After the Divorce, I Went Back to My Hometown, Pregnant and Became the Sheriff - Chapter 4

“Jiang Xu!” He Xianxing pounded on the restroom door. “Are you alright?”

“I am fine,” Jiang Xu gasped, leaning against the back of the door. He fought to suppress the groans of pain that threatened to escape. After a moment of heavy breathing, he stumbled toward the vanity and turned on the faucet to splash water into his mouth.

The flow washed over his face. He leaned his entire upper body against the sink, but the coolness could not dispel the dry heat raging inside him. Jiang Xu looked up, his gaze settling on the man in the mirror. He saw deep, furrowed brows and a forehead drenched in sweat.

“Bastard,” he muttered, punching the mirror in frustration. Then, tightening his body and resigning himself to his fate, he reached two fingers deep into his throat.

The pressure against his throat wall triggered a violent gag reflex. He hunched over the sink, his body convulsing uncontrollably. He could only manage to grip the edge of the vanity to keep his balance while repeatedly inducing vomiting.

The remains of the food in his stomach were forced out. The process lasted nearly ten minutes until nothing was left. Only then did Jiang Xu slowly withdraw his fingers, feeling utterly depleted. He wiped the mess from his mouth with a weary hand. His lips throbbed with pain, likely from being strained during the ordeal.

Doctors called this Alcohol Dependency Syndrome. It was a psychological condition of unknown origin and difficult to cure. Specifically, once the brain realized the body was in contact with alcohol, it would uncontrollably trigger a state of heat.

This affliction had existed since the day he presented as an Omega. For someone determined to enter the security system, such a condition was a glaring liability. Rather than expose his weakness, Jiang Xu had chosen to hide his Omega identity entirely. He had always been skilled at concealment; he had kept his secret for over a decade without failure. If anything, Tongtong was the only “accident” in his life thus far.

Jiang Xu scooped up water and carefully cleaned the vanity.

The image of a pair of cold, grey-blue eyes flickered in his mind. He felt dazed. Realizing He Xianxing had still not left the area outside, he wiped the sweat from his face, gathered his thoughts, and opened the door.

“Jiang Xu,” He Xianxing was standing right there.

Jiang Xu swept a tired glance over him. “I am fine.” His voice was unusually hoarse and his face was deathly pale, save for a feverish, abnormal red tint at the corners of his eyes and lips.

“But you look terrible.”

“I said I am fine!”

Jiang Xu raised his voice. When the other man refused to move, he shouldered past He Xianxing. His pheromones were currently unstable, and both his physical state and mood were wretched. He had no energy to waste on repetitive arguments with an Alpha.

Suddenly, his wrist was snatched. Caught off guard and off balance, he was pulled directly into He Xianxing’s chest. The scent of Alpha pheromones swirled around his nose. Jiang Xu looked up with a cold glare. “Why do you always insist on grabbing people by the wrist?”

“I just wanted to check on you.”

“Are you finished checking?” Jiang Xu tilted his chin up, a thin veil of anger in his eyes. His long neck was covered in fine beads of sweat that trailed down to his collarbones.

He Xianxing looked down. He saw that the front of Jiang Xu’s shirt was wet, clinging to his wheat-colored skin and revealing the lean, powerful lines of his frame.

“You,” He Xianxing looked away, a suspicious flush appearing on his face as he gave an indecisive response.

Jiang Xu shook off his hand. He Xianxing, still flushed, pressed further. “Are you really okay?”

“I have no reason to lie to you.”

“I am sorry. I did not know you were allergic to alcohol.”

He Xianxing slumped his head, looking pitifully apologetic. This, in turn, made Jiang Xu feel like the villain.

“It is not your fault,” Jiang Xu sighed, his voice softening with resignation. “I did not mean to snap at you. I am just not in a good state right now. I want to take Tongtong home.”

“I will take you.”

“Thanks, but that is not necessary.”

However, He Xianxing insisted. Unable to sway him, Jiang Xu had to let the man follow him all the way back.

When the two adults and the child reached the base of the staff apartment building, Jiang Xu finally reached his limit. “I am home, Inspector He.”

“So am I.”

“What?”

He Xianxing offered a slight smile. “I live in 302. What about you?”

“301.”

Back home, Jiang Xu slept through almost the entire afternoon before he finally recovered his energy. That evening, he prepared food for his son and tucked him into bed. By the time he finished, it was nearly eleven o’clock.

He walked out to the balcony to collect the laundry and found He Xianxing leaning over the railing, smoking. There were four units per floor in the staff apartment. 301 and 302 were immediate neighbors, with less than two meters separating their balconies. It was bizarre that they had never run into each other before.

Upon seeing Jiang Xu, He Xianxing narrowed his eyes and smiled in greeting. “Feeling better?” He seemed to have just showered; he wore a loose, plain long-sleeved shirt, and his damp hair curled naturally at the ends.

“Much better after some sleep.”

“I did not expect us to be neighbors.”

“I am surprised the bureau puts an officer of Inspector rank in a small apartment building like this,” Jiang Xu said casually, reaching for the last few items on the clothesline. “Is there not a policy for high salaries to prevent corruption lately?”

“The other housing complexes were full,” He Xianxing tossed a pack of cigarettes toward him. “Hey, catch!”

Jiang Xu turned and caught it. He Xianxing’s cigarettes had a very light flavor, not the kind Jiang Xu usually preferred, but his craving had been triggered the day before. Looking at the pack, the urge to smoke flared up again.

He glanced inside the apartment, placed the cigarettes on the balcony for a moment, and reached for a pair of underwear on the rack. He folded them twice and placed them on the stack of laundry. He looked up to find He Xianxing staring at him. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” He Xianxing said, shifting his gaze away from the pile of clothes.

“I am going inside to put these away.”

When Jiang Xu returned to the balcony, he had a lighter in his hand. He slid the glass door shut, placed a cigarette between his lips, lit it, and tossed the pack back to He Xianxing.

He Xianxing teased him. “You are trying to quit, yet you still keep a lighter in the house.”

“I cannot quite kick the habit,” Jiang Xu leaned back against the railing. “Sometimes just holding the lighter helps when the craving hits.”

“Haha,” He Xianxing chuckled softly. “Are you quitting because of Tongtong?”

“Yes.”

“It must be hard raising a child alone.”

“It is alright.”

He Xianxing looked at Jiang Xu’s profile through the thin veil of smoke. Jiang Xu was usually a man of few words, but he seemed willing to speak more when the topic was his son. “It was harder when he was a newborn. Now that he is older, he is much more sensible than other kids his age.”

“Were you already divorced when he was born?” He Xianxing asked, surprised.

“Close enough.”

“Tongtong’s mother must be very beautiful.”

“Ah,” Jiang Xu fell into a brief silence. He leaned his head back, looking up at the night sky which was stained red by artificial lights.

That person’s face flickered in his mind again, though the features were no longer clear. Having grown up by the sea, he was used to the blue of the ocean. Looking back, the reason he had felt such an impulse toward that person was likely because those grey-blue eyes always reminded him of the sea back home.

“Sorry, I am prying into your privacy again.”

“No, it is fine. I just find it difficult to remember what he looked like,” Jiang Xu said honestly. He lightly flicked the ash from his cigarette and looked at He Xianxing. “Let us talk about you instead.”

“Me?”

“Why were you afraid to shoot?”

“That,” He Xianxing smiled softly, the gentle night light tracing his handsome features. He had a very likable smile, one so innocent that it could easily make most people believe anything he said. “During a shooting exam at the police academy, I accidentally injured a classmate.”

Jiang Xu’s mind wandered for a moment as He Xianxing continued. “The results of that exam were to be part of our permanent records. My marksmanship was never great, but that time I performed beyond my level, hitting the bullseye repeatedly. I had finished and was stepping off the range when the gun misfired. The bullet hit a junior student.” He lowered his eyes, his voice sounding airy. “He was only there to observe, but he ended up being a victim of a freak accident.”

Silence stretched between them, broken only by the occasional sound of a car horn from the distant road. Suddenly, He Xianxing gave a small laugh. “By the way, do you know what happened afterward?”

“What happened?” Jiang Xu’s voice was carried away by the night wind.

“Because of my ‘excellent’ performance in that exam, the S-City Security Bureau took notice. They wanted to recruit me early. Technically, I should have been a criminal, right?”

“You said ‘criminal’,” Jiang Xu started, taken aback. “Did that student…?”

“Oh, I was being dramatic,” He Xianxing scratched the bridge of his nose and put on a bright smile again. “He did not die. He spent a few months in the hospital and then went back to school to finish his studies.”

“I see,” Jiang Xu murmured. He felt a sting of heat on his fingertips and looked down to see that his cigarette had burned out.

Support After the Divorce, I Went Back to My Hometown, Pregnant and Became the Sheriff