Chapter 5

Chapter 5

On days when he had no classes, Lu Xingwen would stay at the company, losing himself in work.

The meeting ran from two to six in the afternoon, after which most employees headed home. He went back to plowing through paperwork.

Before he knew it, it was dark out. His birthday was only four hours away.

In the past, Chen Chen had always celebrated it with him, whipping up a sickeningly sweet cake and a mountain of snacks. Lu Xingwen didn't actually like the taste, but he loved curling up next to Su Xingze, the two of them celebrating his birthday together.

He finished the paperwork. Lu Xingwen glanced at the pill bottles on his desk and gave a bitter smile. "Chen Chen, how am I supposed to see you?"

Over the years, he'd always believed Su Xingze's body had been taken over by someone else—that he hadn't really died. He believed Su Xingze would come back one day, smiling, reaching out a hand to him.

For five years, Chen Chen had never once shown up in his dreams. Not once. Was he blaming him for not saving him back then?

Lu Xingwen toyed with the pill bottles, his gaze turning colder and colder. A year ago, he'd started seeing Su Xingze's apparitions for the first time.

Back then, he'd taken a few extra pills and seen Su Xingze as he was in high school. After that, he started taking the pills more and more often, in bigger and bigger doses.

Lu Hean had once said that if he weren't a top-tier Alpha with pheromones strong enough to metabolize the drugs outright, he'd probably be dead by now.

But precisely because his pheromones were so potent, he'd built up a tolerance, and the pills didn't work anymore. Back when he was in the hospital, he'd downed an entire bottle just to see Chen Chen for a few seconds.

The numbers on his phone clicked over to 00:00. Lu Xingwen twisted open a bottle, tilted his head back, and chugged it.

Usually, you don't show up even when I ask. But today's my birthday—you have to come see me.

He squeezed the bottle hard, crushing it in his fist. Tiny glass shards dug into his palm, and blood dripped down his fingers.

At the same time, at Zecheng People's Hospital, Su Xingze sent his birthday message right on the dot: "Happy birthday, Xiaolu! Let's spend your birthday together."

He waited a long time, but no reply came. The phone screen stayed silent.

Staring at the snacks he'd already bought, Su Xingze opened his phone again and kept shopping online. He'd originally wanted to go out and buy the snacks and cakes himself, but he'd begged Dr. Zhao multiple times, and Dr. Zhao had refused every time, telling him to stay in bed.

The snacks he'd bought that afternoon were only one set. Since he'd missed five years, he had to buy five sets to make it up to Lu Xingwen.

And of course, five cakes too.

The money he'd borrowed was gone in no time. The store called to say the stuff would be delivered early the next morning.

Back then, they'd had no money. Su Xingze's stepmother was incredibly stingy, only giving him three thousand yuan a month for living expenses. As for Lu Xingwen, he had no parents—they'd died when he was really young. For years, he'd lived with his aunt's family.

Lu Xingwen was a very sensible kid. His aunt transferred a hundred thousand yuan to him every month, but he only spent a few thousand of it, and when his aunt and uncle's birthdays rolled around, he'd give the rest back in the form of gifts.

But the Lu Xingwen of today was different. Su Xingze looked at the bio in the search results.

[Lu Xingwen, Zecheng's newest big shot. In five years, he'd built the Xingze Group into Zecheng's number one company, with annual profits in the tens of billions, a top-100 national enterprise. A top-tier Alpha. A college senior.]

In five years, he'd built a business empire. And Su Xingze was so broke he didn't even have three digits to his name.

Oh wait—now he didn't even have double digits.

Not to mention all the wrong he'd done over the years, wearing away the brotherhood they'd shared for over a decade.

So, would Lu Xingwen even look down on the birthday gifts he sent?

After all, the gifts he used to send to that mistress—weren't they all six figures?

Ugh. He really wanted to take back these five years!

Su Xingze quickly got out of bed, shoved the annoying cufflinks at Dr. Zhao, and lay back down.

His mood was definitely better! It'd be even better if he could punch Yang Ye once.

That night, he slept badly, his mind full of thoughts. His sleep quality tanked.

Early in the morning, he heard a few familiar voices.

It was too early. The sky was barely light. Su Xingze couldn't get up. He turned his head and drifted back to sleep.

In the next room, Lu Hean yawned, still half-asleep, when his mother, Lu Yeqing, kicked him.

Lu Hean frowned. "Mom!"

"Your brother's lying in a hospital bed needing his stomach pumped, and you can still sleep?" Lu Yeqing twisted her son's ear, gazing at Lu Xingwen in the hospital bed with heartache.

Her mothers had died early, leaving only her and her sister to depend on each other. Their lives had been good—not wealthy, but happy and complete. Both had found good husbands. Who could've imagined her sister and brother-in-law would die in an accident, leaving when Xiao Xing was so young?

This was the only child her sister had left in the world. When she went to pick him up, his tiny body stood in stark contrast to the huge house. When he saw her, his eyes went red, and he burst into tears, running over to throw himself into her arms.

Lu Yeqing's heart ached. She hugged the small, soft body tight.

When she was little, her Alpha sister had raised her and protected her.

From now on, she'd give Xiao Xing a home.

Lu Yeqing choked up. "If anything happens to Xiao Xing, I won't be able to go on living!"

"Mom." Lu Hean patted his mother's back, trying to comfort her. "Don't worry. He's a top-tier Alpha with a very high pheromone concentration. Even without the stomach pump, he'll have metabolized that whole bottle by tomorrow."

"Is that supposed to be comforting?" Lu Yeqing glared at her son, who looked totally unconcerned.

Lu Hean waved a hand. "You're a pheromone expert yourself—you know all this. You're just letting worry cloud your judgment."

Lu Yeqing glared at her son. "Today's Xiao Xing's birthday. How can he just lie there sleeping all day?"

"Mom, let me take you home to rest. I'll stay here and watch over him. If he wakes up, I'll call you right away!" Lu Hean had Aunt Zheng take everyone back.

Lu Yeqing had barely slept all night and looked completely exhausted. She'd wanted to stay and wait for Xiao Xing to wake up, but then she remembered she hadn't prepared the birthday feast or gifts yet. So she went back with Aunt Zheng.

She'd go home, sleep, and then cook a whole table of dishes with her own hands.

Once his mother was gone, Lu Hean sighed.

He'd come back last night, keeping his mother company as they waited for Lu Xingwen to come home.

Even though Lu Xingwen had his own company and place, he still often came back to the home he'd grown up in.

Last night, he hadn't come home at all, and his phone was unreachable. The whole family was worried sick.

They knew Lu Xingwen got different around this time of year, especially sensitive about anything involving Su Xingze. So early that morning, Lu Yeqing had sent Lu Hean to find him at the company.

When Lu Hean reached the top-floor office of the Xingze Group building, the phone on the desk kept lighting up, but the man lying on the bed didn't answer any of the calls.

The room was pitch black, the curtains drawn tight.

Lu Xingwen's hand was still clenched around the glass shards from the shattered bottle. The bottle he'd just opened last night was gone.

Lu Hean quickly texted his mom to let her know he was safe. Lu Yeqing still insisted on sending him to the hospital.

If he didn't know his brother's pheromone levels were off the charts, he wouldn't have dared prescribe that kind of dose.

To induce hallucinations and see Su Xingze, his brother had been upping the dose more and more.

His brother had always insisted the current Su Xingze wasn't the real deal. Lu Hean had met Su Xingze many times. Honestly, sometimes he felt the same way, but it was too out there and went against everything he'd learned.

So Lu Hean was torn, half believing it, half not.

After getting Lu Xingwen's stomach pumped, Lu Hean was wiped out and decided to crash at a nearby hotel first.

As soon as he stepped out, he bumped into Su Xingze, who was going next door to pick up takeout.

Su Xingze raised his hand in greeting: "Lu Hean! What are you doing here?"

Lu Hean's eyelids twitched as he looked him up and down. This guy switched up again? Why did he seem different than before? And why was he at the hospital?

"Hello." Lu Hean greeted him and was about to walk away.

His tone made it clear he didn't want to keep talking. But they were headed the same direction and had to share an elevator, which made things super awkward.

Lu Hean cleared his throat and said: "My brother is staying in the room next to yours."

Something told him this Su Xingze was different somehow.

Su Xingze had already grabbed his food from the delivery guy. When he suddenly heard Lu Hean speak, he asked worriedly: "What happened to your brother?"

Lu Hean: "Ate something bad. Had to get his stomach pumped."

"Thanks." Su Xingze hurried upstairs with his stuff. But he had way too much stuff—he'd probably need two trips.

Lu Hean figured he'd do him a solid and carried it all up for him.

As he passed the hospital room again, he took a long look inside. Bro, this is the best I can do for you!

Su Xingze carried everything into Lu Xingwen's hospital room. He carefully arranged all the cakes and snacks, waiting for the Alpha in the bed to wake up.

A faint, subtle scent of pheromones hung in the air.

The Alpha's brows were knit tight, his face twisted in pain. He'd taken so many pills and still hadn't seen his Chen Chen.

In his dream, everything was endless white, stretching on forever. He ran for what felt like forever but never found the person he was looking for.

"Xiaolu? Xiaolu?" Su Xingze saw how much pain Lu Xingwen was in, so he called his name a few times, hoping to pull him out of the nightmare and wake him up.

In the dream, Lu Xingwen heard the calls and ran toward the sound.

A door appeared in front of him. He opened it and stepped through. After a blinding flash of white, he fought to open his eyes.

Was this... a hospital room?

Outside the window, the sun was bright, and a few chubby sparrows were perched in the trees, chirping and flicking their tails.

He looked around calmly and saw the person sitting in the chair, eyes full of worry.

The whole room was packed with snacks, all carefully decorated with little ornaments. There were also old-school birthday cakes—five in total, including the one in front of him, each a different flavor.

His Chen Chen had actually come to see him.

Lu Xingwen's eyes stung. He got up and pulled the person he'd been aching for into his arms. Guess the meds did do something—he could actually hold a solid form this time.

Su Xingze didn't know where to put his hands, so they just hovered awkwardly in the air.

They used to be close brothers, and sure, they'd hugged plenty of times, but never like this. Especially since the person in his arms was restlessly nuzzling against him.

Su Xingze's ears turned red bit by bit without him even realizing it. His voice was low as he said: "Xiaolu... stop nuzzling."

"No." Lu Xingwen refused very firmly and held on even tighter: "You finally came to see me once."

I'm such a jerk. I'm really such a jerk.

After Su Xingze finished condemning himself, even his neck turned red in patches.

Although they were already married, Su Xingze had zero experience and had no idea how to behave in a marriage. He just hoped they could keep things like when they were brothers—being life partners sounded pretty good too.

Lu Xingwen had finally seen him, and it was just a hallucination anyway. He definitely wasn't going to let this chance slip by. He looked up and bit down on that fair, smooth neck.

"Ah..." Su Xingze jumped up in fright, covering his neck with his hand: "You... what are you doing!"

Lu Xingwen wrapped his arms around him from behind, his voice low, inexplicably making Su Xingze's ear tingle. He stuck out his tongue and licked it. Su Xingze felt the wetness on his earlobe and shuddered all over.

Was it because he had been getting too excessive that Chen Chen stopped coming to see him?

But Lu Xingwen mischievously thought that Su Xingze looked especially cute like this.

He tilted his head and gently pecked the corner of Su Xingze's mouth: "You'll come find me again next time, okay?"

Su Xingze was so dazed from the kiss that he couldn't tell north from south, east from west, front from back, or left from right. In his confusion, he thought he was talking about that other man, so he nodded and said: "I'll find you, I'll find you."

Lu Xingwen thought he was so obedient. He reached out and poked his dimple, coaxing: "Then give me a kiss?"

==========Author's Note:==========

Although Xiaolu is a bit of a yandere, he would never hurt Chen Chen—only himself. Because he can't bear to.