Married the Abandoned Puppy Alpha - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Amusement Park

When they returned to Shi Qingze’s home, the packaging of the suppressant patch torn open that morning still lay messily on the coffee table.

The moment He Xinglou’s gaze fell upon it, the scene of Shi Qingze helping him apply the patch that morning flashed back.

His heart fluttered in disarray. He quickly looked away, only to find Shi Qingze behind him, watching him with a focused gaze.

It was hard to tell if he had sensed his thoughts.

“Your wound probably needs more treatment.” He Xinglou spoke with forced composure, trying to divert his attention.

Only then did Shi Qingze look down at his slightly reddened arm.

“It seems a bit inflamed; it needs to be disinfected first.”

He then looked back at He Xinglou, tilting his head slightly: “Can Brother help me handle it?”

Xinglou froze. While it was just a small favor, Shi Qingze could surely disinfect it himself…

Quickly, Shi Qingze added: “I helped Brother apply the suppressant patch this morning. Making this request now isn’t too much, is it?”

The moment he mentioned the morning’s events, He Xinglou’s scalp tingled with embarrassment. He hurriedly said, “Fine, fine, I’ll help you. Stop talking about it.”

Shi Qingze let out a low laugh.

Xinglou glanced at him displeasedly, sensing that this person had brought it up on purpose.

Since words spoken are like water spilled, He Xinglou could only resign himself to the task. He retrieved the medical kit from the house and cautiously used cotton balls to treat the wound.

In the dark alley, Shi Qingze must have been driven by desperation; the injection had sliced through the skin and flesh. Now, the wound was gaping open, and with every movement, blood welled up. It was not something that could be handled with simple disinfection.

He Xinglou felt a pang of unease. He silently bandaged him, his fingertips inevitably stained with a bit of blood.

“In the past, Brother always treated my wounds like this,” Shi Qingze said suddenly, sitting quietly by his side.

“Do you remember, Brother? That time you found me at the amusement park. You were so angry when you saw I was injured that you almost went to punch the park owner directly.”

He Xinglou didn’t want to bring up the past and was about to snap, but then he remembered they had already had a massive fight tonight.

He really didn’t want to have another conflict before sleeping. Moreover, if they really were to have a contract marriage, fighting like this every day wasn’t a solution.

Therefore, he followed the lead: “It was because that owner was subhuman. Your hand was mangled by the mascot costume’s mechanism, yet he still wanted you to keep working. He was bullying a minor.”

He was busy bandaging the wound, so he couldn’t see that Shi Qingze was looking down at him, his gaze so gentle it could scoop up a handful of spring water.

After finishing the bandage, he turned Shi Qingze’s palm over and quickly found a faint white scar on the index finger.

He Xinglou couldn’t help but sigh: “Life was too bitter during that time. For you, you probably never suffered that kind of grievance growing up.”

Take the amusement park incident he had been terrified of. If he had arrived an hour later, it would have been hard to save Shi Qingze’s finger.

Thinking about it, the things the Shi family said to insult him weren’t wrong.

If he hadn’t taken Shi Qingze home without permission, the Shi family might have found him sooner and taken him back for proper medical treatment. Shi Qingze wouldn’t have had to go out to work odd jobs at such a young age and nearly become disabled.

So, that night, he had notified the Shi family to pick him up.

And the next day, he abandoned Shi Qingze.

Thinking of this, He Xinglou sighed again.

It was one thing for him to have the bad luck of transmigrating into this world, but dragging someone else into his misfortune was quite immoral.

Unexpectedly, Shi Qingze reacted strongly, grabbing his hand: “It wasn’t bitter at all.”

He Xinglou was stunned. Looking up, he realized the two were very close now. Shi Qingze’s bangs brushed against his eyelids, feeling a bit itchy.

In those eyes with a faint grey undertone, he could clearly see his own reflection.

“It wasn’t bitter at all, Brother,” Shi Qingze repeated with absolute certainty.

“That period of time was the happiest of my life.”

Xinglou blinked and gave a short laugh, withdrawing his hand from the other’s palm.

“Perhaps, for you, a rich young master suddenly experiencing the life of a pauper was instead a novel experience in your life.”

“Of course not!” Shi Qingze raised his voice.

After speaking, as if afraid of scaring He Xinglou, more rebuttals stuck in his throat. He said in a low voice: “…How can Brother think of me like that?”

He Xinglou pressed his lips into a thin line, unwilling to soften his heart.

Otherwise, what else could it be?

In those years, He Xinglou was dirt poor, wishing he could break a single star-coin in half to use. If he hadn’t held onto the hope of returning to his own world, he wouldn’t have lasted until today.

How could it not be bitter?

Before transmigrating, he was a child grown up surrounded by love, with a happy family and many friends. He had never done a single bad thing so why was he the one who transmigrated to this strange world?

He also wanted to go home. He missed his relatives and friends dearly. He didn’t want to be scurrying around like a rat as he was now, even using marriage as a transaction, forced to give up his dignity to beg for help, relying on someone else’s protection.

And now Shi Qingze says those were his happiest days.

…What a joke.

He suddenly put down the cotton swab: “The bandaging is done. I’m going to wash my hands.”

With that, he walked quickly into the bathroom, only calming down once he touched the cold water.

At that moment, a light knock came from the door. He Xinglou turned to look, seeing Shi Qingze’s silhouette through the rippled glass door.

“Brother, are you angry with me again?” the person outside asked tentatively.

He Xinglou composed his emotions and opened the door: “No, I was simply washing my hands.”

He prepared to walk toward the sofa, but Shi Qingze followed him step by step, refusing to let him go.

“Brother doesn’t believe me. Why?”

Exasperated, He Xinglou turned to confront him: “Shi Qingze, let me go. Not every question needs to be picked apart to the root. I’ve been very tired these past two days.”

Shi Qingze watched him silently and stopped talking.

Xinglou also knew his own mindset was problematic. It was hard to speak properly to the person in front of him; instead, it looked like he was the one bullying the other.

So he softened his tone: “Just get some good rest, okay? Tomorrow I still need to look at the contract.”

Shi Qingze’s gaze was heavy: “Before sleeping, can you listen to one last sentence from me?”

He Xinglou could only nod, silently praying he wouldn’t say anything that would make him lose sleep from anger.

Then he heard the person in front of him say: “Back then, Brother and I would both go to part-time jobs. We even set a celebration day. Do you remember, Brother?”

He Xinglou answered in a low voice: “…It was the day we both got our wages every month.”

Shi Qingze looked at him earnestly: “On the night of the celebration day, we would sit on the roof together, counting how many star-coins we earned that month. When we got tired of checking the accounts, we would start counting stars, or the fireflies in the suburban wilderness we just had no interest in counting how many star-coins were actually in our terminal accounts.”

“Brother, do you truly not feel that we were the happiest then?”

He Xinglou was speechless.

He suddenly felt a bit sad, as if he could feel the night wind from that time blowing from the wilderness, rushing into his chest.

“But now, you still want to use a marriage agreement to seize the heir position,” he said finally.

He raised his eyes slowly: “We’ve both changed, Shi Qingze. We were too small then, too young. We didn’t understand that people must bow to reality. And before seeing that truth clearly, everyone is happy and naive.”

“So, you weren’t happy because of the time we spent together; you were just happy every day because you were young. If you hadn’t encountered the kidnapping incident, you would also be full of emotions today, reminiscing about those years.”

And in that hypothetical timeline, they wouldn’t have met at all.

He Xinglou had known clearly two years ago that even if Shi Qingze hadn’t met him, he would have lived very happily.

They were never each other’s necessity.

…

Xinglou didn’t know how he got back to his room.

After he finished that long speech, Shi Qingze seemed to give up on communicating further, though his mood was quite low.

That night, he dreamt about the past again.

In the dream, he stood in an amusement park where heavy snow was falling. In the distance was the luxury hover-car the Shi family had prepared to take their young master home.

Standing before him was the Shi Qingze of two years ago. The youth had just differentiated into an Alpha. During the out-of-control differentiation period, he had done many out-of-line things; He Xinglou even had marks left by him on his neck.

Under his clothes, there were even more.

Shi Qingze’s face was flushed, his eyes watery. After seeing the marks on He Xinglou’s neck and collarbone, he looked away in panic.

“Brother, I’m sorry. Before… I couldn’t control myself.”

He Xinglou shook his head: “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

Unexpectedly, after he gave comfort, Shi Qingze instead seemed slightly disappointed.

However, He Xinglou had no heart to speculate on his thoughts then, only continuing with what he wanted to say.

He spoke: “A-Ze, have you recovered your memory?”

Shi Qingze raised his head in surprise and instinctively shook his head, but he couldn’t bring himself to say a word of denial.

He Xinglou wasn’t smiling. He looked as calm as a machine. Clearly, he already knew his identity.

“It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it,” He Xinglou said again.

Now Shi Qingze sensed something was wrong. He rushed forward two steps, grabbing him with burning hot hands: “Brother, let me explain.”

He’s still feverish. He Xinglou looked inconspicuously at the hand gripping his wrist.

Since that was the case, he couldn’t delay any longer.

Where would he get the money or ability to find someone to treat him? He shouldn’t bring harm to Shi Qingze.

So, He Xinglou slowly pulled his hand out.

“Shi Qingze, go back. I don’t want you anymore.”

“The ‘playing house’ game is over.”

The subsequent developments had already been repeated hundreds of times in He Xinglou’s memories.

He saw Shi Qingze fall in the snow, calling for him in vain, and then being forcibly helped up by the Shi family.

But what surprised He Xinglou this time was that even as he sat in the car driving away, he saw Shi Qingze’s face clearly.

A face full of tears, heartbroken.

He Xinglou woke up with a start.

The sky was not yet bright. He tapped his communicator, and the marriage agreement popped up instantly.

He opened the door and, as expected, saw Shi Qingze already sitting by the sofa, as if waiting for him to deliver the final verdict.

“I agree to most of the terms in this agreement, with only one point.”

He Xinglou sent the modified agreement through the terminal.

He wasn’t smiling, his tone calm: “A one-year duration. Within this year, I will help you get the heir position, and you will help me get my Imperial Capital Star residency. Once the year is over, the agreement is void. We will part ways and never see each other again.”

Shi Qingze listened to him in silence. His gaze fell on the newly added, red-highlighted term at the end, like seeing a permanent red light at the end of the road.

He closed his eyes and signed his name.

“…Fine.”