Inside the car, the scents of their pheromones mingled, creating a strange, sweet aroma.

Dou Changxiao wiped his hands clean, sat for a moment, and, seeing that the turtle was still quietly curled up, reached out to ruffle Ning Zhu’s hair. The turtle suddenly curled up even tighter.

Little Sweet Apricot.

Dou Changxiao’s index finger twirled through Ning Zhu’s hair a few times.

It took quite a while before the turtle slowly crawled back out, face flushed, eyes red. But he had clearly composed himself, his expression restrained and cold.

Ning Zhu said hoarsely, “Thanks.”

Dou Changxiao looked at him for two seconds, not wanting to say “You’re welcome.”

Ning Zhu noticed the small crumpled paper ball in Dou Changxiao’s palm and gave a weak smile. “Haha… I’m really sorry about earlier.”

Dou Changxiao lowered his head to twist the slightly damp paper ball, then replied after a moment, “I’m this expensive—what’s there to be embarrassed about?” Ning Zhu was convinced by his words. But when he saw the way Dou Changxiao was twisting the paper ball, he cleared his throat. “It’s pretty dirty. Um, just throw it away.”

Dou Changxiao continued twisting the paper, casually rejecting his patron’s request: “I’m not throwing it away.”

“……”

Just as Ning Zhu was about to say something else, his phone rang.

He slowly pulled it out and glanced at it—it was a call from Ji Chi, who was probably worried something had happened to him. But coming right after Ning Zhu had just been marked, the call felt slightly ill-timed.

Ning Zhu didn’t think much of it. His thumb rested on the middle slider, about to instinctively swipe to answer, when he sensed a pair of eyes fixated on the screen.

Dou Changxiao didn’t say a word; his eyelashes drooped lazily, his face completely expressionless. Ning Zhu paused, then swiped in the opposite direction and hung up.

Never mind—his voice didn’t sound right anyway.

The scent of coconut in the car grew a bit stronger, its molecules dancing energetically through the air.

Ning Zhu’s body was also enveloped in these pleasant scents.

The lingering heat of his heat was still there, but his glands felt calm and comfortable as never before. The pheromones that had been racing wildly had settled down; it was a completely different sensation from when he’d taken the suppressant. He was experiencing what a normal Omega would feel.

He replied to Ji Chi: I’m fine.

【Ji Chi:】 Mm. Keep yourself busy. 

Ning Zhu: “……”

Busy with what? It’s already over.

Closing the phone, Ning Zhu turned and asked, “You got here fast. Did you let the hospital know?”

Dou Changxiao said, “I didn’t have time.”

“…Hmm.”

“Do you need any help?”

“Huh? Help with what?”

Dou Changxiao crumpled the paper in his hand and glanced downward. Ning Zhu adjusted his posture slightly. “…No need.”

Dou Changxiao said calmly, “The reactions of being in heat won’t subside that easily.”

“I said I don’t need it. Do you really have to be this dedicated?” Ning Zhu’s voice was still hoarse; he tried to raise his pitch, but it still sounded weak. Their phones rang one after the other; this time, it was Dou Changxiao’s.

He glanced at the caller ID and frowned. Ning Zhu asked, “Is it a call from your internship?”

“No.” Dou Changxiao stared at the screen, looking rather grim, but he didn’t hang up. He told Ning Zhu, “I’ll go answer it.”

Ning Zhu looked at him for a moment—a bit longer than usual—before finally replying with an “Oh.”

Dou Changxiao got out of the car. The wind was blowing quite strongly outside, carrying away much of the sweet almond scent clinging to him. He immediately wanted to get back in the car to hold onto those sweet molecules.

Dou Changxiao glanced back at the car window and was surprised to find that Ning Zhu was looking at him too.

He froze for a moment before slowly turning away again and answering the call that was about to hang up on him. Lu Chao’s voice came through the receiver: “Hello.”

As always, Dou Changxiao launched into his standard opening line when dealing with Lu Chao: “What’s up?”

A voice gritted through the receiver: “You have the nerve to ask if I have something to say? You don’t even say hello to your brother anymore?”

Dou Changxiao, unusually, offered a polite response: “I saw you were working, so I didn’t want to disturb you.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, then he said, sounding somewhat touched, “…Is that so?”

Dou Changxiao: “Anything else?”

Lu Chao replied calmly, “Actually, yes…”

Dou Changxiao fidgeted with the hem of his shirt, longing to return to that warm space filled with his and Ning Zhu’s pheromones. He couldn’t help but turn his head back toward the car.

Once again, his gaze met Ning Zhu’s—it was as if he had never looked away.

Dou Changxiao didn’t understand why, but just being looked at by Ning Zhu made his heart race. He unconsciously clenched his phone.

“Isn’t your birthday coming up soon? I happen to be in Beicheng, and Mom asked me to take you out for a meal. I figured you wouldn’t be too keen on it, but I rarely get to come to Beicheng, and you know how Mom and Dad are…”

Dou Changxiao cut him off: “Alright. I get it.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. The long speech he’d prepared went unused, and he said in surprise, “You agreed just like that?”

Dou Changxiao suppressed the urgency in his voice: “Yeah. I’ve got things to do. Gotta go.”

After a moment, the other end hung up, as if in disbelief.

Dou Changxiao opened the car door and got back in.

Ning Zhu, however, averted his gaze from his back and looked at the back of the front passenger seat, asking in a seemingly casual tone, “Whose call was that? You had to go out to take it.”

Dou Changxiao didn’t really want to mention Lu Chao’s name. He wasn’t particularly close to Lu Chao.

Not long after Dou Shu married Lu Mao’an, Dou Changxiao was born. At the time, Lu Chao was still just a teenager; he had been deeply resentful of his new stepmother and was even more hostile toward his younger brother, Dou Changxiao.

Dou Shu had tried many ways to build a connection and break the deadlock, but Lu Chao remained hostile toward her. Out of concern for Lu Chao’s emotional well-being, she had no choice but to send Dou Changxiao to live with her father, where Dou Linyuan raised him for several years. She didn’t bring him back to the Lu household until he was seven.

By then, Lu Chao’s attitude had actually softened considerably, but unfortunately, he was in the final stages of puberty, a time when his personality was particularly rebellious and volatile. During the period right after Dou Changxiao returned to the Lu household, he faced a great deal of coldness and exclusion from Lu Chao.

His relationship with his parents wasn’t particularly close at the time either, so he felt isolated and helpless within the Lu household. Because he was mature and sensible for his age, Dou Changxiao didn’t make a fuss about the injustices he suffered; he endured them silently for a long time.

The dynamic between the two brothers was pretty much set in stone from that point on. Even when Lu Chao later made overtures of friendship, Dou Changxiao didn’t appreciate the gesture. Assuming Ning Zhu wouldn’t care who was calling, Dou Changxiao replied, “No one in particular.”

“…Oh, no one,” Ning Zhu replied.

Dou Changxiao paused for a moment and asked him, “Why were you staring at me the whole time? Just now.”  

“Staring at you? Was I?”

Dou Changxiao: “You were. When I was on the phone.”

Ning Zhu chuckled. “What are you talking about?”

“……” Dou Changxiao stared at him in silence, unable to understand why this man refused to admit it. It was obvious.

Is it because of the heat cycle? Does he want my pheromones? What’s so hard to admit about that? Ning Zhu rubbed the bite mark on the back of his neck and said, “Take me home.”

He reeked of that sickly-sweet scent, and there was no way he could get into someone else’s car.

Dou Changxiao asked, “Home?”

Ning Zhu assessed his current situation.

Dou Changxiao was right; the reactions of the heat cycle don’t just go away on their own.

It was almost five o’clock. Ji Chi was at the office, so he shouldn’t have to worry about that. Ning Zhu sighed, ultimately succumbing to his instincts: “Yeah. Take me home.”

Dou Changxiao sat for a moment before reluctantly getting out to move to the driver’s seat.

He’d left his phone on the seat, and when he picked it up, Ning Zhu glanced at his hand again.

Dou Changxiao noticed this and slowed his movement as he put the phone back in his pocket.

He didn’t get out right away. He stood there like a statue, frozen in the motion of putting his phone away. After a long moment, he turned his head toward Ning Zhu and said, “That’s my brother’s number.”

Ning Zhu: “Huh? Oh… okay.” He had a vague recollection.

It was the older brother from “You Can’t Make Me Like You.”

Just as he was reminiscing, the person beside him suddenly leaned toward him.

He stared in surprise as Dou Changxiao moved closer, one hand reaching toward his waist, gently pulling him into his embrace.

Ning Zhu’s heart skipped a beat, but Dou Changxiao didn’t actually touch him; he’d just come over to pull the seatbelt on that side. Driver Dou was very considerate.

“……”

The other man’s face was extremely close to him; if Ning Zhu raised his head even slightly, the tip of his nose would brush against the skin just below Dou Changxiao’s ear. The scent of coconut in the air suddenly intensified severalfold, becoming so thick it made his head spin.

If pheromones had a form, the glands on the side of Dou Changxiao’s neck would surely have unfurled into two vibrant peacock fans. Ning Zhu accidentally inhaled a breath of it, and a wave of dizziness immediately washed over him.

“Um, you suddenly…”

He almost suspected Dou Changxiao was deliberately standing this close to release his pheromones.

From head to toe, Ning Zhu went limp from the extremely concentrated scent, and his body’s reactions during heat intensified. He nearly moaned aloud; after struggling to hold it back, his eyes grew moist with the effort.

Dou Changxiao unfastened the seatbelt, looped it around Ning Zhu’s shoulders and waist, and buckled him into the seat. He asked softly, “What do you mean, ‘suddenly’?”

Ning Zhu lifted his head, about to speak up in protest, but met Dou Changxiao’s crinkled eyes. His dark pupils held Ning Zhu’s reflection, clear and bright in the sunlight. The smile was utterly irresistible.