Tonight, as soon as Jin Yan finished his class, he saw the messages Zhou Shu had sent him.
[Dr. Jin is too busy with work to have dinner with me, so I had no choice but to accept someone else's invitation.]
[Restaurant Location]
[I’ll try to be home early. I'll call you when it's over.]
Jin Yan smiled at his phone screen, thinking his dear brother was truly too adorable. He was getting better and better at acting spoiled.
Since he hadn't received a call from Zhou Shu yet, Jin Yan opened the location link and drove to the restaurant ahead of time. After parking, he wandered around the neighborhood and spotted a florist that was still open.
He remembered how, when they were children, Zhou Shu loved giving him flowers. Whether it was a birthday or Valentine's Day, he would always receive flowers from Zhou Shu. Back then, as a child, he hadn't understood the significance of "Valentine's Day," and they certainly weren't "lovers" at the time.
But Zhou Shu had been headstrong, insisting on sending Jin Yan flowers every year. Everyone who saw it would secretly tease Zhou Shu, saying he had great potential because he knew how to please his own Omega from such a young age. Jin Yan would feel shy every time he received them, but in truth, he loved it.
Zhou Shu always sent white roses.
Later, when the adults jokingly asked Zhou Shu why he insisted on giving Yan Yan white roses, he replied earnestly, "Yan Yan is so striking that people's eyes are always drawn to him. But he's also a good boy, waiting for me to find him quietly and obediently."
He felt that the temperament of white roses suited Jin Yan perfectly.
Thinking of this, Jin Yan’s eyes filled with a happiness that was almost overflowing. He stepped into the flower shop, and a clerk who was trimming stems came forward to greet him.
"Good evening, sir. Are you here to buy flowers for someone?"
Jin Yan’s gaze was full of tenderness as he nodded. "Yes. I’d like to pick out a bouquet of white roses."
With the clerk's help, he selected a bunch of the finest white roses. Every petal was symmetrical and beautiful; each rose looked like a perfect copy of the next, round and full. The clerk explained that the variety was an Ecuadorian rose called "North Star." Because they were so precious and rare, the shop didn't often have them in stock, and these had only remained in the shop today because of their high price.
Jin Yan had been drawn to this cluster at first sight, and hearing the description only made them more perfect for his needs.
"Sir, please choose the color for the wrapping paper and the ribbon."
Jin Yan looked up at the shelves. "Use this grey-blue for the wrapping paper." He flicked his fingers twice against the ribbon rack. "And deep blue for the ribbon."
The clerk helped him tie the roses into a hemispherical shape; it looked as perfect as a moon hidden within the galaxy. Once the product was finished, the clerk took several photos as a memento and then complimented Jin Yan without restraint. "It's rare to see an Alpha with such good aesthetic taste. This color combination is beautiful. Is it for your Omega, sir?"
Jin Yan shook his head and smiled as he took the roses. "No, it's for my lover."
He paid and walked out of the shop. The evening breeze stirred the wind chimes on the door; under the moonlight, they sounded as if the "North Star" in Jin Yan's hands was making music. He thought Zhou Shu would surely love this bouquet of "North Star" roses, just like he had when they were children.
As Jin Yan was thinking this, he pulled out his phone just as it began to ring. Seeing it was a call from Zhu Lili, he paused for a moment before pressing the answer key.
Immediately, Zhu Lili’s urgent voice came through.
"Jin Yan! Something happened to Shu-ge!"
A sudden gust of wind rose, and the white North Stars scattered all over the ground.
***
"Zhou Shu-gege, Zhou Shu-gege, are you okay?!" Zhou Duo’s voice carried a sob as he called out repeatedly from within Zhou Shu’s body, trying to wake him. "Zhou Shu-gege, don't scare me..."
"Duo Duo, I'm fine..." Zhou Shu’s consciousness finally began to return.
The power in the room had been cut, the doors and windows had clearly been tampered with beforehand, and the phone signal was jammed. The pitch-black environment amplified one's senses and fears. Zhou Shu bit his lip hard in the darkness. He was trembling all over, surrounded by the scent of his own pheromones—and the scent of that Omega’s pheromones from earlier.
He had thought he was being kind, rescuing a pathetic, low-tier actor who described himself as being nearly "forced." The Omega had fled to Zhou Shu with his clothes in disarray; without a second thought, Zhou Shu had taken off his suit jacket to drape over him. The Omega had wept until his body shook and his eyelids were rubbed raw, following cautiously behind Zhou Shu.
Later, the Omega claimed he had changed to a different room and begged Zhou Shu to escort him up. He said the person from before was blocking his old room door and might go to other floors to look for him.
Zhou Shu had frowned, a surge of anger rising within him. He had heard that the entertainment industry was a mixed bag, but he hadn't expected anyone to act so despicably. In the end, his heart softened, and he agreed to see the Omega back to his floor. He looked left and right for the Omega, and after confirming no one was there, told him to get back to his room quickly.
Who could have known that in the next second, the Omega would push Zhou Shu inside?
Zhou Shu felt a sense of foreboding, but before he could react, he was dragged onto the bed by a sudden force. In an instant, Zhou Shu felt something being sprayed all over him. He caught the scent, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
This smell... it was the strongest type of irritant inducer?
If an Alpha was sprayed with it, they would enter a violent rut within minutes; if they didn't vent immediately, it would have a massive impact on their body. If an Omega was sprayed, their body would go limp instantly, entering heat in a single second. This kind of inducer was a prohibited product that didn't even circulate on the open market. To have it brought out to deal with him—they truly thought highly of him.
Immediately after, Zhou Shu smelled an extremely high concentration of Omega pheromones in the air.
The cells in Zhou Shu’s body were not attracted by the Omega’s pheromones; instead, they released a thick sense of hostility. This also gave him enough time to react to the situation at hand.
"Who told you to do this?" Zhou Shu pushed the person away, retreating to a safe distance, his eyes red as he glared at the Omega.
The Omega’s gaze was fearful, not daring to meet Zhou Shu’s eyes. "I'm... I'm sorry..." As he spoke, he began to strip off his own clothes.
Zhou Shu’s brow twitched as an uncontrollable sensation churned in his stomach.
Sensing the Omega approaching Zhou Shu, Zhou Duo cried out in a panic, "Zhou Shu-gege! Throw him out, quickly!"
Zhou Shu gritted his teeth, grabbed a quilt from the bed to wrap the Omega entirely, and quickly hauled him to the door. To his surprise, the moment he opened the door, several cameras were pointed right at him.
After a few "click-click" sounds, Zhou Shu violently shoved the quilt-wrapped Omega out of the room, slammed the door shut, and leaned against the wall, gagging.
Everything had happened too suddenly. Zhou Duo was too scared to speak. Voices drifted in from outside the door.
"We finally got our hands on that inducer, and he still failed. What a useless waste!"
"We prepared for so long and finally found an opportunity, and now it's all down the drain. How are we going to explain this when we go back?!"
"Forget it, let's get out of here first. Someone might come looking for him any minute."
"Damn it, what bad luck. Let's go."
"Remember to clean up the trail later, or if he finds us, we're dead."
The footsteps outside grew distant. Zhou Shu’s taut nerves relaxed, but it became increasingly difficult to support his own body. The Alpha pheromones stimulated by the inducer began to churn at his scent gland. In the next instant, the room was filled with the scent of sea water.
"Zhou Shu-gege... what do we do? Quick, call Jin Yan-gege!" Zhou Duo was crying hysterically.
Zhou Shu comforted him briefly and pulled out his phone, only to find there was no signal.
"They really did think highly of me..." He let out a cold laugh, his chest heaving as his breathing became labored. Supporting himself, he reached for the room's landline, but it had also been tampered with long ago.
Zhou Shu wanted to leave immediately, but his current state was too dangerous. If he went out, he feared he might cause unpredictable consequences for any passersby. He had to suppress the burning heat of the rut first...
Just as Zhou Shu intended to go to the bathroom for a cold shower, the lights in the room suddenly went out.
In an instant, he was enveloped by a vast darkness, and his entire being plunged into panic. Zhou Shu felt as if his whole body was submerged in the freezing depths of the ocean floor. It was a bottomless fear.
Zhou Duo couldn't see the outside world; he could only feel Zhou Shu’s emotions. At this moment, the perception made Zhou Duo’s eyes widen.
It was so familiar...
It was exactly how Zhou Shu had felt on the day Zhou Duo was born.
Fear, terror, longing...
Thus, Zhou Duo cried out resolutely, "Zhou Shu-gege, don't be afraid! I'm here with you!" He was so worried about Zhou Shu that his voice cracked at the end.
Zhou Shu’s consciousness was gradually becoming blurred. He crouched down against the corner of the wall, looking exactly like the day he had curled up in Jin Yan’s wardrobe.
*Brother, don't be afraid, I'm here with you...*
That was the first sentence Zhou Duo had said to him when he woke up—cautious, yet incredibly sincere. From that moment, Zhou Shu was certain that this was also a well-behaved, pure child. Just like the younger neighbor brother he had doted on since childhood.
His younger brother had once said those words to him, too. Once, when they were little, they had playfully run into the storage room in the basement. Unexpectedly, the door lock malfunctioned, and the two of them were locked in that windowless room.
Knowing they couldn't escape, fear occupied the nerves in Zhou Shu’s brain. This emotion was foreign; it was the first time it had appeared. Seeing his reaction, his younger brother was terrified. A mist immediately rose in his eyes, making them damp, yet he refused to let the tears fall no matter how they welled up.
Later, Zhou Shu curled into a ball, his body shaking as he screamed incessantly. The younger brother was also frightened by his brother's appearance, but he didn't choose to back away. Instead, he moved closer and hugged Zhou Shu tightly.
He said, *Brother, don't be afraid, I'm here with you.*
The younger brother’s embrace was shallow, only able to hold half of his brother's body, but those small hands covered his brother's ears. He wanted to help his brother minimize the sensory terror as much as possible.
Gradually, Zhou Shu stopped screaming and hugged the boy in front of him tightly. The younger brother patted his brother's back over and over, comforting him again and again, trying to transmit all of his own courage to him.
That day, when the adults arrived, they found the two children had fallen asleep in each other's arms. The older brother lay in the younger one's embrace with tear stains on his face.
Later, they were taken to the hospital for an examination, and only then did they learn that Zhou Shu suffered from claustrophobia.
After the children’s emotions had settled, the adults asked Jin Yan why he had been so brave and hadn't shed a single tear.
He said, "When Brother needs me, I will protect him. Brother was very scared, so I couldn't cry."
At that moment, Zhou Shu’s heart was filled by those words, and it could never hold anyone else again. If given another chance, he would surely have told his brother about the love he silently harbored much sooner. Then the boy wouldn't have suffered so much grievance, going to a foreign country to spend three years in loneliness.
"Yan Yan..."
Fragments of their childhood memories flashed through Zhou Shu’s mind, and he softly murmured Jin Yan’s name. He was terrified of tightly sealed rooms and the sudden loss of light. But every time Jin Yan was with him, he wasn't so afraid.
But what about this time? When would he see Jin Yan this time?
They didn't have a physical bond on each other; their pheromones weren't tied together. How could Jin Yan find him...?
*Yan Yan... Brother is really scared...*
"Zhou Shu-gege, Zhou Shu-gege, wake up..."
The voice constantly coming from within his body brought Zhou Shu back to his senses. Hearing those pitiful, sobbing tones, Zhou Shu forced his consciousness to remain rational. He gave a response, and Zhou Duo finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Zhou Shu-gege, let me switch out. Let me take over for you, okay? I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm not scared."
Zhou Shu’s heart tightened, and he weakly gripped the fabric of his clothes. "I'm sorry, Duo Duo. It's Brother's fault for letting you suffer again. Don't worry, Brother is fine." When he spoke, his voice had become hoarse, to the point where he couldn't even recognize it as his own.
He thought to himself that he absolutely could not let Zhou Duo come out. Zhou Duo was an Omega; if the body was still under the influence of the inducer when he came out, it would cause irreversible damage.
But his own body was getting hotter and hotter. The blood throughout his body felt as if it were boiling, and this scalding heat was about to burst from his eyes.
Zhou Shu propped up his body and struggled to move forward two steps, grabbing a glass from the table.
The sound of the glass shattering rang out. Zhou Duo’s voice trembled as he asked, "Zhou Shu-gege, what are you going to do...?"
"It's nothing, Duo Duo." Zhou Shu gritted his teeth as a glass shard sliced into his arm.
The scent of sea water burst forth along with the smell of blood. Zhou Shu said in a breathy whisper, "Sleep for a while. Jin Yan-gege will be here soon..."
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
北极星 | North Star | A rare variety of white Ecuadorian rose mentioned in the chapter.
诱发剂 | Inducer | A prohibited substance used to trigger a rut in Alphas or heat in Omegas.
易感期 | Rut | The periodic physiological state of an Alpha (similar to heat in Omegas).
发情期 | Heat | The periodic physiological state of an Omega.
密闭空间恐惧症 | Claustrophobia | Zhou Shu's psychological condition triggered by the dark, locked room.
