Chapter 8: The Questionnaire

Fu Rangyi very reluctantly worked this overtime.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already filled out my part in advance. It won’t take up too much of your time.” He cleared his throat, holding another questionnaire filled with writing, and stood up. He paced around the dining table, reading the contents to Fu Rangyi.

“First, food preferences and dislikes. This is very important. We stumbled here at our last dinner,” Zhu Zhixi said quite seriously. “For fruits, my favorite is strawberries…”

No wonder there were so many strawberries in the fridge the other day.

Fu Rangyi remembered, the day before yesterday, he came home from work and happened to see Zhu Zhixi washing strawberries, so many that one might suspect he was making jam.

At that time, he was standing behind the open kitchen island, wearing a loose, fluffy, chick-yellow knit sweater, and headphones, humming a song while washing. His whole body swayed back and forth, one shoulder mostly exposed without him even noticing. The gold hoop earring on his ear was dazzling.

When he noticed someone had returned, he looked up abruptly, grabbed a strawberry, and asked in a super loud voice, “Do you want one?”

I can’t imagine how loud his headphones were at that moment. This person’s ears will definitely go deaf early when he’s older.

He wasn’t very serious about washing the fruit either. Most of his movements seemed perfunctory, and he was very slow. Fu Rangyi placed his water glass under the dispenser to get water, and when he walked over, he found that his phone was still playing a movie on the side. This person seemed completely incapable of concentrating on one thing.

The water almost overflowed from the glass because he discovered something even more outrageous. The number of clean strawberries had sharply decreased compared to before. Zhu Zhixi had been eating while washing and had almost finished them all, leaving only a small plate.

After he asked “Are you sure you don’t want one?” and emphasized “I picked them myself at a strawberry farm,” Fu Rangyi still refused coolly. “No wonder they’re so ugly,” he added.

Who would have thought that the next morning, before leaving for work, he would find a sticky note on the dining table that read: Please have Fu Rangyi open the refrigerator.

Curious to know what this was all about, even though he knew he was running late, he still spared a precious half-minute to open the refrigerator. At a glance, he saw a cartoon lunchbox that practically had Zhu Zhixi’s name written all over it.

After opening the lid, he spent an even more precious few seconds in a daze. The box was filled with a whole row of strawberry “snowmen.” Each strawberry had been cut, the tip becoming a hat, with a slice of banana cut into a narrow cylinder in the middle. Black sesame seeds dotted two eyes on the banana, and a toothpick held it all together, with a round blueberry stuck on top.

There was another sticky note in the box.

[These aren’t ugly, are they? You work hard in class, husband~ You need to get more vitamins ^-^]

Fu Rangyi knew he was doing this deliberately to annoy him. He took off the sticky note. But fruit goes bad, and he hated wasting food, so he packed it up and took it with him. For this, he was, for a rare occasion, one minute late for his professional course, which was secretly discussed by the students in their group chat.

“My second favorite is figs, but actually, I like the smell more than eating them.” Zhu Zhixi stopped walking, suddenly paused, and asked Fu Rangyi, “Have you ever smelled a fig? Do you think it has a milky scent? It’s really nice.”

“No,” Fu Rangyi returned to reality. “I hate milky smells.”

Zhu Zhixi replied with a grin, “AOs with milky pheromones are in luck, they’ve just been disliked by our Professor Fu.”

Fu Rangyi: “…”

Zhu Zhixi: “Anyway, I really like figs, and I prefer the ripe, purplish-red skinned ones.”

In fact, Fu Rangyi was aware of this. Because ever since Zhu Zhixi moved in, there were always figs in the fridge, but he didn’t eat them often. He would let them get very ripe, so ripe that Fu Rangyi had wanted to say “Don’t let them rot in my fridge” several times. Every time Zhu Zhixi opened the fridge, he would first take out a few to smell, then put them back, as if his nose actually contained some kind of device for judging fruit ripeness.

“As for other foods, I like too many things. I’m not a picky eater. But there are two things I don’t like. You already know one of them.” Zhu Zhixi tapped the table three times. “Celery—the Waterloo vegetable of the great Professor Fu.”

There’s no need to emphasize it like that…

“I also don’t like celery’s good brother, cilantro. They both have a weird taste.” As he spoke, he had already circled to the end of the walnut dining table. “As for meat… I hate all-lean beef. It’s hard to chew.”

Fu Rangyi inevitably thought of the way he chewed, his cheeks stuffed full, his mouth closed, chewing very quickly. Those teeth did seem more suited for eating vegetables. Does he like carrots? He suddenly had the urge to ask. But in the end, he didn’t. He felt it was unnecessary; he could always observe it himself.

“Oh right, I love fish, but I hate fish bones because I got one stuck in my throat when I was a kid and had to go to the hospital to have it removed with tweezers.” As Zhu Zhixi spoke, he made a gesture with his index finger and thumb. “This long. It got stuck right here in my throat.”

Fu Rangyi glanced at his neck. “It’s a wonder it didn’t affect your speech.”

Zhu Zhixi’s eyes widened, as if very surprised by his cold-bloodedness. But he continued anyway, and in retaliation, sped up his speech.

Although Fu Rangyi looked completely uninterested and gave almost zero feedback, he also had no intention of leaving the dining table, as if he had forgotten that his legs were functional and that he had the free will to refuse.

“Oh right, I forgot to write this down, need to add it.” Zhu Zhixi stopped and added a line with his pen. “I’m allergic to cat fur.”

I know.

On the third day after he moved in, at 7 PM, they happened to meet at the elevator in the underground garage and entered the same elevator. After reaching the first floor, a female Omega walked in. Zhu Zhixi, as if he could suddenly smell pheromones, immediately went up to her. But soon, Fu Rangyi realized he was going for the fat cat in her arms.

It’s so beautiful! Can I pet it? Will it be scared of me?

After these three moves, he gained temporary petting rights, extremely excited, and kept looking back at him.

Fu Rangyi raised an eyebrow at that time. Why are you looking at me? Did I say you couldn’t pet it?

At that time, Zhu Zhixi was immersed in the joy of petting the cat, his hands moving non-stop, and he couldn’t stop his desire to talk to the cat, as if they were the same species.

Until they reached their floor, he was still reluctantly waving goodbye to the cat, completely oblivious to the fact that the cat owner’s face had turned red. Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought that Betas could suddenly release pheromones now.

But not long after returning home, Zhu Zhixi started sneezing like crazy, and a rash appeared on his face.

Fu Rangyi, of course, knew it was an allergy. But at that time, he was holding a cup, walked over, and casually said, “Why did you paint your face so red at night? Are you going to perform in an opera?”

This was just his prelude to telling Zhu Zhixi that there was allergy medicine in the living room TV cabinet, but Zhu Zhixi was too stupid and actually started singing. It was only two lines, though, because he was quickly interrupted by another sneeze.

However, in the end, he still took the initiative to get the medicine for Zhu Zhixi. Because he didn’t want Zhu Zhixi to rummage through his medicine cabinet, nor did he want him to see the massive amount of inhibitors inside.

“I like to listen to rock music, but I also like symphonies…”

“And then, I have a bit of a collector’s habit. I collect useless little things, like postcards my friends send me from all over the world, and pretty little stones I find on the road, or some fallen leaves, things like that. I have a lot of weird stuff in my drawers.”

“I’ve done many, many jobs. My current profession is a curator, which was also my most formal profession before.”

“When I was studying abroad, I opened a small craft shop and a campus cafe. I like to volunteer all over the world, and I’ve also worked as a fashion buyer, occasionally as a part-time model, and even directed a short film, been a temporary lead singer in a band, a wildlife photographer, a stray animal station manager…”

Fu Rangyi listened quietly, but in his mind, for some reason, related scenes would appear with his every word, scene after scene, pieced together and built between the words, emerging more and more clearly. He could even imagine Zhu Zhixi in these places, doing these things.

For the first time in his life, Fu Rangyi discovered he had such a powerful imagination, and he couldn’t even control this ability. Zhu Zhixi’s life seemed to have many times the density of a normal person’s, the exact opposite of his own monotonous life of going between two points.

So now that he’s forced to be with me, trapped in an apartment in S City, does he find it boring?

“That’s about it.” Zhu Zhixi finished reading with a smile, pulled out the chair closest to him, sat down, and pushed the filled questionnaire in front of him. “Can you remember all that?”

Fu Rangyi didn’t answer his question. After two seconds of silence, he reached out and, like a real advisor, pointed to one of the lines. It was a part Zhu Zhixi had written and then completely crossed out, which was very conspicuous.

Fu Rangyi compared it with his own empty form, glanced at it, and asked, “The line ‘What makes me cry,’ why didn’t you write anything?”

Zhu Zhixi lay on the table, silent for a few seconds, then looked at him. “I didn’t think I needed to write it. I’ve barely cried since becoming an adult, so that kind of scene is unlikely to happen.”

“You don’t need to write it either,” he added, cutting off any possibility of Fu Rangyi asking further.

Soon, Zhu Zhixi sat up straight again and handed the pen over. “Your turn.”

But Fu Rangyi was like a rich, powerful, and lawyer-backed scoundrel who had committed a crime but leaned back in his chair, looking completely uncooperative. “I don’t want to write it.”

Zhu Zhixi wouldn’t admit defeat. He directly took back the pen and also picked up the empty form, as if to take a statement. “Then you talk, I’ll write.”

But he still underestimated how difficult Fu Rangyi was. No matter what question he asked, Fu Rangyi could give a very vague answer.

“What do you like to eat?”

“Everything’s just okay.”

“Then is there anything that makes you want to throw up when you eat it?”

“There are many.” Fu Rangyi seemed to be deliberately making things difficult and listed a long string of things. “Fatty meat, not even a tiny bit; scallions, especially green onions; internal organs, especially liver; durian…”

“Slow down, I can’t keep up.”

How can there be such a troublesome person? He couldn’t help but exclaim, “So picky. It must be so hard to raise a child like you.”

For some reason, some word had provoked him. After that, no matter what question Zhu Zhixi asked, Fu Rangyi refused to answer. Favorite singer? Don’t listen to music. Hated movie? All bad movies. Favorite book? No favorite…

He was just like a cat that hated being touched and held by humans! Refusing all interaction, refusing any connection. Resisting opening up.

Zhu Zhixi was doing all this, not entirely to play the perfect partner with Fu Rangyi in front of others. None of this was useful, he knew that very well. As soon as they returned to this home with just the two of them, Fu Rangyi would keep his distance, not even staying in the same room. Therefore, the countdown still ticked away, although the speed had slowed down.

[49 days 19 hours 23 minutes 09 seconds]

He wanted to become Fu Rangyi’s friend, or at least a less distant roommate, just a little emotional connection. At least they could sit on the sofa together and watch TV, their arms touching, an arm around a shoulder. These things definitely couldn’t be called harassment.

“Then can you talk to me about your major?” he tried again.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Why not?” Zhu Zhixi said. “What if I meet your colleagues? I can’t be like a fool, knowing nothing about your work, can I? People easily develop good feelings for someone because of their work. A working person is the most charming. Tell me.”

In fact, Zhu Zhixi just wanted to use this to pry this person’s mouth open. He had done his research, from the information Zhu Zeran had sent him before, although it was after they had registered their marriage.

Fu Rangyi was the only top-tier Alpha in the Fu family. A’s were already rare, and top-A’s were even rarer. The Fu family didn’t have this genetic trait, so giving birth to one was like a godsend. Zhu Zeran had also complained about this point.

[The fact that they’re willing to let their precious SA son marry a Beta, not continuing the SA gene line, clearly shows there’s a problem.]

Maybe he’s impotent? Or he has azoospermia?

Zhu Zhixi didn’t care. He knew Fu Rangyi wasn’t a bad person. Although this person’s words were a bit harsh and his personality a bit reclusive, his lifestyle was so good it was unlike an A. After work, he was either working out at the gym or at home reading papers.

Zhu Zhixi had met all sorts of people, and because of the face his parents gave him, he had also been harassed quite a bit. But living under the same roof, Fu Rangyi had never acted inappropriately towards him. He would even leave a light on for him when he came home late, and when he was hungry in the middle of the night and wanted to go to the convenience store downstairs, he would mysteriously appear in the living room, saying he needed to take out the trash and would go “along with him.”

Before this, Zhu Zhixi did have some prejudices against A’s. Because he had seen too many incidents of A’s going crazy due to pheromone disorders, and also because of the inexplicable preferential treatment they received. None of it was fair.

But more than him being a high-quality top-A, he wanted to know what Fu Rangyi did as a “person,” what kind of life he lived.

Fu Rangyi’s work was his life, and most of his life was also work. Because they lived together, he could observe many details even without asking. Even little quirks.

For example, Fu Rangyi liked to stand while reading papers. He would place his laptop on the open kitchen island and pour himself a full glass of wine, drinking while reading. Reading papers with wine was too strange. What was even stranger was that he seemed to be the type who became more sober the more he drank. No wonder his wine cabinet was filled with so many bottles. This could be considered his only bad habit.

Sometimes Zhu Zhixi would pass by the kitchen and smell the strong scent of red wine, thinking Fu Rangyi was drunk. But when he looked up, the other person’s expression hadn’t changed at all, his speech was at a normal pace, and he was just as harsh as ever.

Besides observing, he also found other ways to understand Fu Rangyi. He downloaded many of the papers Fu Rangyi had published and knew that he had attended a very good boarding school. He started his undergraduate studies at 17, getting in with a score far exceeding the archaeology major’s requirement, then went on to a top university for his master’s and doctorate, with fruitful academic achievements and an astonishingly high citation count. He graduated at 25 and joined S University, becoming the youngest professor in the faculty in just a few short years, and had also published a best-selling popular science book.

His life was like it was on fast-forward. For such a person to be forced into a fake marriage, Zhu Zhixi really couldn’t figure out the reason. But Fu Rangyi would never bring it up, and he didn’t want to take on such an unnecessary hell-level mission. He just wanted to use these chats to get closer to this iceberg.

Sure enough, using work as a starting point was extremely correct. Fu Rangyi began to introduce his research field to him, although it was very brief and to the point.

“I’m mainly focused on Neolithic archaeology right now. I won’t go into specific topics; you don’t need to know the details.”

Fu Rangyi added, “I also did some underwater archaeology when I was in school, but my eyesight wasn’t good enough, so I switched to West Asian archaeology. Later, I focused on domestic archaeology. You just need a general idea.”

Zhu Zhixi was a little excited. “West Asia? So you’ve done practical work in Saudi Arabia and Turkey? Can you speak Arabic and Turkish?”

“A little.”

“I know a little too!”

Zhu Zhixi said very slowly in Turkish, “Merhaba, ben Çinliyim. Köpekleri ve kedileri severim, ya sen?” (Hello, I’m Chinese. I like dogs and cats, what about you?)

Fu Rangyi stared at his lips and deliberately said, “I don’t understand.”

“Alright.” Zhu Zhixi shrugged. “It’s good that you don’t understand. I just secretly cursed you a couple of times.”

Hearing this, the corners of Fu Rangyi’s mouth lifted slightly, but he himself was completely unaware.

Having rarely pried anything out of his mouth, Zhu Zhixi diligently took notes while asking more questions. This method was indeed very effective. He wasn’t so resistant and even took the initiative to mention a site their team had excavated. He even showed Zhu Zhixi photos with interest.

It was very different from the grand, amazing, treasure-filled site one might imagine. It looked more like a dug-up field. Anyone would have disappointedly said, “Huh? Why does it look like a dirt pit?”

Fu Rangyi was used to it. But Zhu Zhixi always seemed to be different.

His eyes lit up, and he leaned in to zoom in on the photo. “This is so cool. To be able to discover it like this… a historical site! Just thinking about how many ancient artifacts and civilizations will be discovered from here, it’s so magical. If I had dug it up, I’d probably be too happy to sleep. You’re amazing.”

His tone was extremely sincere. If this was what he called “acting,” Fu Rangyi thought, Zhu Zhixi could probably win a Silver Bear award.

“This was the success of the entire team, not just me personally.”

“You’re still amazing.” Zhu Zhixi wanted to see the details but accidentally touched the screen. The photo flashed away, becoming one of many thumbnails.

Only then did he discover that among the full screen of thumbnails, most were a hazy earth color, likely all archaeological sites.

He suddenly thought of something and re-asked the question that Fu Rangyi had previously dismissed as meaningless. “So your favorite color, it wouldn’t be the color of earth, would it? Like the color of the soil and dust in the site photos.”

He had expected to be brushed off, but Fu Rangyi pondered for a moment. “Maybe.”

Zhu Zhixi’s question had made him think. He hadn’t even realized it. “Many people might think the color of earth is not vibrant, that it’s dirty, and gets people all dusty. But I don’t think so. Soil can sometimes be more vibrant than living things, and it’s an inclusive, vast kind of vitality.”

After speaking, Fu Rangyi felt a bit of regret. These views seemed unnecessary for their current relationship. But the next second, Zhu Zhixi suddenly slapped his arm. “I know what you mean!”

“The feeling of the land is always heavy, silent. But it hides many human civilizations that once existed and were once very brilliant. And to this day, it is still constantly nurturing new life. It’s magical, full of life.”

Fu Rangyi gazed at him quietly.

“And I’ve seen colored earth, red, and purple. It’s beautiful, in a small village in Mauritius. When I went there, an old lady there smeared purple earth on my face, right here.”

As he spoke, Zhu Zhixi leaned in very close, pointing to his own cheek. Under the light, his skin was exceptionally fair, the fine hairs clearly visible. But his fairness was not a thin, papery white. Especially when he came out of the shower, wearing home clothes and hugging his knees at the dining table, the warm light on his cheeks always reminded Fu Rangyi of freshly steamed, steaming hot rice cakes.

He could even imagine what the purple earth would look like smeared on this face.

His mind drifted away for a moment. When he came back to his senses, Zhu Zhixi had already crossed out the color line and filled in a new answer.

Head down, he wrote seriously. The back of his ears were red, very close to the red from his fingers squeezing the pen.

“OK, next one.”

Zhu Zhixi was about to start the next line in order. Suddenly, he heard a crisp sound, one he had heard many times these past few days, very familiar. Turning his head, he saw the suppressor bracelet on Fu Rangyi’s wrist, emitting a cold metallic luster under the light.

And so all the question ordering was cleared. He asked blankly, “Fu Rangyi, what do your pheromones smell like?”

---

Author’s Note:

Today’s chapter is long!

And please don’t be too harsh on Professor Fu’s stubborn mouth and strange ways of caring (although I know most of the comments are just teasing). There are reasons for these things. Xiao Zhu can be said to be the first person he has had deep and prolonged contact with (Li Qiao: Yes, he’s already surpassed me), and it’s purely as two “people,” not as an Alpha, Beta, or Omega, so he’s a bit awkward, even at a loss.

The young couple is very suited to be stand-up comedians because they will both be making crazy callbacks later.

—Little Theater of the Student Group Chat—

[Professor Fu was actually late today?!!]

[Was the traffic bad today??]

[OMG I was almost late too, and then I ran into the professor. He was walking so fast behind me, his legs are so long, one of his steps is like three of mine. I felt like the Grim Reaper was chasing my butt…]

[Only Professor Fu would apologize for being late, it was only one minute.]

[Married life must have worn away Professor Fu’s motivation to get up early, hhh.]

[Professor Fu is really married??]

[For real. I went to Lao Wang’s and saw their table was full of wedding candy. The card had Professor Fu’s name, and his wife’s name is so nice too, called Zhu Zhixi.]

[Such a matching name, sob, just from the name it sounds beautiful, generous, and intellectual.]

[I know why Professor Fu was late. He brought a cute little lunchbox, went to his office to put it down first, and then came over, that’s why he was late (reliable source).]

[A lunchbox made with love!!!]

[Oh my god, being married really is different! Wishing them 99 (I’ll retract if I get flamed).]

[The professor will no longer exude Alpha pheromones (he never did before), only the strong scent of a husband.]

[Professor Fu, I don’t want to go to class, I want to see your wife.]