Married Off to My Childhood Enigma | Chapter 26 | A Legal Younger Brother | Novela.app

Chapter 26 - A Legal Younger Brother When Zhou Shu appeared at the entrance of the pet hospital, the silence of the night shattered, yielding willingly to his presence. Jin Yan was struck by a mixture of profound surprise and frantic longing. He took a sudden, heavy step forward, pulling the man into a crushing embrace. Though they had been apart for only a single day, the separation had felt more agonizing than the five years they had spent estranged. In that moment of contact, the dual exhaustion of their long days—one spent under the grueling lights of a film set, the other amidst the life-and-death stakes of veterinary surgery—seemed to ignite their blood. They looked into each other's eyes and, as if by a shared instinct, pressed their lips together in a desperate, hungry kiss. The kiss was fierce and unyielding. Zhou Shu, despite being a powerful Alpha, felt his strength dissolve under the deliberate, heavy release of Jin Yan’s Enigma pheromones. His knees buckled, leaving him to cling to the younger man for support. Jin Yan, however, remained effortlessly composed. With one hand, he supported Zhou Shu’s weight, while the other firmly cupped the back of the Alpha’s neck. His thumb brushed rhythmically over Zhou Shu’s scent gland, which was currently pulsing with the sweet, bracing aroma of sea salt. They stumbled from the doorway into the private lounge, their movements a tangled mess of limbs and shared breath. Even in the heat of the moment, Jin Yan’s professional discipline flickered; while Zhou Shu retreated to the bathroom to wash away the grime of the day, Jin Yan took a moment to check on the rescued puppy in the observation room. The little creature no longer required supplemental oxygen; after its injections, it was sleeping peacefully. Jin Yan adjusted the monitoring equipment to its highest sensitivity—the kind that would alert him if the dog so much as shifted in its sleep—before finally allowing himself to return to the lounge. He pushed open the bathroom door without a second thought. "You..." Zhou Shu, startled by the intrusion, recoiled a few steps, his back turning toward the wall. "Get out!" "No. We’re married, aren't we?" Jin Yan replied calmly, his fingers already working the buttons of his shirt as he stepped into the humid space. Zhou Shu was trapped against the tiles, his mind clouded by a lingering, habitual shyness, yet his physical reactions were betraying him. His gaze kept drifting toward the younger man’s frame, and Jin Yan could see the rapid rise and fall of Zhou Shu’s chest as he struggled for breath. When Jin Yan reached out to touch him, Zhou Shu made a half-hearted attempt to push him away, only to have Jin Yan lean in and whisper a single, shameless word against his ear: "Together." A flush of crimson spread visibly from the tips of Zhou Shu’s ears down to his scent gland. He had considered locking the door when he entered, but a subconscious hesitation had stayed his hand. The Movie King, usually so composed, found his rationality crumbling in the face of this "doll-like" younger brother who had differentiated into a lethal Enigma. He tried to find an exit, but the sudden, metaphorical downpour of Jin Yan’s pheromones blocked his path. Zhou Shu’s heart hammered against his ribs; his own sea salt scent began to bleed into the air, mingling with the heavy, humid scent of a storm. Within moments, the bathroom was filled with the intoxicating aroma of the ocean meeting the rain, and neither of them had any desire to leave. It was well past midnight by the time the sound of running water finally ceased. Zhou Shu, who had already been exhausted from standing on set all day, was now completely spent, leaning his entire weight against Jin Yan as they emerged. Jin Yan tucked him into the bed in the lounge, but before joining him, he performed a final round of duties: deleting the security footage and changing into sterile scrubs to check the puppy one last time. The puppy’s constitution was sturdier than expected. As Jin Yan stroked its head, the little dog blinked its eyes open. "How do you feel?" Jin Yan whispered. The puppy whimpered softly, its thoughts drifting into Jin Yan’s mind: *Sleepy.* Jin Yan chuckled softly and apologized for waking it. However, the puppy stopped him, asking about the girl who had brought it in. Jin Yan knew what it was really asking—questions about a permanent home that a stray might never dare to voice. "She cares about you very much," Jin Yan told the creature. "She’ll come to see you often. Tomorrow, you’ll go home with Jiang Rong for a while." He felt the puppy’s heartbeat quicken with a spark of joy. It was a resilient, cheerful little soul. When Jin Yan finally returned to the bed, Zhou Shu was propped up on his elbows, leafing through Jin Yan’s medical notes. Jin Yan crawled in beside him, and Zhou Shu leaned over to press a soft kiss to his temple. "How is the puppy?" "Doing well. He’s stronger than I thought, and he has a good temperament." Zhou Shu looked at the warmth in Jin Yan’s eyes and felt his own heart soften. "You really like him, don't you? Should we bring him home? Your father isn't well, and my mother is allergic to dog hair, but we could keep him at the apartment. I can hire a sitter for when we’re both working." In that moment, Jin Yan saw the Zhou Shu of their childhood—the boy who was only three years older but always sought to provide for him, always thinking ten steps ahead. He pulled Zhou Shu into his arms, pulling him down to lie against his chest. "Ge, are you inviting me to move in with you?" he asked, nuzzling into the crook of Zhou Shu’s neck like a pampered cat. Zhou Shu’s lips twitched. "If you don't want to, then forget it," he said with a touch of feigned arrogance. "I want to," Jin Yan countered, nipping playfully at Zhou Shu’s lip. They fell into a long, slow exchange of breath and touch. Eventually, the Movie King—who had never filmed a single onscreen kiss in his career—was the first to surrender to the lack of oxygen. "Ge, I’ve been thinking... maybe we shouldn't keep him permanently," Jin Yan said after a long silence. "We can take him to my parents' place for a few days at a time, but for good..." Zhou Shu kissed his jaw, cutting him off with a gentle, understanding tone. "I know. It’s okay. Having many families to visit will make the puppy even happier." Jin Yan felt a lump form in his throat. He wasn't sure if it was because Zhou Shu understood him so perfectly, or because he felt like the old Zhou Shu—his protector—had truly returned. He masked his emotion with a laugh, resting his chin atop Zhou Shu’s hair. "Ge, I think I’m sick." "What?" Zhou Shu bolted upright, his face pale with concern. "Lie back down," Jin Yan urged, pulling him back into the safety of his arms. "It’s a strange illness. I want to be stuck to you every second of the day. If we’re apart, I feel physically ill. And when I touch you, I feel like I’m going to catch fire." Zhou Shu realized he had been played. "You really are... becoming more and more clingy." And more difficult to resist. Zhou Shu felt a flicker of genuine fear—fear that one day, he would agree to anything Jin Yan asked. Just as he had in the bathroom... perhaps even more. He thought of the rumors regarding Enigmas. It was said that if an Enigma marked an Alpha, that Alpha would eventually transform into their exclusive Omega. "What are you thinking about so secretly?" Jin Yan whispered, his voice low and vibrating against the shell of Zhou Shu’s ear. Zhou Shu shivered. "I’m wondering who taught you all these tricks during those five years in Country A." Jin Yan let out a low, melodic laugh. "What tricks? Why don't you describe them to me? Besides, Ge... didn't you enjoy them?" Zhou Shu went silent, turning his back to hide his burning face. "Ge, do you want to see the puppy?" "I do, but let's wait until morning. He’s sleeping." "Then tomorrow morning, I’ll let him talk to you. I’ll be your translator," Jin Yan promised. Zhou Shu turned back, curious. "So, after your secondary differentiation, you can really communicate with animals?" "I can." Jin Yan held up his hand. "This hand acts like an X-ray; I can sense the source of their pain. It saves so much time during emergencies." Zhou Shu looked at the hand and coughed awkwardly, a memory surfacing. "It suits you. You’ve always been an animal magnet. Remember when we went to the zoo as kids? Even the monkeys in the trees picked you out, jumping down to wrap their arms around your neck." They laughed together at the memory. Jin Yan looped his arms around Zhou Shu’s neck. "Well, I picked you out the moment I came out of my mother's womb, too." "You did," Zhou Shu agreed, his eyes crinkling. Zhou Shu had been an only child, often lonely and quiet. His parents had worried about his solitary nature until they told him the neighbor was having a baby. From that day on, the three-year-old Zhou Shu had talked to the neighbor's belly every single day. The week Jin Yan was born, Haicheng had been besieged by torrential rain. On the night his mother went into labor, the three-year-old Zhou Shu had insisted on going to the hospital. The next morning, a loud cry pierced the dawn, and the rain stopped instantly. As the sun rose, the scent of damp earth and washed greenery filled the air. Zhou Shu had held the infant Jin Yan and smelled that exact mixture of rain and forest on him. It was a scent memory—a Proust Effect—that had bound them together long before they understood the concept of fate. Zhou Shu chuckled softly to himself. Jin Yan poked the beauty mark beneath his lip. "Duo-duo never hides her pheromones around you," Zhou Shu sighed. "Just like you didn't hide yours the day you differentiated at eighteen. Even though we were both Alphas then, our scents merged so perfectly... it nearly drove me to commit a crime." Jin Yan sat up abruptly, hovering over him. "What did you say? Ge, did you really have a reaction to my scent back then?" Zhou Shu saw the "danger" in Jin Yan’s eyes, but he chose to meet it head-on. "More than a reaction. I went home and had dreams that would need to be censored." In those dreams, the rain fell into the ocean, the two elements swirling together until they were indistinguishable. It was those dreams that had caused Zhou Shu’s initial awkwardness and his struggle to accept their shared gender. Jin Yan’s breath hitched. He leaned down until their noses touched. "Ge, they say that when an Enigma marks an Alpha, he becomes his exclusive Omega." Zhou Shu’s pupils dilated. He closed his eyes for a long moment. "In your dreams." Jin Yan didn't mind the rejection. He leaned down and pecked the beauty mark beneath Zhou Shu’s lip again. "Don't forget, I am your legal..." He paused, seeing the warning in Zhou Shu’s eyes, and smirked. "...younger brother." "Legal younger brother." It sounded infinitely more dangerous than "husband." ***