simpler—extract the pheromones to use as a drug for repeated stripping, a bit like ‘mark cleansing’ for an Alpha. But a B has no pheromones, so completely removing it is impossible,” Li Qiao said, then patted his shoulder. “But don’t worry, your situation is different from that case. You two aren’t planning to divorce. The expert said that short-term semi-isolated treatment to stabilize his pheromone levels is the first step. The key is to reduce separation from the object of the reverse marking, increase contact, and provide more comfort.”

Isn’t that similar to a susceptibility period? Except with more anxiety and depression than physical desire. After hearing this, Zhu Zhixi let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Leave it to me!”

__

On the first night in the hospital, Fu Rangyi did not sleep well. Although he didn’t make a sound, Zhu Zhixi, sleeping on the small cot, could feel it. His breathing was heavy, he tossed and turned constantly, and the monitoring equipment sounded several moderate alarms during the night.

Zhu Zhixi fell asleep in the latter half of the night but vaguely felt a hand caressing his cheek, the bridge of his nose, and his eyelids for a long time. He couldn’t wake up but felt that it was Fu Rangyi, because the feel of the ring on his left ring finger was unmistakable.

Was he afraid this was all a dream? So worried that he had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to check?

But once daylight came, Fu Rangyi was exceptionally normal, showing no signs of anxiety. He even urged Zhu Zhixi to go home to catch up on sleep, asked if taking leave during the exhibition was a problem, insisted on feeding himself during meals, wiped the corner of Zhu Zhixi’s mouth, and even joked.

When Zhu Zhixi returned, Fu Rangyi said, “You didn’t spray enough.”

“What?” Upon hearing this, Zhu Zhixi immediately lifted his arms, sniffing here and there as if he could actually smell pheromones. “Didn’t it get eliminated completely?”

“No,” Fu Rangyi said with a straight face while opening a capsule with one hand. “There’s a cloyingly sweet buttery smell.”

“Really? Whose pheromones are so rude as to linger on me? So annoying.” After shifting the blame, Zhu Zhixi immediately stood up, ready to go back to the isolation area by the door to re-spray, but was stopped.

Fu Rangyi chuckled lightly. “Yes, a rude cream and red bean taiyaki.”

“Huh?” Zhu Zhixi paused, subconsciously touching the corner of his mouth. “How did you know I just ate that…”

Fu Rangyi gestured with his chin. “The receipt is sticking out. Was it that good? You bought ten and didn’t bring a single one back?”

Zhu Zhixi looked down, and it was true.

“It’s because I was suddenly so hungry, and I smelled it as soon as I got out of the car. I had to wait in line for a while to buy them, and I ate them all in one go. I was going to bring some for you, but Li Qiao said I couldn’t.” He stuffed the receipt back in his pocket and sat back down on the chair, his shoulders slumping. “You’re still in the mood to joke…”

Fu Rangyi sat up a little, moved closer, and reached for the corner of his mouth. Zhu Zhixi thought he still had red bean filling on his mouth, but in the next second, Fu Rangyi’s forefinger poked the side of his lips, passively turning his mouth up into a smile.

“Wasn’t it funny?” He tilted his head slightly, looking at Zhu Zhixi. “You haven’t had a big laugh in a long time.”

Zhu Zhixi suddenly felt a little wronged and subconsciously pouted. But he quickly adjusted, took Fu Rangyi’s hand and shook it, smiling at him. “Once you get better, I’ll be very happy, and when I’m happy, I’ll laugh.”

However, on the second night, Fu Rangyi’s condition didn’t improve much. Zhu Zhixi knew there was another reason—not long after dawn, Snowball would be gone.

Therefore, he couldn’t sleep either.

Fu Rangyi couldn’t leave the hospital room, nor could he be subjected to any more stimulation. So, early in the morning, Zhu Zhixi quietly left by himself and went back to where Granny was hospitalized. He thought she wouldn’t know what was about to happen and would still be asleep, but when he arrived, he found Granny sitting on the hospital bed, playing ball with Snowball.

But Snowball no longer had the strength to bite and pull.

“I know it doesn’t have much time left,” Granny said. “I can feel it, so I don’t dare to sleep.”

As she spoke, she asked, “Why are you here so early? You should get some proper sleep.” Snowball whimpered along with her.

Zhu Zhixi smiled and said, “I just… suddenly really missed Snowball.”

Although the countdown had disappeared, he could still faintly hear the sound, slipping away second by second like sand. The closer it got, the sadder he felt.

“Xiao Xi, could you help me buy some breakfast? I suddenly have a craving for soup dumplings,” Granny said, taking her wallet from under her pillow and stuffing some cash into his hand.

“Now?” Zhu Zhixi was in a difficult position but didn’t know how to explain. “Can we wait a little? I…” He looked at Snowball’s gradually clouding eyes, at a loss for words.

“Let’s go now,” Granny looked at him, a calm smile on her face. She seemed like a prophet or a sage from a fable, having foreseen everything, unburdened by confusion.

“Xiao Xi, this day comes for everyone, humans included,” she said, her silver hair shimmering faintly under the light. “It is precisely because of death that people can realize that being alive is in itself a precious form of happiness.”

And so, on that cool and beautiful early spring morning, Zhu Zhixi once again cried while eating ten soup dumplings. With every bite, a new life lesson overflowed like a scalding tear, which he swallowed into his body.

He had seen the great animal migration, watched penguins line up to jump from glaciers, helped a wounded mother leopard give birth, and fed baby formula to a little chimpanzee, but none of these experiences, so full of life, could eliminate the deep-seated fear of death within him.

However, an absurd and wondrous life countdown experience and the passing of a small dog gave Zhu Zhixi the death education he had missed for two decades.

Mom, look, this is a very good little dog. He’s new, so please help me take care of him.

That morning, he went home and set up a small table for Snowball. On the table, he spread out the white fluffy bag it used to stay in and placed small dog treats and fruits.

Then he packed many things, bag after bag, and moved back to Fu Rangyi’s hospital room as if he were moving house.

Fu Rangyi looked much calmer than him, even leaning against the headboard reading a research paper. But when Zhu Zhixi returned, he too was taken aback by the scene. “What is this for?”

He saw the familiar khaki-colored tent fabric.

Zhu Zhixi lifted his face, grinning. “You don’t sleep well on the hospital bed, so I brought your nest here!”

Fu Rangyi was still baffled but instinctively wanted to get out of bed to help, only to be held back by Zhu Zhixi.

“You only have one good hand, and you were on a ventilator just yesterday. Just take it easy.” Zhu Zhixi rolled up his sleeves and set up the tent in a flash. He then opened the suitcase and took out the rabbit fur blankets and clothes, laying them out inside one by one.

Finally, he pulled Fu Rangyi into the tent, lay down with him, and hugged him, smiling sweetly. “Welcome home.”

The tent here lacked the string of star lights and was dimmer than at home. The bright daylight of the hospital room now became a khaki-colored “night.” In the dim view, Zhu Zhixi clearly saw Fu Rangyi’s eyes gazing at him, as soft as water, the eyes of a puppy.

“Do you like it?” Zhu Zhixi snuggled into his arms, his nose almost touching him. “Does this feel safer?”

Fu Rangyi didn’t answer. He nuzzled his nose and kissed him.

This was the first kiss after the countdown disappeared, as light as a dragonfly touching the water’s surface. After just a second or two, the weak dragonfly intended to leave, but Zhu Zhixi hooked his neck, his fingers gently brushing over the gland.

“We need to have more contact that gives an Alpha a sense of security… Li Qiao said so.”

Fu Rangyi stared at him and said, “Don’t mention him right before a kiss.”

The second kiss fell gently, lasting a little longer than the first. They were like they were back in the ambiguous stage of their relationship, using the excuse of sustaining life to break through the boundaries of intimacy, step by step, with kisses and hugs, only the object of comfort was reversed.

After kissing intermittently several times, Fu Rangyi buried his face in the soft crook of Zhu Zhixi’s neck, inhaling deeply, then letting out a long, deep breath.

He said in a deep voice, “The countdown stopped at exactly 8:25 in the morning. What a coincidence.”

Zhu Zhixi was stunned. “The same numbers as your birthday…” But how could he know the exact time the countdown stopped?

Fu Rangyi rested his head against his collarbone. “It was already broad daylight at that time. A ray of light happened to shine in at an angle, right on me.”

“Maybe it was saying goodbye to you,” Zhu Zhixi patted Fu Rangyi’s back and said softly. “Don’t be sad. If it sees you sad, it will be anxious in heaven too.”

Fu Rangyi nodded. After a while, he added, “Actually, it’s already very good.”

“Hmm?” Zhu Zhixi didn’t understand.

“I thought I would never see it again in this life, that it wouldn’t remember me.” Fu Rangyi lifted his face to look at Zhu Zhixi. “But it remembered all along. We even got to see each other one last time, to see how it looked all grown up, and I got to play with it for a long time, even if it was in a dream. That’s enough.”

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi’s heart ached, and he pressed his lips together.

Fu Rangyi kissed his forehead. “And besides, you are still here.”

His tone sounded rational and open-minded. “Accepting parting is a lesson everyone must face. Both ends of the scale held something I wanted to keep, but you can’t have everything. So the little dog jumped off. It felt like it was telling me this was a drill, to make me cherish what I have.”

In life, loss is inevitable, but death binds the living even more tightly together.

Zhu Zhixi nodded and then asked, “Teacher Fu, have you ever read The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows?”

Fu Rangyi shook his head. The title sounded like something that would one hundred percent attract Zhu Zhixi.

Zhu Zhixi explained, “Don’t we all have many moments of sadness? Emotions are very complex, and existing words are simply not enough to express them. So, someone combined various languages to create many words that precisely express different kinds of sad emotions. There’s one that left a particularly deep impression on me.”

“What is it?” Fu Rangyi asked.

“A kind of spell, used to commemorate the passing of a deeply loved person or thing. Saying it out loud is like formally saying goodbye to them, preserving these beautiful memories in the past, and then moving towards a new life.”

After explaining, Zhu Zhixi cleared his throat and recited in a very low, soft voice, “Solla, Solla, Solla.”

The corners of Fu Rangyi’s eyes reddened slightly. He rested his forehead against Zhu Zhixi’s and, imitating him, seriously repeated the spell, “Solla, Solla, Solla.”

At that moment, they seemed to return to their childhoods, shedding the forced strength of adults and becoming two children who feared death. Huddled together in this warm nest, they recited the spell to each other, completing a special celebratory ritual before embracing and falling into a deep sleep.

It was the most peaceful and sweet sleep they had had in many days.

__

When the nurse came in to do her rounds, she was startled by the tent in the room, thinking she had walked into the wrong one. Upon getting closer and bending down, she saw the two of them hugging face-to-face and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Won’t his arm go numb?” she muttered to herself, not having the heart to wake them. She decided to come back later.

She ended up waiting until evening. The sky had already darkened, and Zhu Zhixi was still fast asleep in Fu Rangyi’s arms. He was finally woken up by the nurse’s soft call. His mind was foggy, and his hair was a mess. In this dazed state, he left the tent and followed the nurse out.

“Is something wrong?” he asked softly after closing the door.

Before the nurse could speak, he heard a voice that made his shoulders jolt.

“Still asking what’s wrong? I’m the one who should be asking you.”

Turning around, he saw Zhu Zeran’s eyebrows twisted into knots. “Da Zhu, you scared me. What’s wrong now?”

“What’s wrong now?” Afraid of disturbing the patient, Zhu Zeran directly grabbed his silly brother, whose hair looked like a bird’s nest, and dragged him to the window at the end of the corridor before continuing. “What’s the meaning of that email you sent me? I’ve been so busy these past few days my head was spinning, I only just saw it. When did you record that video? What’s all this about a countdown, dying, what the hell is all that?”

“Hmm?” Zhu Zhixi raised his hand and scratched his cheek. “Video…”

Zhu Zeran continued to ramble, “And you told me to show it to Dad. Are you trying to scare him to death? All this mystical mumbo jumbo. Zhu Zhixi, you haven’t joined some cult, have you!”

The video!

Zhu Zhixi suddenly gasped. “I forgot to cancel the scheduled email!” He was filled with regret and slapped his own head.

Zhu Zeran was even more confused but reached out to grab his brother’s wrist. “Stop, stop. Your brain already has some problems. If you keep hitting it, you’ll really turn into an idiot.”

Zhu Zhixi didn’t know how to explain, so he had to make something up, trying to bluff his way through. “Uh… I auditioned for a play a while ago. The character was about to die, and the audition scene was to leave a video for his family before dying…” After speaking, he squeezed out a smile, revealing his little rabbit teeth. “How was it? Did I act well?”

“Well, my ass,” Zhu Zeran said bluntly. “Act in something more auspicious.”

Zhu Zhixi nodded repeatedly. “Okay, I’ll play Sudhana, and you can be my God of Wealth!”

Zhu Zeran was so angry he laughed. Seeing him like this, he also felt relieved. He had been terrified when he saw the video and had come looking for him without a second thought, thinking his silly brother had lost his mind after being hit hard by the loss of the little dog.

It seemed he hadn’t reached that stage yet.

“Have you eaten?” Zhu Zeran asked irritably.

“Not yet.” Zhu Zhixi shook his head. “Hurry and order for me. I want steak.”

Zhu Zeran: “…I owe you.”

Despite this, he still called his assistant and had him order the Western food Zhu Zhixi liked. The restaurant didn’t have a delivery service, so they had to wait for the assistant to pick it up and bring it over.

“And buy something light from another restaurant, something suitable for a patient.”

After hanging up, Zhu Zeran glanced toward the hospital room and said, “My frail and sickly brother-in-law, is he doing okay?”

“How is he frail and sickly?” Zhu Zhixi immediately defended him. “His chest muscles are bigger than yours.”

“Big chest means healthy?” Zhu Zeran sneered. “Vulgar.”

“You’re not vulgar,” Zhu Zhixi rolled his eyes. “If my sister-in-law didn’t look like that, would you have been so eager to throw your face at his hand?”

“Zhu Zhixi, you!”

Zhu Zhixi stuck out his tongue. “Don’t be so angry. If you ruin your health, you’ll have an even harder time catching your fox.” Thinking about how reverse marking was more common between AOs, he couldn’t help but remind him, “You’d better pay attention to your own health. Don’t be like my Teacher Fu, suddenly collapsing with no one around to know.”

“Just manage your own husband.” Speaking of this, Zhu Zeran remembered something and sneered. “Guess whose call I got yesterday?”

“Who?” Zhu Zhixi blinked.

“Fu Rangyi’s father.”

Zhu Zhixi was puzzled. “Why would he call you?”

“He asked me to help set up a dinner with our uncle. The Fu family’s business seems to be in some trouble recently, and they want our uncle’s help to solve it. I heard about this before; the Fu family was also busy transferring assets and trying to send their younger son abroad.” As Zhu Zeran spoke, a hint of contempt showed in his eyes. “I didn’t expect him to call me. How strange. I didn’t indulge him. I just said directly: Oh, such a big problem, huh? No wonder your eldest son is hospitalized and no one has come to see him.”

After hearing this, Zhu Zhixi mirrored Zhu Zeran’s expression. “And then? Did you help them?”

“I gave a non-committal answer, said I could help ask, since they are Fu Rangyi’s parents, after all.”

But Zhu Zhixi said, “There’s no need. Don’t bother with it in the future, as long as the matter doesn’t involve Teacher Fu.”

As the two brothers were chatting, a few people suddenly walked down the corridor. They were dressed ordinarily, but their demeanor was very unusual, their steps strikingly in sync. This was especially true for the man leading them, who looked to be around forty, with a stern face and a serious expression.

Zhu Zhixi only glanced at them, but when he turned back, he found Zhu Zeran staring intently.

“What are you looking at?”

Zhu Zeran narrowed his eyes, his tone somewhat surprised. “Isn’t that… Secretary Sun?”

“Secretary Sun?” Zhu Zhixi didn’t know him, but he knew that anyone who could surprise Zhu Zeran was definitely a big shot.

“I almost didn’t recognize him in plain clothes… What is he doing here?” Zhu Zeran was very puzzled, muttering to himself as he watched the man stop in front of one of the special care rooms and raise his hand to knock.

He froze. “Isn’t that Fu Rangyi’s room?”