If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 22

“Actually, I’ve always been very curious,” Zhou Wan said. “Why can’t I smell your pheromones?”

He sniffed carefully once more to confirm, but aside from his own pheromones, he couldn’t catch any other scent.

Lin Luo cast a brief, indifferent glance at him, averted his eyes, and changed the subject. “What do we do now? Without an inhibitor, you can’t even step out of this door.”

Zhou Wan remained completely unbothered. Taking advantage of his current weakness, he simply began to act shameless. Forcing down the salty, metallic taste of blood in his throat, he leaned slightly to the side and rested his head on Lin Luo’s shoulder, saying, “I won’t die just yet.”

Aside from looking a bit frail, he appeared no different from usual, there was no longer any sign of the frantic excitement characteristic of a heat cycle.

However, this was often far more dangerous. Pheromones that failed to find release during the peak period would remain dormant inside the body, continuously building up.

Not only would this cause hormonal instability, but there was no telling when they might surge up again, potentially with a force several times more violent than the initial heat.

To put it in layman’s terms, he was like a walking gas tank. At the slightest provocation, the pheromones could explode right inside him.

“Are you planning to never step foot outside for the rest of your life?”

Zhou Wan glanced at him, wrapping his arms around him. “That wouldn’t be impossible.”

Lin Luo: ?

“We can’t keep going on like this forever.” Lin Luo looked around, feeling anxious. This space was too “flimsy” someone could burst in at any moment.

As if wrapped in a sudden chill, Zhou Wan let out a faint, exhausted yawn. His body gradually grew cold, and his energy began to wane further.

“A heat cycle should be resolved with the most primitive method meant for a heat cycle,” he muttered.

Then, he slowly closed his eyes. “I’m going to take a quick nap. Maybe I’ll be fine once I wake up.”

Lin Luo counterd, “Do you think you just caught a common cold? Just sleeping it off and…”

The sound of even breathing came from beside his ear. He looked sideways at Zhou Wan, and the phrase “a heat cycle should be resolved with the most primitive method meant for a heat cycle” began to loop in his mind.

The second hand on the wall clock ticked away relentlessly, and the silenced phone in his pocket vibrated anxiously.

Every passing second scraped against Lin Luo’s frayed nerves. Suddenly, the phrase “desperate times call for desperate measures” popped into his head.

Having tried and failed to reason with himself, his nose instinctively drew closer to the crook of Zhou Wan’s neck.

His throat felt dry, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Just as he closed his eyes, footsteps sounded outside the door once again.

With a sharp clatter, the sound of a metallic object dropping to the floor snapped Lin Luo back to reality. He blinked, instantly bolting upright against the wall, not daring to breathe.

Right after, his heartbeat, as if only just reacting, began to hammer frantically against his chest, thumping so hard it felt like it would leap out of his throat.

“Teacher Zhao!” someone called out from outside.

Zhao Wenying’s voice responded, “Grandpa Wan Yu, why are you here?”

The parent lowered his head and pulled a plastic bag out from his chest pocket. Unwrapping it layer by layer, beneath the plastic bag was a ragged piece of cloth, beneath the cloth was a scrap of newspaper, and finally, from the innermost layer, he extracted a brand-new notebook printed with a sponsor’s advertisement.

With trembling hands, he handed the notebook to Zhao Wenying, along with a bag of eggs held in his other hand.

A dozen or so eggs were packed in a heavily worn, crinkled plastic bag, the very same snack bag Wan Yu’s parents had brought back the last time they visited.

Zhao Wenying pushed open the window, naturally placing the items on the table by the windowsill, and quickly closed the window again.

He glanced at the items in the old man’s hands, frowning. “What is the meaning of this?”

The old man said timidly, “Please take this.” He used the inside of his sleeve to wipe the cover of the notebook, opened it, and asked anxiously, “Wan Yu only used one page. That shouldn’t matter, right?”

“Thank you for looking after him all these years. Wan Yu… won’t be coming to school anymore.”

“Why?” Zhao Wenying asked in bewilderment. “If you’re worried about money, I can handle it. Didn’t we already agree on this?”

“No, no,” the old man waved his hands repeatedly. “He’s just not cut out for studying. He might as well start doing farm work with me early, the household could use another pair of hands.”

Dropping out in elementary school? Lin Luo’s heart twinged with a wave of indescribable distress.

His gaze fell upon the items Zhao Wenying had just set inside, and he froze. Wasn’t that exactly the inhibitor they so desperately needed right now?

“How could that be? Wan Yu is highly talented at writing. I even submitted one of his essays to a competition,” Zhao Wenying pulled up a few photos on his phone to show the old man. “Look, these are all the awards he’s won. The certificates and trophies will be mailed here very soon.”

The old man smiled bitterly. “You don’t need to tell me all this. I don’t understand it, and I can’t follow it.”

“I only know that his father was the one who studied his way out of here. Once he left, he forgot how to come back. He didn’t make anything of himself out there either, he still just ended up working in a factory for someone else.” He glanced sideways at Zhao Wenying. “If Wan Yu leaves too, there will be no one left to do the work at home.”

Avoiding the line of sight from the outside, Lin Luo strained to reach for the inhibitor on the table.

Unexpectedly, the moment his fingers brushed against it, his eyes locked right with Zhao Wenying’s. After a few seconds of tense stillness, Zhao Wenying looked away as if he hadn’t seen a thing and resumed trying to persuade the old man.

Unfortunately, despite all his pleading and reasoning, he couldn’t change the old man’s mind, and the conversation ultimately ended on a sour note.

Once the inhibitor was in hand, Lin Luo double checked it. The tray even thoughtfully included the relevant sterilization supplies.

Lin Luo had never had to inject an inhibitor himself during his own heat cycles. After studying it for ages without figuring it out, he was growing increasingly anxious when Zhao Wenying, who had doubled back, pushed the door open and walked in.

He walked over to the sink to wash his hands, then came back over to Lin Luo’s side. Half-squatting, he silently picked up an alcohol swab to sanitize his hands.

After completing all the pre-injection preparations, he aimed the needle at the sanitized patch of Zhou Wan’s skin. In less than half a minute, this hour-long farce was brought to an end.

“All done.” After bandaging the wound on Zhou Wan’s hand, Zhao Wenying spoke while cleaning up the waste materials. “He’ll wake up in ten minutes.”

Lin Luo stood by, too stunned to speak. The bandaging technique was highly professional. After a long pause, he finally spoke up, “How did you know?”

“I just happened to pass by and caught the scent.” Zhao Wenying forced a smile. “You don’t need to overthink it. It was just a minor favor.”

Lin Luo lowered his gaze. “I’m not overthinking it… and this won’t change my opinion of you.”

“But looking at the facts, thank you this time.”

Zhao Wenying stood up, picked up the blood-stained knife that had flown across the floor earlier, and cleaned up the bloodstains on the ground. “Once he wakes up, you two should leave as soon as possible. It’s… not safe here.”

Lin Luo was puzzled, but after a delayed realization, he called out to stop him. “Regarding that matter just now. I can help.”

Under Zhao Wenying’s watchful gaze, he uncomfortably shifted his eyes away. “Consider it a return favor. I don’t like owing people.”

Zhao Wenying fell silent for a moment, then smiled. “Thank you.”

The timing was impeccable. Just as the minute hand on the wall clock ticked past exactly ten spaces, Zhou Wan woke up. He leaned weakly against the wall to sit upright, his head swimming and throbbing with waves of pain.

“I am…” As his consciousness slowly returned, his brow furrowed. “Where did you get an inhibitor?”

Lin Luo stood up agilely and brushed the dust off his clothes. Without giving him a single glance, he deflected the topic. “Now that you’re awake, let’s head back quickly.”

With that, he walked toward the door on his own. Seeing that the other person wasn’t following, he turned his head to look back.

Zhou Wan was sitting on the ground with disheveled hair and a pale complexion. One of his shoes had slipped off somewhere along the way, and he was completely drenched, looking thoroughly wretched from head to toe. He looked back at Lin Luo with a gaze full of restrained, fragile brokenness, looking thoroughly pitiful.

“You really need to lose some weight.” Lin Luo trudged forward heavily with Zhou Wan on his back, feeling as though he had overdrawn his lifetime quota for carrying people.

His mouth grumbled about making him eat less, but when his hands actually brushed against the prominent ridge of Zhou Wan’s spine, he realized the man didn’t feel heavy at all.

“Once I’m better, it’ll be my turn to carry you,” Zhou Wan said.

Lin Luo scoffed. “No need. I don’t have that kind of good fortune.”

“By the time it’s your turn to carry me, I expect I’ll be completely immobilized.”

He dropped Zhou Wan off at his personal lounge to let his staff handle him, then returned to his own private space. Checking the time, he saw there were only ten minutes left, so he quickly took a shower.

Ming Songqin was the first to arrive at the filming location, perfectly fitting his workaholic, domineering CEO persona.

In contrast, Gu Ning who sat obediently to the side, yawning while reluctantly learning how to weave a bamboo hat with an expression of suppressed grievance, looked slightly out of place.

Seeing Lin Luo come out, Gu Ning hurriedly gestured for Lin Luo to take his seat, while he himself skipped over a spot to sit further away from Ming Songqin.

He tossed the half-woven bamboo hat in his hands to Lin Luo. “You’re finally here. I should call you big brother.” He shot a quiet, sideways glance at Ming Songqin. “You take my place and be ‘tortured’ instead.”

As he spoke, he rose to leave, only to be swiftly grabbed back by Ming Songqin. Pressed down into the seat on Ming Songqin’s other side, a newly started bamboo hat that had only been woven a couple of times was shoved into his hands. Pushing up his glasses with his forearm without even lifting his head, Ming Songqin said, “Weave one properly from start to finish.” His tone brooked no argument.

“Wait a minute!” Gu Ning pointed at the half-finished product in Lin Luo’s hands that he had spent half an hour weaving. “You said the exact same thing just now!”

“And that one is mine!”

While comparing his own bamboo hat against the sample woven by the master craftsman, Ming Songqin accurately swatted Gu Ning’s hand away. “It isn’t anymore.”

Lin Luo curled his lips, helplessly spreading his hands.

With five minutes left before filming commenced, Zhou Wan arrived late, pushing his wheelchair. Although he had already been tended to, his complexion still looked off, appearing as though a gust of wind could blow him away.

From the moment Zhou Wan entered his field of vision, Lin Luo’s gaze instinctively followed him until he came to a stop by his side.

The director glanced at the conspicuous gauze on Zhou Wan’s hand and stepped forward to inquire, but Zhou Wan brushed it off.

Strangely enough, the eldest Young Master Zhou, who just over an hour ago had used his leg injury as an excuse to shut down Gu Ning and avoid participating in activities, had somehow undergone a shift. Despite now having an injured hand on top of it, he actually proactively proposed participating in the hands-on activity.

Just as Gu Ning had anticipated, someone had finally taken the bottom spot for him.

Ming Songqin’s serious learning attitude and rigorous style naturally secured him first place once again. Lin Luo was the perennial runner-up, and Gu Ning took third but at least he had Zhou Wan at the very bottom.

As he walked past, Gu Ning raised an eyebrow at Zhou Wan, his attitude arrogant. “Young Master Zhou’s spirit is truly commendable. A glorious defeat indeed.”

But he forgot that Zhou Wan was currently a genuine medical patient; no one dared to actually let him go up the mountain to “explore” alone.

The director negotiated, “President Gu, look at Little Zhou…” He gestured vaguely in the air. “How about you display some humanitarian spirit and give him a hand?”

“Why should I!”

Gu Ning didn’t actually want to drive Zhou Wan into a corner, he was just indignant. Why was it that even though they were both pampered young masters, when he lost, he had to serve tea and pour water while being bullied by that absolute psycho Ming Songqin, but when it came to Zhou Wan, everyone doted on him?

At worst, they could just skip this penalty entirely so that no one had to face punishment.

But shifting the punishment onto someone else was truly a bit insulting.

“I can do it,” Zhou Wan said. “I accept my loss.”

He let out a couple of coughs after speaking. The moment that delicate sense of frailty surfaced, it immediately drew the sympathy of those who didn’t know the full story. The looks the crew members cast toward Gu Ning began to change.

Gu Ning cursed quietly under his breath, calling him a total hypocrite.

“He’s right,” Ming Songqin stepped forward, looking across at everyone to offer a fair word. “If you play the game, you accept the loss.”

“But Little Zhou’s health…” The director said hesitantly.

Having learned his lesson before, his hesitation stemmed more from a fear of Zhou Wan’s background.

“It’s fine. I will take responsibility,” Ming Songqin said expressionlessly, suppressing the director’s doubts.

“I’ll go with him,” Lin Luo proposed.

Almost simultaneously, Ming Songqin and Gu Ning chorused in unison, “No!”

The two of them exchanged a glance, looking at each other in confusion. “?”

Gu Ning broke eye contact first, pulling Lin Luo to the side and lowering his voice. “What are you trying to prove? Have you forgotten the state of your own body?”

“The mountain cave is damp and cold… your, your old shoulder injury is going to flare up again.”

Lin Luo lightly patted his hand, smiling to comfort him. “It’s fine, I’m much better now.” As he spoke, he even loosened his shoulders to prove it to him.

Gu Ning took it all in, his expression exceptionally grave and serious. “I am not joking.”