Transmigrated As The Cannon Fodder Ex-Wife Of A Scumbag Alpha - Chapter 13

Zhao Zhiyi looked up at the rain falling from the heavens, his brow furrowed slightly.

As he was wondering what to do, he heard Su Jiyu’s voice in his ear again: “Your heat should have passed long ago. Why are you still wearing a suppressant patch? Is it because… Meng Ze bit it swollen again?”

As he spoke, his warm breath brushed against the back of Zhao Zhiyi’s neck, causing him to shiver and immediately tilt his head away. “Why are you asking that?”

“…I’m a little worried about you.” Su Jiyu pursed his lips. “After all, Zhiyi, you’re so soft-hearted. You surely wouldn’t have the heart to refuse Meng Ze’s unreasonable demands.”

Zhao Zhiyi thought to himself that they truly were childhood friends; the one who understood Meng Ze best was undoubtedly Su Jiyu. Last night’s Meng Ze…

He had indeed given Zhao Zhiyi a fright.

He had clearly looked calm, his expression no different from usual, and he had even stood perfectly still. But whether it was his dark, predatory gaze or his wildly overflowing pheromones, everything told Zhao Zhiyi that the person before him was merely a beast draped in human skin. A prey caught by him would be skinned, deboned, and swallowed whole.

“No,” Zhao Zhiyi snapped back to reality, looking up and letting out a breath. “It’s my own problem… You’re in this state yourself, and yet you have the spare time to worry about me.”

He glanced back at the situation inside and said, “There’s no other way. Let’s just go out like this.”

The torrential curtain of rain was endless. Zhao Zhiyi grabbed Su Jiyu’s hand. “I’ll count to three, and then we’ll bolt. The driver is at the gate, not far.”

“Mm.” Su Jiyu nodded obediently.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Doing this makes us feel like we’re eloping,” Su Jiyu suddenly said.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Zhao Zhiyi nearly choked to death, looking at him in shock. “What did you say?”

“The wound hurts too much.” Su Jiyu rested his forehead against Zhao Zhiyi’s shoulder blade, his voice muffled. “I’m making a joke to distract myself. Is Zhiyi angry?”

Seeing how pale he looked, Zhao Zhiyi swallowed whatever he was going to say. “Let’s leave first.”

Su Jiyu nodded and said with a smile, “Alright.”

The two of them rushed into the pouring rain. In the middle of winter, Zhao Zhiyi finally understood what it meant to have “cold ice-rain slapping wildly against the face.” And it wasn’t just slapping his face, it was hammering his entire body.

Seeing their disheveled appearance, the driver was about to speak when Zhao Zhiyi said, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay for the car wash.”

The driver briskly opened the door to let them in and thoughtfully turned on the heater. “Back to where I picked you up?”

“Go to the nearest hospital,” Zhao Zhiyi said. “He’s injured.”

“I’m not going to the hospital.” Su Jiyu was curled into a ball from the cold, clinging tightly to Zhao Zhiyi’s arm as if trying to borrow warmth, or like a drowning man clutching a life-saving piece of driftwood in the vast ocean. His eyelashes were soaked with rain, sticking together, making him look like a beautiful porcelain statue that could shatter at any moment. “If I go to the hospital, my mother will find me very quickly.”

“Hey,” the driver looked suspiciously in the rearview mirror. “Are you two decent people?”

“Of course we are,” Zhao Zhiyi said. “My friend was a victim of domestic violence. I’m here to rescue him.”

The driver clicked his tongue in sympathy. “How cold hearted must someone be to beat their own child like this… I have a jacket here, hurry and put it on him.”

Zhao Zhiyi thanked him and wrapped Su Jiyu tightly in the jacket. He felt his forehead and frowned. “No, you have a fever. You have to go to the hospital.”

Su Jiyu slumped directly onto his lap and looked up at him. His lips were completely bloodless as he gripped the corner of Zhao Zhiyi’s clothes and whispered, “I’m not going to the hospital.”

His deep brown hair was soaked through, plastered messily against his forehead. He looked like a homeless little animal and in fact, Su Jiyu truly was homeless right now.

“You have a high fever,” Zhao Zhiyi urged. “It’s better to be found by your mother than to be left with permanent complications… Hmm?”

Su Jiyu hugged Zhao Zhiyi’s waist, his voice already tinged with a sob: “Don’t go to the hospital.”

Zhao Zhiyi: “…”

Once he started crying, Zhao Zhiyi was completely helpless. He took a deep breath and told the driver, “Sorry, Master, please head to the place where you picked me up.”

Zhao Zhiyi used a tissue to wipe the water from Su Jiyu’s face. The other man had probably fallen into a shallow coma from the pain. Zhao Zhiyi tried to move the hand circling his waist, but Su Jiyu’s strength was surprisingly great. After two attempts, Zhao Zhiyi gave up in resignation.

Let him hug if he wants to, it’s not like I’ll lose a piece of meat.

“You’re so good to your boyfriend,” the driver said with a smile.

“He’s not…”

“I get it, I get it,” the driver hummed a song. “Who hasn’t been young once?”

Zhao Zhiyi: “…” You don’t understand anything at all.

He pulled out his phone again to call Meng Ze. If Su Jiyu didn’t want to go to the hospital, it would be best to send him to Meng Ze. Unfortunately, he had no idea where Meng Ze usually lived, and he certainly couldn’t take him to the Meng family’s old manor.

Meng Ze’s phone was still switched off.

Zhao Zhiyi let out a soft tsk. What is this guy doing? In such an important scene, the protagonist Gong should be by the protagonist Shou’s side, offering warmth and concern. What was he, a cannon fodder ex-wife, doing sitting here?

He had a bit of a headache… Zhao Zhiyi touched his own head. He didn’t have a fever, it seemed he was purely irritated.

Looking through the car window at the gray city through the rain, something suddenly flashed in his mind.

In the original novel, it said that after the charity gala, Su Jiyu attempted suicide, and Meng Ze begged for his forgiveness in the heavy rain. Why was it him getting drenched in the rain now? The plot has strayed so far even its own mother wouldn’t recognize it.

And…

Zhao Zhiyi pinched the bridge of his nose.

In the original work, Su Jiyu attempted suicide because he was throwing a tantrum at Meng Ze. But Su Jiyu was clearly beaten to within an inch of his life by his own mother, it had nothing to do with “suicide.” There was only one reason Zhao Zhiyi could think of for the story spreading that way.

That was He Linrong shifting all the blame onto Su Jiyu to cover up her own actions.

Before he knew it, they had arrived at the residential complex where Zhao Zhiyi lived. The rain had subsided quite a bit. Zhao Zhiyi gently nudged Su Jiyu’s shoulder: “Su Jiyu? We’re here.”

Su Jiyu woke up in a daze and then quickly sat up. “I’m sorry, did I make your leg go numb?”

“A little.” Zhao Zhiyi rubbed his leg and said, “Let’s get out of the car first.”

When settling the fare with the driver, Zhao Zhiyi’s heart bled at the cost. Fortunately, the security service of the high-end complex was excellent. Seeing the state they were in, a guard quickly came over with an umbrella and offered to carry Su Jiyu up. Su Jiyu gave a polite smile: “No need to trouble you, I can walk by myself.”

Zhao Zhiyi’s eyes widened. “Didn’t you just…”

Weren’t you so frail you couldn’t even take a step?

“Maybe because I slept for a bit, my spirit is better.” Su Jiyu pursed his lips. “Zhiyi, I’m in a lot of pain. Let’s go back first.”

Zhao Zhiyi hurriedly led him home.

He found some of his own clothes for Su Jiyu to change into. This man looked thin, yet his loose pajama pants were still a bit short on him. Zhao Zhiyi brought hot water to wipe down his body, avoiding the wounds. Only then did he see the injuries clearly, they were all lash marks from a whip.

And it was a whip with barbs, when it was pulled back, it caused even more suffering.

Could He Linrong be a masochist??

“It’s the Su family’s discipline,” Su Jiyu lay prone on the bed, showing only the back of his head. “Actually, you don’t need to bother with it. It’ll heal on its own.”

“…With all the dust and rain, if you don’t take care of it, you’ll be going to see King Yama,” Zhao Zhiyi said crossly.

Su Jiyu even let out a laugh. “No, I didn’t take care of it before, and it healed on its own.”

Zhao Zhiyi’s movements paused. Looking at the crisscrossing wounds on Su Jiyu’s back, he suddenly thought of his own childhood.

Actually, Su Jiyu was right. If one was tough enough, they wouldn’t die even without care.

When he was a child, before his biological father went to prison, Zhao Zhiyi was often beaten.

After being hit, he didn’t want his mother to worry, so he would dress in thick layers to hide the wounds. After all, even if his mother knew, it wouldn’t help. If his mother argued with that man, she would just get beaten again. There was no point.

“I have to take care of it.” Zhao Zhiyi lowered his eyelashes and tightened his lips. “You won’t die, but it will hurt. And it will leave ugly scars that will remind you forever and ever.”

“Zhiyi?”

“Alright, don’t talk anymore.” Zhao Zhiyi messily stuffed a piece of clothing into his mouth. “Bite on this. The next part will hurt a bit. Scream if it hurts, cry if you want to. Just don’t struggle, you can do whatever else you want.”

The moment he finished speaking, he began cleaning the wounds on Su Jiyu’s back with a cotton swab dipped in iodophor.

Su Jiyu’s whole body tensed up, shivering slightly as if he were crying. Perhaps because of the intense pain, the room was filled with the scent of white tea. This pheromone, usually gentle and reserved, seemed aggressive now, filling the entire room without restraint and invisibly binding Zhao Zhiyi.

Zhao Zhiyi gave his head a reassuring pat. “It’ll stop hurting soon.”

If he could have seen Su Jiyu’s expression at that moment, he would probably have dropped the cotton swab in terror.

Su Jiyu wasn’t crying, he was actually smiling.

He was biting the undershirt Zhao Zhiyi had hurriedly taken off that morning, burying his face in the fluffy pillow. Between his nose and lips was the cold scent of orange blossom, bitter, chilly, and slightly sweet, winding and lingering.

Those amber eyes, usually moist and gentle, were now dilated like a predator’s, filled with excitement.

He could feel the care in Zhao Zhiyi’s movements, as if he were terrified of causing him pain… But how could that be? He had long been accustomed to pain, the pain of being choked by his mother when the nurse handed him over just after birth, the pain of his mother slapping him repeatedly at fourteen when he unexpectedly presented as an Alpha, the pain of the whip on his back last night when he told his mother he was going to marry Meng Ze’s wife…

He had long forgotten it all.

How could there be someone as stupid as Zhao Zhiyi in this world? He said he was dying, and Zhao Zhiyi came to save him… Ha.

This is truly interesting.

“Done.” Zhao Zhiyi breathed a sigh of relief and covered Su Jiyu with the quilt. “Lie down for a bit. I’m going to the kitchen to make some ginger soup.”

Su Jiyu turned his head, revealing a pale face. Zhao Zhiyi saw his red eyes and said hesitantly, “Did you cry?”

“No.”

Zhao Zhiyi pinched his cheek. “Crying isn’t embarrassing. I cry all the time too.”

He stood up. “Don’t move around.”

“…Oh.” Su Jiyu watched Zhao Zhiyi’s back and said slowly, “I will be obedient.”

Just as Zhao Zhiyi reached the living room, he heard the doorbell. He had ordered medicine for a cold earlier, so it should be the delivery. Zhao Zhiyi opened the door: “Tha… Meng Ze?”

Meng Ze held a dripping black umbrella, his gray cashmere coat carrying damp vapor. He looked somewhat weary, but because his features were so sharp, he still looked unreachable.

“You called me thirteen times,” Meng Ze said in a deep voice. “Is there something you need me for?”

Zhao Zhiyi hesitated about whether to tell him Su Jiyu was here. He felt he should ask for Su Jiyu’s permission first. But before he could reach a conclusion, a voice came from behind him: “Zhiyi… who are you talking to?”

Zhao Zhiyi turned around to see Su Jiyu, shirtless, leaning against the bedroom doorframe. His gaze crossed Zhao Zhiyi’s shoulder and locked directly with Meng Ze’s outside the door.