Wife, Are You an Alpha Pretending to be an Omega? - Chapter 20

During the moment Wei Xia was dazed, Xie Jingyu pushed him away violently and walked toward the door.

He quickly followed.

The two of them left the banquet early, which was actually a good thing for Xie Hai; after all, they had never expected Xie Jingyu to attend in the first place.

Xie Jingyu and Wei Xia returned home, remaining entirely silent along the way.

This lack of communication persisted until they stepped inside the house.

Their home environment had never experienced such an atmosphere before, because the two of them had never had an argument.

Wei Xia was utterly at a loss. His brain had been in a chaotic frenzy the entire way home, and even now, he had not figured out how to explain the situation.

Finally, Xie Jingyu spoke.

“You have always known about the lifetime marking, yet we have been married for so long and have only ever used temporary markings.” Xie Jingyu’s voice trembled slightly as he spoke. “Who are you saving it for?”

Who did he intend to give his lifetime marking to instead?

Wei Xia opened his mouth, instinctively objecting, “I am not saving it for anyone.”

Xie Jingyu countered, “You are.”

“From the very beginning, you never planned to spend the rest of your life with me, Wei Xia.”

“No! It is not like that!”

Panicking, Wei Xia threw himself forward and held the man in a tight embrace. Tears born of sheer anxiety welled up in his eyes; he could not bear to hear his husband utter another sentence like that.

“I am not, I truly am not! I only, ”

Xie Jingyu pressed, “Only what?”

Wei Xia froze.

Only what?

He was only worried that Xie Jingyu had not intended to spend a lifetime with him. He only wanted to leave an escape route for Xie Jingyu. He only,

He did not dare to speak these thoughts aloud.

Saying them would not make the situation any better than it currently was.

Therefore, Wei Xia fell silent once more. He searched his memory thoroughly but could not find a single adequate excuse.

A solitary tear escaped Xie Jingyu’s eye, and he struggled forcefully to break free.

“Wei Xia, we, ”

Neither of them could bear to hear whatever words were about to follow. Wei Xia fiercely blocked Xie Jingyu’s lips. No matter how much the man in his arms struggled and struck out at him, Wei Xia refused to let go or break the kiss. He used his absolute physical strength to dominate and enforce the embrace.

Xie Jingyu could not break free. He felt a wave of moisture covering his face; it was tears, Wei Xia’s tears.

After a very long time, he stopped resisting. Only then did Wei Xia release him, looking up at his lover with a hoarse voice and a face drenched in tears.

“Jingyu, do you even know what a lifetime marking entails?”

Xie Jingyu replied in a petulant tone, “How could I not know?”

“It means you will experience pregnancy, it means the agonizing pain of childbirth, and it means you will never be able to wash away my traces for the rest of your life. Jingyu, Jingyu, ”

Xie Jingyu suddenly seemed to understand something.

“So, you believe that I will regret it?”

Wei Xia closed his eyes, two clear tears sliding down his cheeks as an unspoken confirmation. Silence was his default admission.

Xie Jingyu stood up, turning around to leave.

Wei Xia immediately grabbed hold of him, but this time, Xie Jingyu bent down and pried Wei Xia’s fingers away, one by one.

He returned to the bedroom, leaving behind a final sentence as he closed the door.

“Let us both have some quiet time.”

Wei Xia collapsed weakly onto the floor like an abandoned puppy, entirely devoid of ideas.

The two of them had never had a single argument before, but this single dispute resulted in a cold war that lasted for over a month.

Xie Jingyu had never explicitly forbidden him from entering the bedroom, but Wei Xia did not dare to do so. He also refused to sleep in any of the spare rooms in the house, choosing instead to sleep on the sofa. No matter what small movement Xie Jingyu made, Wei Xia would perceive it instantly. He would sit up abruptly, gazing at him with wide, anxious eyes that mirrored his intense fear of abandonment.

Xie Jingyu maintained his normal routine of leaving early and returning late for work. He quickly noticed that no matter what time he came home, Wei Xia was always there. It was as though he had become an unemployed vagrant who did not go to work and did nothing but watch him.

The temporary marking had completely faded around two weeks prior. Since then, Wei Xia had grown even more tense; his attention was fixed entirely on his lover from the moment Xie Jingyu stepped through the door until he went to sleep.

Xie Jingyu found it both amusing and infuriating, but he kept his silence, utterly determined to give Wei Xia the cold shoulder for a while longer.

The turning point occurred on a specific day.

Xie Jingyu had a last-minute business dinner to attend. He instinctively reached for his phone to report his whereabouts, but remembering they were in the middle of a cold war, his typing hand froze, and he slipped the device back into his pocket.

In a display of self-punishment, he turned the phone off completely.

This dinner engagement dragged on until ten o’clock in the evening.

By the time Xie Jingyu prepared to head home, he realized it was already so late. The night sky outside was dense and heavy, and a downpour of rain had begun. The phone in his pocket remained as silent as a brick. Not seeing Wei Xia’s figure waiting at the entrance of the venue caused his heart to feel as though it were being pierced by needles, letting a cold wind rush through.

When he arrived home, he discovered that Wei Xia was not there. This was the first time since the start of their cold war that Wei Xia was absent when he returned.

Looking at the pitch-black house, Xie Jingyu’s heart grew cold to the freezing point.

However, before he had time to despair, a loud noise echoed from outside the door.

Startled, he turned around to look and saw a thoroughly drenched Wei Xia standing in the hallway.

Wei Xia was soaked from head to toe, standing on the tiled floor of the corridor as water dripped rapidly from his body, quickly forming a puddle on the ground. His back was hunched, and he looked completely despondent; his face was exceedingly pale, looking more gaunt than a ghost.

In an instant, Xie Jingyu felt an overwhelming surge of heartache.

Wei Xia had clearly gone out into the storm specifically to look for him.

Xie Jingyu’s throat felt parched as he spoke, “I am back, I, ”

Before he could finish, the figure before him collapsed heavily at the entrance.

Xie Jingyu lost his composure, rushing forward instantly to gather Wei Xia into his arms, only to realize that the man’s body was alarmingly hot with a fever.

“Xiao Xia, Xiao Xia!”

Wei Xia was stripped of his wet clothes and tucked securely into bed, remaining ill for a full day and night. Because he had not been sick for a very long time, the month-long period of constant anxiety had finally culminated in a physical ailment born of deep worry. He could neither consume food nor retain medicine; he merely clutched Xie Jingyu’s sleeve tightly without letting go, repeating the same words over and over in his delirium, “Do not abandon me.”

Xie Jingyu had long since thrown their previous grievances to the back of his mind, coaxing the man repeatedly.

“Never, I will never abandon you.”

When Wei Xia finally opened his eyes again, he saw Xie Jingyu sitting by the bedside, asleep with his head resting against Wei Xia’s arm.

He wanted to reach out and touch Xie Jingyu’s face, but the movement woke the man instantly.

“You are awake.”

Wei Xia offered a bitter smile.

Xie Jingyu remained silent for a moment.

“Take your medicine first.”

He picked up the medicine from the nightstand, intending to warm it up, but Wei Xia tugged at his sleeve.

“Jingyu, do not leave.”

“Be good, take your medicine first.”

“Do not leave, ”

As a gesture of compromise, Xie Jingyu sat back down. The two of them fell into a lengthy silence once again, both pondering how to resolve the root of their issue.

“I am sorry, I should not have hidden it from you.”

Wei Xia smiled miserably, “No, Jingyu, you never have to say you are sorry to me.”

Seeing him act this way caused an inexplicable spark of anger to rise within Xie Jingyu once more.

“Why? In your heart, is everything I do always correct? Can I simply call you over and dismiss you whenever I please? Wei Xia, are you a dog that I am raising?”

Wei Xia’s fever-addled brain could not process the sharp words quickly enough, leaving him to stare blankly as he was scolded.

“You do not want to give me a lifetime marking, and while you frame it beautifully as a way to spare me pain, to put it harshly, you simply do not trust me. You believe that deep down in my heart, I look down on you. You are constantly prepared to pull away at any moment, leaving only me acting like a fool, questioning everything under the sun!”

“Wei Xia, if the day ever comes that the two of us separate, I will not even know the reason why.”

Anxious to speak, Wei Xia tried to object, but because he had not spoken for so long, his throat clogged, and he began to cough violently.

“I, cough, cough!”

Xie Jingyu calmed down, sitting beside him to pat Wei Xia’s back gently to soothe his breathing. This was the first time he realized he was capable of saying such harsh things, but speaking his mind brought a sense of relief; he preferred an outright argument over a cold war.

“What exactly are your thoughts? Speak them aloud, even if it is, ”

Wei Xia raised his hand to cover Xie Jingyu’s lips, a smile appearing on his face that looked sadder than crying.

“Jingyu, say no more. My very life belongs to you.”

“What would I do with your life? If you do not cherish your own life, are you giving it to me so I can find someone else?”

Wei Xia’s face flushed red from the exertion of his coughing, turned pale, and then flushed red again before he finally exhaled a long breath.

Xie Jingyu felt a profound sense of heartache and ultimately could not bring himself to continue speaking harshly. Perhaps he had been too aggressive; Wei Xia’s deep-seated perceptions required a step-by-step approach to alter, rather than forcing the issue now and risking the man’s health further.

He embraced Wei Xia, his voice turning entirely soothing as he spoke.

“I love you, and I will never leave you. Do you believe me?”

Wei Xia closed his eyes, feeling an intense mixture of comfort and sorrow.

“I believe you, I believe you.”