The Dangerous Omega Who is Good at Disguising Always Wants to Hook Me! - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Two Sides

Around six o’clock, Qi Yan returned to the vicinity of the apartment.

Before going upstairs, he glanced at the window of Shen Xiliu’s home. The lights were on, the curtains half-drawn, and a silhouette seemed to flicker behind them; the other man was likely home.

“Ding!”

The elevator chimed. Qi Yan stepped out, intending to go to his own home first, but when he looked up, he saw Shen Xiliu’s door slightly ajar. He decided to walk over and knock: “Mr. Shen, are you home?”

“Qi Yan? I’m here.” A voice sounded from inside after a short beat, accompanied by a soft gasp of pain. “Come right in. Sorry, it’s not very convenient for me to come to the door right now.”

“Excuse the intrusion, then.” Qi Yan pushed open the ajar door. Many things in Shen Xiliu’s house had not yet been unpacked, stacked in cardboard boxes against one wall; the living room was very empty.

With just a glance, Qi Yan knew that Shen Xiliu must have organized a small portion this afternoon. His ankle was sprained, not broken, so it wasn’t as if he was completely immobile.

Currently, Shen Xiliu was sitting in the corner of the sofa with his pant leg rolled up. His calf was well-proportioned and beautiful, though the ankle area marred that aesthetic. He was spraying medicine onto the swollen, bruised ankle, attempting to rub out the stasis, but Shen Xiliu didn’t seem to dare apply pressure. He only rubbed lightly, and even that slight force made him gasp in pain.

Seeing Qi Yan enter, he set down the medicine, smiling apologetically: “Sorry, I’ve made a fool of myself.”

“Mr. Shen has never had a sprain before, right?” Seeing him like this, Qi Yan knew Shen Xiliu lacked experience with sprains. “It’s useless if you don’t rub it in with force. Do you need a hand?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Qi Yan frowned imperceptibly. Why was his mouth faster than his brain again?

An Alpha and an Omega alone in a room applying medicine no matter how you thought about it, it felt off. He assumed Shen Xiliu wouldn’t agree, so he’d take the chance to change the subject.

“Is that okay?”

However, contrary to Qi Yan’s expectations, as soon as the words were out, the eyes behind Shen Xiliu’s lenses seemed to brighten. He agreed almost without hesitation.

The response was so fast it left Qi Yan stunned.

Shen Xiliu noticed this. His fingertips tightened slightly, and he said with very controlled helplessness: “I really don’t quite dare to use force; I’m a bit afraid of pain. I heard the doctor say it has to be rubbed hard to work. If you’re willing, then I’ll trouble you.”

Hearing this, Qi Yan smiled: “It’s a small thing. Rubbing it hard does indeed hurt, but once the stasis is dissipated, walking won’t be so painful. It’ll heal in a week at most. Think of it as ‘short-term pain is better than long-term pain.'”

He walked over, picked up the medicine, and sat on the other side of the sofa, letting Shen Xiliu stretch his leg over. This action caused a subtle change in Shen Xiliu’s gaze, but the smile on his face remained polite: “Indeed, short-term pain is better than long-term pain. Sorry for the trouble; I’ve been a nuisance to you these past few days.”

“It’s nothing, just neighbors helping each other.”

Qi Yan held Shen Xiliu’s calf and sprayed medicine on the ankle. His palms were broad and warm. He sat with his head half-lowered, a strand of black hair falling between his gentle brows. The lamp cast shadows across his face, making his features look mysterious and charming. Those peach-blossom eyes appeared even more affectionate, looking at everything with exceptional tenderness.

Shen Xiliu was somewhat dazed, captivated by Qi Yan’s face. He couldn’t help but wonder: how long had it been since he had looked at Qi Yan’s face so quietly?

Too long. So long he didn’t dare think about it.

“Qi Yan… Ah!”

Shen Xiliu called his name unconsciously, but the moment the name left his lips, the warm palm covering his ankle began to rub with force. A sharp, swelling sting erupted from his ankle, causing the unprepared Shen Xiliu to let out a short cry of surprise.

“Does it hurt a lot?” Qi Yan looked up at him. Shen Xiliu’s face had turned pale.

“No, I’m fine. I just wasn’t mentally prepared,” Shen Xiliu took a breath, trying to speak as casually as possible. “Please continue to use force. I won’t disturb you again.”

He couldn’t lose his poise in front of Qi Yan.

“It doesn’t hurt that much,” he added.

Like hell it doesn’t hurt.

It wasn’t as if Qi Yan had never been sprained; he knew exactly what it felt like.

However, watching Shen Xiliu force himself to endure was quite interesting. His personality softened the cold, arrogant impact of his face; so far, he seemed like an interesting person, not quite like the rumored members of the Shen family.

He was unexpectedly easy to get along with, even making Qi Yan feel that his previous views on Shen Xiliu had been a bit too prejudiced.

After all, another member of the Shen family the bassist was a very good person, even if he was a bit of a weird chuunibyou.

“Alright then, I’ll continue.” Qi Yan thought for a moment and began to speak softly to Shen Xiliu to distract him while he worked on the stasis.

“Mr. Shen doesn’t need to force himself; cry out if you need to. It’s perfectly normal. When my cousin sprained his foot before, my uncle helped him rub it out, and his screams almost brought the roof down.”

…Screaming was out of the question. Aside from that past he was unwilling to recall, Shen Xiliu had never done anything so lacking in class.

“That sounds quite amusing. Did you have sprains when you were little?” Shen Xiliu’s face was pale, yet a faint smile remained on his lips as he stared at him quietly, stubbornly refusing to make another sound.

However, the corners of his eyes behind his lenses were slightly red, and his slender hands were clenched tightly in secret effort. Everything was self-explanatory.

Shen Xiliu is a person who can endure—and one who cares about his pride!

Although Qi Yan controlled his strength, the force needed to rub out stasis with medicinal oil couldn’t be light, otherwise it would have no effect.

He thought for a moment and answered Shen Xiliu’s question to help distract him: “I did. I loved to play when I was a kid. I once missed a step on the stairs and rolled down. When I got home, my uncle used medicinal oil to rub it out, and I screamed just as loud as my cousin.”

Thinking back now, it was still a very “refreshing” memory crying and laughing at the same time is a very abstract experience. Therefore, Shen Xiliu was truly impressive. Aside from that first unexpected cry, his lips remained sealed, and he could even continue talking.

Shen Xiliu continued to maintain a proper smile: “That’s nice. It sounds like fun.”

Qi Yan stared at the smile on his face, feeling it was a bit forced, though he decided it was better not to call him out.

Seeing that Shen Xiliu seemed interested in his childhood stories, Qi Yan chatted with him while skillfully helping to dissipate the bruising. His male cousin was naturally a restless “mantis shrimp,” so injuries were a daily occurrence, leading to Qi Yan frequently applying medicine for him. His female cousin, though seemingly well-behaved on the surface, loved coming up with bad ideas that caused quite a bit of trouble for them as kids.

“Maybe it’s because I got used to taking care of them when I was little, but I actually thought about becoming a doctor in the future,” he said with a gentle smile.

Being a doctor was a good thing. When he was young, he always felt that if he were a doctor, perhaps he could cure his mother’s illness and help his uncle. Unfortunately, as he grew older, he realized things weren’t that easy; he had been too naive. After all, doctors aren’t omnipotent.

Shen Xiliu could tell that Qi Yan valued his family dearly, and his expression became exceptionally tender when talking about his cousins. By the time Qi Yan went to wash his hands, his ankle didn’t hurt nearly as much as before. Shen Xiliu handed a tissue to Qi Yan, whose hands were wet with water.

“Then why didn’t you continue studying medicine? To be honest, if I hadn’t known beforehand that you were studying Pheromone Pharmaceutical Engineering, I would have taken you for a medical student.”

Whether now or during the respiratory alkalosis the night before last, Qi Yan proved to be very good at soothing and taking care of people, much like a professional doctor.

Even though Shen Xiliu had thought that this time Qi Yan would be able to walk the path he wanted to take, in the end, he still hadn’t.

“Is that so?” Qi Yan thought for a moment and said, “I did have a dream of becoming a doctor when I was a kid, but in the end, I found I was more interested in Pheromone Pharmaceutical Engineering, so I chose this path.”

He paused for a second. If nothing had gone wrong, his original dream indeed would have been to become a doctor.

But even if he became a doctor, it seemed he couldn’t save the person he wanted to save. Since high school, Qi Yan had known very clearly that he should take the path of pharmaceutical research.

“Being able to choose your own future is a good thing,” Shen Xiliu said with a faint smile, eyes lowered, after hearing his words.

Whether a doctor or a Pheromone Pharmaceutical Engineering major, it was the result of Qi Yan’s rational choice. As long as he wasn’t being coerced into a dead-end future, then everything was fine.

“Beep beep!”

After Qi Yan left, the phone kept ringing incessantly. Shen Xiliu sat on the sofa dazing for a long time. He couldn’t actually let Qi Yan help him move things; he just wanted to find an excuse to stay a bit longer, to talk a bit more.

The night deepened outside, neon lights flowing. He heard a slight movement outside, stood up slowly, and walked to the window. He watched until Qi Yan’s figure appeared below the apartment building and then disappeared from sight.

He shouldn’t have approached, but in the end, he couldn’t hold back and took that first step.

Shen Xiliu went back to organizing his things. The foot injury didn’t affect him much. He used a key he always kept on his person to open the door at the very back of the apartment.

The light from behind him cast through the gap into the dark, cold room. Countless photographs crashed into his eyes, a sight that would instantly cause anyone to recoil in horror.

Whether it was the walls, the ceiling, or the corners, they were all densely covered with photos of one person. From childhood to adulthood, one could see the person in the photos growing up bit by bit, gradually becoming a very outstanding and excellent young man.

The perspectives of the photos varied some were candid shots, many were from the front, and some were individual portraits cut out from group photos but all of them were undoubtedly a desecration of the other’s privacy.

But the owner of the room didn’t care. Looking around the dark room, countless photos were layered and interlaced, revealing a morbid voyeurism twisted to the extreme. One step into this room would surely make one’s skin crawl, feeling clearly that this room carried a mad and distorted soul, terrifying and oppressive.

Shen Xiliu entered the room carrying a box in a very good mood. His shadow was cast onto the floor by the light—lengthened, twisted, and hideous, just like his dark and eerie soul, emitting a cold aura.

Until the door softly closed with a click, and light could no longer invade this dark and oppressive room. He was then completely cut off from the world.