Chapter 10

Chapter 10

In the hospital room, Lu Xingwen hid a smug, triumphant smile.

Sure enough, Su Xingze reached out to test the temperature of his forehead, snatching his fingers back, burned by the heat: "You have a fever?"

"Mm." Lu Xingwen pressed his hand against his own cheek to cool himself down.

As he had expected, Su Xingze did not refuse. Instead, looking worried, he placed his other hand on him as well to help cool him down.

Su Xingze recalled how Lu Xingwen had seemed today—no wonder his complexion had been so awful. At this temperature, he must have had a fever of over forty degrees.

"Lie down for a bit. I'll go get you some medicine." Su Xingze went to fetch the medicine, then brought back a cup of water for Lu Xingwen to drink.

The cold hospital room was still thick with a tender, intimate mood. Just as Lu Xingwen was about to make his next move, a phone call came in.

Lu Xingwen looked at the glowing phone, gripped it hard, and swiped to answer.

Yang Ye's voice crackled through immediately.

"Su Xingze! You actually dared to skip Ying Ying's birthday? You really think playing hard to get is gonna work? Do you have no shame? You insisted on buying those gifts, and now you want them all back? I'm standing right next to Ying Ying—explain yourself to him."

Lu Xingwen's voice went cold as ice: "Who are you?"

"The hell, who am I? You're asking who I am?" Yang Ye roared furiously: "Shit, who the hell are you? Put Su Xingze on the phone. Tell him if he doesn't speak up soon, I can't save his ass either."

Su Xingze took the phone, handed the cup to Lu Xingwen, and reassured him: "Be a good boy and take your medicine."

From what Su Xingze remembered, Lu Xingwen hated taking meds—he'd tough it out as long as possible, and only when he couldn't take it anymore would he get shots or IVs, but he'd still never take pills.

Su Xingze knew that Lu Xingwen must be aware of who Ying Ying was. So he stayed put and kept talking right in front of Lu Xingwen.

He took a deep breath and scoffed: "You keep yapping about Ying Ying all day—you got a crush on him or what? Oh, so you do like him. No wonder he's all you ever talk about! You're always trailing after him—are you his sidekick or his dog? Don't you know barking all the time is annoying as hell? Wait, you can talk! So you're not a dog after all. Right, calling you a dog would be an insult to dogs—you're not human, and you're worse than a dog."

"You—!" Yang Ye nearly choked on his rage and tossed the phone to Ying Ying.

Ying Ying's voice was deep and magnetic, low and resonant. The second he spoke, Su Xingze was reminded of the domineering male leads from those cheesy novels. He asked, in a fairly gentle tone: "Xingze, why didn't you come to my birthday?"

Su Xingze wasn't having any of it: "No time, no energy, no interest."

"You're not gonna come see me anymore, are you?" Ying Ying was clearly putting on a sad act, his voice dropping low.

"Are you some kind of two-faced bitch?" Su Xingze exclaimed in astonishment: "Wow, I really didn't see that coming. But I'm begging you both—stop bothering me from now on, alright? Pay me back ASAP, and we'll part ways peacefully. Never see each other again!"

Ying Ying said, his voice full of pain: "Xingze, but I—"

"Bang!" The glass cup that had been perfectly fine a second ago hit the floor and shattered into pieces. The sound was loud enough to draw everyone's attention.

To keep Su Xingze from getting cut by the glass, Lu Xingwen had even fallen on the opposite side of the bed. He coughed a few times, playing up his weakness: "Sorry, my hands are too weak. I couldn't hold onto it."

"Did you take your meds?" Su Xingze said sharply.

"Took 'em." Lu Xingwen leaned back against the headboard, looking totally pitiful.

On the other end, Yang Ye shouted in disbelief: "Who is he? Su Xingze! Who are you with?"

Su Xingze suppressed his irritation: "Are you ever gonna shut up? Are you literal crap? Ugly, disgusting, and your mouth is so foul? I'm telling you, give me my money back right now, or I'll sue you and let the law teach you some manners."

If it weren't for the tens of millions, he wouldn't have wasted a single word on them.

"Oh, and that guy next to you too. When I gave you those things, I never said they were gifts, did I? Now I've changed my mind. You and Yang Ye—bring the money over, both of you." Su Xingze finished speaking and prepared to hang up.

From the other end, Ying Ying asked: "Xingze, do you still remember Qing Cui?"

A chill ran down Su Xingze's spine. That was the jade pendant his mom had left him—her only keepsake, meant for the person he'd spend the rest of his life with.

Had he actually given the pendant to Ying Ying?

Had he really been that stupid?

Ying Ying continued: "I've heard the story behind it, and I'm willing to give it back to you."

Hearing this, Lu Xingwen grabbed Su Xingze's sleeve, his forehead covered in cold sweat, panting painfully: "Chen Chen, I feel terrible. My head is killing me."

Su Xingze hung up without a second thought, slapped a fever patch on the Alpha's forehead, and cooled him down with his hands.

Ying Ying stared at the dark phone screen. Two-faced bitch? Hadn't he noticed the giant two-faced bitch right next to Su Xingze?

If he hadn't fully taken over the Ying family yet and still needed the Xingze Group's backing, he wouldn't have bothered being so polite to Su Xingze.

He was just a simp anyway. Ying Ying had plenty of simps—he didn't need this one.

Ying Ying slung an arm around Yang Ye's shoulder: "Come on, have a drink with me?"

Yang Ye swatted his hand away: "Don't you think Su Xingze's changed? What if he actually sues us and demands the money back? Then what?"

Ying Ying said casually: "He won't. I still have Qing Cui. Besides, this isn't the first time. He's just making a bigger fuss this time. In a few days, he'll come crawling back."

No need to worry—he was the protagonist of this book. And Su Xingze was just an insignificant extra.

"True. He always makes a big fuss but never follows through. No matter how loud he gets, he'll cool off on his own in a few days." Yang Ye relaxed, smiling as he snuggled into Ying Ying's arms.

Su Xingze called a doctor in to check on Lu Xingwen.

The doctor prescribed a bunch of fever meds and used physical cooling methods, but Lu Xingwen's fever was so high it still hadn't broken by the afternoon.

The assistant brought dinner. After they ate, the assistant wheeled the extra bed over.

Assistant Xu smiled: "Boss, am I done for the day?"

Lu Xingwen nodded: "Mm. Give yourself and everyone outside a raise."

"Thank you, boss!" Assistant Xu bolted out of there in a flash. He'd originally planned to complain to his friends about having to move the bed every day—boss's heart, deep as the ocean, impossible to read. Now he just wanted to brag about getting a raise again!

Su Xingze lay on his bed, turning his head to ask: "Why'd your fever get so bad?"

Why else? Because a certain Alpha had been taking cold showers every day—each one over half an hour long.

Lu Xingwen turned his head to answer: "It's the change of seasons. I caught a cold."

Su Xingze yawned. After reading papers all day, he was dead tired—even math class had never made him this sleepy. He pulled up his blanket: "Call me if you need anything. I'm gonna sleep for a bit."

"Okay."

The second Su Xingze fell asleep, the tenderness in Lu Xingwen's eyes faded. He threw on his clothes, grabbed his phone, and stepped out onto the balcony to call Assistant Wang.

Assistant Wang was busy on the other end, background noise chaotic and loud, voices all jumbled together. He wedged the phone between his shoulder and ear and asked: "Boss, what's up?"

Lu Xingwen said succinctly, "Give me all the dirt on Ying Ying, right now."

Assistant Wang, holding a baseball bat with one hand, smiled and asked, "Do you want him to never get out, or just teach him a lesson?"

"That's letting him off too easy. I want to torment him little by little." Lu Xingwen curled a sinister smile. The night breeze was chilly, but by the time he returned to the ward, he had regained his warm, jade-like composure.

A top-tier Alpha's body is tough as nails; aside from the troubles of pheromones, there is no ailment that can bring one down. He was only playing weak to keep his Omega close.

The original second step of the plan was to increase contact and deepen their bond. Unexpectedly, it was interrupted by those two. He looked at the Omega sleeping soundly on the bed, carefully tucking in the blanket, revealing a fair and adorable face.

Just as Lu Xingwen placed his hand on him, Su Xingze struggled and shifted away, mumbling indistinctly in his sleep, "Xiaolu, where's my car? Come on, let's take you for a spin..."

Lu Xingwen found it endearing. "What car?"

"Mmm..." Su Xingze didn't answer, snoring away, then started muttering again, "The paper... why is it so hard..."

Seeing this, Lu Xingwen couldn't help but hatch some wild, mischievous ideas again.